MedicineWorld.Org brings daily society news from various sources to keep you updated on the latest events in the world on this topic. Medicineworld society news service is the most comprehensive society news service on the internet. We keep an archive of previous few days of news on this site. Please go down through the list to find the older news items. Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT en-us http://medicineworld.org/images/Society-news.jpg 90 90 http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/vision-therapy-visual-function.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/vision-therapy-visual-function.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT A low-vision treatment program that includes a home visit, counseling, assistive devices such as magnifiers and assignments to practice using them appears to significantly improve vision in veterans with diseases of the macula (the area of the retina with the sharpest vision), as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/when-schools-ban-unhealthy-snacks.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/when-schools-ban-unhealthy-snacks.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Children who attend schools that run fruit tuck shops are much more likely to eat more fruit if they and their friends are also banned from bringing unhealthy snacks on to the school premises, as per research published online ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Scientists at Cardiff University studied the snacking habits of 9-11 year olds attending 43 primary schools in deprived areas of South Wales and South West England which had a variety of policies on bringing food to school: no restrictions, fruit only or no food at all........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/women-who-breastfeed-for-more-than-a-year.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/women-who-breastfeed-for-more-than-a-year.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Women who breast feed for longer have a smaller chance of getting rheumatoid arthritis, suggests a study published online ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The study also observed that taking oral contraceptives, which are suspected to protect against the disease because they contain hormones that are raised in pregnancy, did not have the same effect. Also, simply having children and not breast feeding also did not seem to be protective........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/uv-lotion-lights-the-way-to-cleaner-facilities.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/uv-lotion-lights-the-way-to-cleaner-facilities.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT A team of Canadian researchers using a lotion which glows under ultraviolet light have shown that up to a third of patient toilets are not properly cleaned. Their findings, published in BioMed Centrals journal, BMC Infectious Diseases, also show that spores from the nasty bacteria Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) linger in the loo even when it has been thoroughly wiped down........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/is-divorce-bad-for-the-parents.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/is-divorce-bad-for-the-parents.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT The elderly are cared for by their adult children regardless of their marital status. In a unique study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, scientists found British adult children help their elderly parents as per current need (i.e. health) rather than past behaviour. This contrasts with other countries such as the US, where parents with a history of divorce see less of their children and receive less help from them........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/major-shift-in-hiv-prevention-priorities-needed.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/major-shift-in-hiv-prevention-priorities-needed.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT As per a new policy analysis led by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of California, Berkeley, the most common HIV prevention strategiescondom promotion, HIV testing, therapy of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine and microbicide research, and abstinenceare having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa. Furthermore, some of the assumptions underlying such strategiessuch as poverty or war being major causes of AIDS in Africaare unsupported by rigorous scientific evidence. The scientists argue that two interventions currently getting less attention and resourcesmale circumcision and reducing multiple sexual partnershipswould have a greater impact on the AIDS pandemic and should become the cornerstone of HIV prevention efforts in the high-HIV-prevalence parts of Africa........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/drink-and-drugs-for-better-sex.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/drink-and-drugs-for-better-sex.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Teenagers and young adults across Europe drink and take drugs as part of deliberate sexual strategies. Findings published recently in BioMed Centrals open access journal, BMC Public Health, reveal that a third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mental-fitness-and-multi-lingualism.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mental-fitness-and-multi-lingualism.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage during the later part of life, a new Tel Aviv University study has observed. Knowing and speaking a number of languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging. Dr. Gitit Kave, a clinical neuro-psychology expert from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together with her colleagues Nitza Eyal, Aviva Shorek, and Jiska Cohen-Manfield, discovered recently that senior citizens who speak more languages test for better cognitive functioning. The results of her study were reported in the journal Psychology and Aging........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/youths-in-towns-with-smoke-free-restaurant-laws.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/youths-in-towns-with-smoke-free-restaurant-laws.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Young people who live in towns where regulations ban smoking in restaurants may be less likely to become established smokers, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. A number of studies have examined the risk factors that lead young people to try their first cigarette, as per background information in the article. However, fewer scientists have differentiated these factors from those that cause children and teens to progress to established smoking, or having smoked 100 or more cigarettes. Yet understanding this difference is critical, the authors write. It would allow us to determine the age and stage at which youths are most sensitive to various types of interventions, thus enabling the more specific tailoring and more effective delivery of smoking prevention interventions........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/preference-for-alcohol-may-lead-to-heavy-drinking.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/preference-for-alcohol-may-lead-to-heavy-drinking.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have shown a correlation between early drinking patterns and a tendency to be a heavy drinker in adulthood, in a study of adolescent rats. Drinking patterns in adolescents may be set after only a few exposures to alcohol, said Nicole L. Schramm-Sapyta, research associate in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. Rats that demonstrated a taste for alcohol after only three nights of drinking were very likely to be the biggest drinkers after longer-term exposure........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/uninsured-kids-in-middle-class.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/uninsured-kids-in-middle-class.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Nationwide, uninsured children in families earning between $38,000 and $77,000 a year are just as likely to go without any health care as uninsured children in poorer families. More than 40 percent of children in those income brackets who are uninsured all year see no physicians and have no prescriptions all year, as per new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/unemployment-having-impact-on-kids-health-care.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/unemployment-having-impact-on-kids-health-care.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Two new studies conducted by scientists at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center point to the negative impact of parental job loss on childrens healthcare and the importance of having continuous health insurance coverage to meet childrens healthcare needs and reduce healthcare disparities. The studies will be presented Saturday May 3 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/blood-pressure-killing-the-worlds-workers.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/blood-pressure-killing-the-worlds-workers.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT In a todays issue of The Lancet, international health experts call for urgent action from international development banks and pharmaceutical companies to stem the epidemic of blood pressure-related diseases affecting developing countries worldwide. New findings reveal that each year 8 million people die from heart disease and stroke, the two leading blood pressure-related diseases. The majority of these deaths occur in the developing world where victims are often workers, whose deaths directly result in poverty for families and other dependents. As per the authors these deaths are largely avoidable, but no substantive effort to address this issue has been made by the international development banks or the major drug companies........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/salk-study-links-diabetes-and-alzheimers-disease.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/salk-study-links-diabetes-and-alzheimers-disease.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Diabetic individuals have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimers disease but the molecular correlation between the two remains unexplained. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies identified the probable molecular basis for the diabetes Alzheimers interaction. As per a research findings reported in the current online issue of Neurobiology of Aging, researchers led by David R. Schubert, Ph.D., professor in the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, report that the blood vessels in the brain of young diabetic mice are damaged by the interaction of elevated blood glucose levels characteristic of diabetes and low levels of beta amyloid, a peptide that clumps to form the senile plaques that riddle the brains of Alzheimers patients........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/elderly-heart-patients-with-icd-devices.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/elderly-heart-patients-with-icd-devices.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:56 GMT Elderly patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure who receive implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death live longer than those that do not, as per scientists at the University of Pennsylvanias School of Medicine. Further, the health care costs linked to ICDs, while substantial at the time of implantation, do not greatly increase downstream health care costs in this population. The study is among the first to analyze the health outcomes and costs linked to primary prevention ICDs for patients outside of a clinical trial setting........ ]]>