Results of a new US study show that cholesterol lowering drug rosuvastatin can considerably decrease the risk of venous thromboembolism in healthy people.

In their trials the researchers found that rosuvastatin reduced the risk of blood clots or venous thromboembolism nearly 43 percent in healthy people.

Pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis are two well-known forms of VTE and they are two common reasons behind preventable death among hospital patients.

The study has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the UK, there are almost 25,000 fatal blood clotting related deaths every year and according to an estimate nearly 52 percent hospital patients in UK have higher risk for developing DVT.

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A new research has shown the children who live near parks or play grounds may fight better against childhood obesity and remain active. The findings has demonstrated the probability of a girl to walk to school became doubled and boy’s likelihood to leisure walking increased by 69 percent.

It shows the solid connection between the habit of walking and public open places for recreational activities in the neighborhood.

To increase overall physical activity, dynamic movement is a capable health strategy, the results showed. One of the researchers said that the rate of obesity in childhood and adolescent has been increased by three times which is a high gone up taken as environmental rather than biological.

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A new research has revealed that fat neck may also be used as a measure to determine heart risk. It’s likely to asses anyone’s waist as a clue for ascertaining the risk of heart problems.

The researchers said, with the help of measuring the thickness of one’s neck may be used as clues to evaluate the risk of heart disease in even those with comparatively trim waistlines. Phenomenon of the risk was defined as to have lower levels of healthy cholesterol or blood glucose with higher levels. High density lipoprotein (HDL)-good cholesterol is known to take away cholesterol from the cells to the liver where it is broken down. If men and women have a lower ratio of (HDL) than it is recommended, they have a greater tendency to develop heart diseases.

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US President Barack Obama announced the overturn towards the stem cell policy of former US President George W. Bush. He further said that his government would follow science rather than political ideology. Obama is intended to turn around the limits on stem cell research being funded by federal government and handed over the command to National Institutes of Health to save the science and research from political interference.

In the former rule, there were limitations on the taxpayer money for stem cell research and stem lines were restricted to specific areas. Many of these lines were proved to have drawbacks and should be left while the new and healthy research lines should be funded to get benefits. Bush along with his supporters argued they did so to defend the human life by protecting days-old embryos which were destroyed for the stem cells.

On the other hand, the research supporters strongly favor the Obama’s decision. Stem cells of an embryo are the master cells which can be changed into any cell of the body.

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Distribution of free antibiotics during this terrible winter, by the super stores to the customer short of money has become a practice. This raises the high concern of the health and medical authorities to look into the matter seriously as the overuse of these free antibiotics may result in drug resistance bugs and many other health concerns.

Most of the stores are doing it as a marketing strategy to attract more and more customer to shop at their stores and get free antibiotics on prescription. They buy the drugs at very low prices and give away to their customer as if they are well wishers and want to save the money of their customers.

The health officials are strongly against the antibiotics giving away to cure cold and flu because these are found ineffective for this purpose. On the other hand the stores argue this by saying that they are giving these antibiotics to their customers free of cost to help out them in this economic gloom and they do it on doctor’s prescription.

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It’s been suggested in a new report that peoples who are 50+ abound in HIV infection and prevalence rates. This report has been concluded by scientists working with World Health Organization (WHO).

These findings were published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization this week. It states that elder peoples seem to be ignored by research and check as they are not considered to be at risk. Also the data about the number of people of 50+ ages that are infected with HIV is insufficient and little. As, this age group is rarely included in researches.

Anyhow, whatever data is available, suggests occurrence and prevalence of HIV in older people is elevating. The authors are using the available data to evoke awareness amongst others. It is also mentioned by the authors that industrialized countries are no better in data collection of older people.

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Two new researches have been presented on the health day which supported two different diagnosis of prostate cancer. One advocates that an uncomplicated urine test could be helpful in picking out 50 percent men suffering from prostate cancer while the other is in the favor of combining the risk factors for prostate cancer to envisage the tendency of emerging the disease.

Digital rectal exam and PSA (prostate-specific antigen) are the modern methods to diagnose prostate cancer but they are of low specificity. So, a large number of results of prostate biopsies are turned out negative. There must be a better technique of testing to find out the best way of treatment for the men with aggressive prostate cancer and proper monitoring for those who have local or inactive cancer.

Keeping in view this factor a team of researchers has developed a test that can spot particular fusions of genes related to prostate cancer and applied the test on men with prostate cancer. TMPRSS2 gene and ERG gene are involved in these gene fusions which can be identified from a simple test of urine.

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Top medical groups of doctors are now giving advice, on the usage of a drug, to the men who undergo screening for prostate cancer. Finasteride contracts the prostate and curtails testosterone hormone that assists the cancer to grow. It is generally sold for the cure of urinary problems in the consequences of enlarged prostates in men.

Finasteride can minimize the risk of prostate cancer in men who are screened frequently but it has not been usually suggested on prescription to prevent the prostate cancer. Moreover, due to some side effects it is not recommended to those who don’t want screening with PSA blood test for the disease. But the individual, who is more interested to be screened, which is not sure to save life, and he can afford the use of Finasteride, should consult his doctor to take the medicine.

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A huge research on the older men and women supports the evidence that calcium rich diets may keep away some cancers. The study is less precise than those had been done in the past. Because of its large number of subjects, it presents strong verification of the concept that to some extent calcium keeps the cells away from becoming cancerous.

This study also strengthens the previous idea of advantages of calcium received from food are a lot more than which is taken in the form of calcium tablets. Calcium supplements only help to protect against colon cancer in men while in women it reduces the risk of liver cancer.

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A new research has discovered a new type of antibody, while working on the immune system protein to cure different types of influenza. The discovery is very important in the respect that it has the capacity to counteract with the viruses responsible for influenza and especially, H5N1 avian influenza.

At present H5N1 virus is distressing birds in various parts of the world. So it had been considered as a bird flu virus but it infected 408people since 2003, out of which 254 victims have lost their lives. Scientists are very much frightened about this kind of influenza that can attack anyone at anytime and even can lead towards death.

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Results of a UK study show that unhealthy lifestyle can put people at higher risk for stroke. People, who are less physical active, consume too much alcohol, smoke and have least amount of fruit and vegetables in their daily servings, have higher odds to be a victim of stroke.

According to the researchers, only a small proportion of the people who participated in the study had such lifestyle as could protect them against stroke.

A report in the British Medical Journal shows that people in UK have to spend £7bn on the condition every year.

There are some previous studies which indicate that unhealthy lifestyle like diet and smoking can increase the risk of stroke and heart attacks. However, the effects of a combination of risk factors were not quite clear in healthy people.

In their study, researchers from East Anglia University assigned one point for each healthy behavior that participants (aged 40-79) reported.

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A new research has found a co-relation between hearing problems and diseases related to eye sight. The researchers discovered that sensorineural hearing disorder,the consequence of impairment of the nerves connect the ear to the brain or damage to the inner ear, has some link with eye sight problem.

It has been observed that almost half of the total cases have genetic reasons, in the background, to develop sensorineural hearing loss due to the GJB2 gene,generally taken as a responsible for it. A careful study tells that three children out of every 1,000 cases are the victims of sensorineural hearing damage.

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According to a new study, death rates due to sudden cardiac arrest are comparatively rare. Results of a study, which has been published in the journal Circulation, show that 18, 66 athletes (aged 8-39) in the US died or survived due to cardiac arrest during 1980-2006.

Nearly half of these athletes died because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that occurs due to heart enlargement and which is often found using routine ECGs.

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According to a new study, people, who have significant exposure to passive smoke, have 44% higher risk of becoming a victim of dementia.

Though some previous studies have found some links between higher risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, the current study is the leading review till today which shows a relation between dementia risk and secondhand smoke.

“There is a link between secondhand smoke exposure and cognitive function that is often, but not always, reckoned a sign of dementia,” says Iain Lang, the lead author of the study.

According to Lang, the amount of passive smoke exposure serves as the risk factor for impaired cognitive function and those people, who have higher exposure, are at considerably higher risk of the disease.

The study has been published in the journal BJM online issue.

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Results of a new study show that cash offers to smokers to quit their bad and unhealthy habit proves quite helpful for many people to give up smoking.

In this study, a group of General Electric Co. workers around the country was included and they were offered even more than $750 to quit smoking. After one year the researchers found that among those employees who were offered cash to give up smoking nearly 14.7% in this group were found smoke-free, while those who were not paid for it had the unhealthy habit still. The study has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 12 issue.

Dr. Kevin Volpp, the lead author of the study, says about it, “Incentives and other cash offers prove quite helpful to change people behaviors towards health, and such offers may prove even effective in those who couldn’t succeed using some other sort of approaches in the past.”

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Results of a new study show that long term use of aspirin or some other NSAIDs (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) may help to decrease precancerous lesions risk that can become the cause of colorectal cancer.

Dr. John A Baron, who co-authored the study, says: “It’s quite clear that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs seem to interfere with the growth of cancer in the bowel.”

“Now our study serves as a building block, the way we understand what we understand from it, as it reveals about the two things: If you use these drugs for a short duration and then stop using them, you may not get a big get back when it comes to tumor risk for adenoma. Secondly, if you go on taking the drugs over time, its benefits for protection will continue.”

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A new study suggests that a large number of smokers who are not willing to kick smoking for their own health will try to do this for the sake of their dear pets.

Sharon Milberger, the lead author of the study says in this connection, “We tried to find out whether owners of the pet who knew that smoking was injurious even to their pets’ health changed their habits for the sake of these pets or not.”

Milberger and her team found in their pet-owners smokers’ survey that one out of every three smokers was willing to do so.

In this online survey, nearly 3,300 southeastern Michigan residents participated and one out of five among them either was a smoker or lived with a smoker.

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There are only as many as 10 out of 100 patients that are able to get rid of the pancreatic tumour. Most of them seem to have an aggravated form of the pancreatic cancer called adenocarcinoma and is usually too late to operate. This is considered to be one of the most formidable cancers according to the American Cancer Society. The association estimates the total of 38000 people were diagnosed with it and out of all of this only 5% survived for five years.

On very few occasions, only 10 to 15% of the time, the patients have quite a lesser form of aggressive pancreatic cancer and is called the islet-cell tumour. Many a times these are curable if the diagnosed on time. Ginsbur, a patient in the part of the research was diagnosed of colon cancer before 10 years and showed absolutely no symptoms; however the doctors spotted a very minute new tumour by accident at the time when she had a CT scan as a part of the check-up.

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The results of a new study show that childhood seaside stay during vacations can boost the risk of melanoma in later years of life.

In their study, Denver researchers assessed 681 kids who were born in Colorado in 1998 and after inquiring about childhood seaside stays during vacations they made some skin tests when these kids were seven years of age. The researchers looked for nevi that are quite well-known as moles. These moles are considered a big risk factor for melanoma that is the deadliest form of skin cancer.

Lori Crane, the lead author of the study, says: “The moles began to increase 5% at every seaside stay these kids had from one year of age.”

According to an estimate, there will be nearly 62,500 new melanoma cases during 2009 and almost 8,400 deaths as well.

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You must have always wondered as to why some of the allergy reactions occur quickly and sometimes may even become fatal. There is a new research that has been published in the February issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. The reports elaborates that the scientists from the Queen’s University show that as soon as eotaxin which is a certain chemical that would help the immune cells in the infection block the seeker cells that can result into an increased allergic process.

Nigel Stevenson who happens to be a researcher from the study team concluded that such findings are pretty crucial for the understanding of the allergic responses and may perhaps be instrumental for the design of the latest allergic drugs. The professor along with the team members made such a discovery by making use of the immune cells that are grown in the lab collected from all the healthy volunteers. Click here to read more »