Spain to test vaccine to treat cocaine addiction

news.yahoo.com — Researchers in Spain, which has the highest rate of cocaine use in the European Union, will test a vaccine next year that they hope will help addicts break free of their addiction to the drug, health officials said Thursday. The vaccine will be tested on 164 people at a dozen hospitals during the first half of next year, Carmen Moya Garcia, an epidemiologist who heads the health ministry's National Plan on Drugs, told a news conference. It does not eliminate the craving for cocaine but will stop addicts experiencing a high when they take it. The vaccine causes protein molecule to be attached to cocaine molecules, which stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies that recognize the drug and prevent it from reaching the brain, said psychiatrist Carlos Alvarz Vara. read more...

add a comment | category: Vacines | Views: 0

HIV tests not yet as routine as cholesterol checks

news.yahoo.com — Two years after the government urged making HIV tests as common as cholesterol checks, there are small gains but still one in five people infected with the AIDS virus doesn't know it, scientists said Thursday. Eleven states that once required special consent for HIV testing have changed their laws, a key step to making an HIV test part of the standard battery that patients expect. But HIV specialists meeting Thursday said other barriers include physician confusion about the ease of today's rapid tests, which can cost as little as $15 — although many patients seem to accept them. No more than 100 of the nation's 5,000 emergency rooms routinely test for HIV in patients who aren't critically ill, said Dr. John Bartlett of Johns Hopkins University, who co-chaired the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research meeting. Yet because so many HIV patients are poor or uninsured, ERs are the health-care setting most likely to find them. read more...

add a comment | category: HIV | Views: 0

Counseling on alcohol key to teens' sexual health

news.yahoo.com — When health care providers are talking with adolescents about sexual health, alcohol must be a part of the conversation, conclude two researchers from the UK based on a survey of boys' and girls' attitudes about sexual relationships. "We must ensure that alcohol education is a key element of sex education and help young people to realize the vulnerability to sexual ill health alcohol abuse can create," Dr. Mark Hayter of the University of Sheffield in the UK, who conducted the research with Dr. Christina Harrison of Doncaster Primary Care Trust, told Reuters Health. In most of the world, adolescents are at high risk of sexual health problems such as unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, Hayter and Harrison note in a report in the Journal of Clinical Nursing. To better understand gender differences in how young people think about sex, the researchers conducted 10 focus groups with 35 14- to 16-year-olds. The teens were attending a sexual health clinic based at a youth club serving a "socially deprived" area with a high rate of teen pregnancy. Five groups were all girls, and the rest were all boys. read more...

add a comment | category: Sexual Health | Views: 0

Surgeon who did first US heart transplant dies

news.yahoo.com — Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz, a cardiac surgeon who performed the nation's first human heart transplant and who also developed lifesaving medical implants, has died. He was 90. Kantrowitz died Friday in Ann Arbor of complications from heart failure, said his wife, Jean Kantrowitz. In 1967, Kantrowitz performed the first human heart transplant in the United States, three days after the world's first was performed in South Africa. But the transplant, on an infant who died several hours later, was only a small part of his life's work to solve the problem of heart failure, his wife said. Adrian Kantrowitz invented and for decades continued to improve the left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, which would later lend its name to his Detroit-based research company, L-VAD Technology Inc. read more...

add a comment | category: Heart Health | Views: 0

Taking vitamins won't prevent heart disease, studies say

edition.cnn.com — NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Vitamins C and E do nothing to prevent heart disease in men, one of the largest and longest studies of these supplements has found. Vitamin E even appeared to raise the risk of bleeding strokes, a danger seen in at least one earlier study. Besides questioning whether vitamins help, "we have to worry about potential harm," said Barbara Howard, a nutrition scientist at MedStar Research Institute of Hyattsville, Maryland. She has no role in the research but reviewed and discussed it Sunday at an American Heart Association conference. Results also were published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association. read more...

add a comment | category: Vitamins | Views: 0

New Antidepressant Guidelines: All Work the Same, But Some Pricier Tha

news.health.com — (Health.com) — If you are feeling depressed and your physician says she knows just the medication to help you, don’t take her word for it. There is no evidence to suggest that one antidepressant is more effective than another at making you feel better, according to new guidelines released Monday by the American College of Physicians (ACP). Cost and side effects do vary, however, and should play a role when choosing a medication. The guidelines were based on an analysis—the largest of its kind to date—of more than 200 clinical trials of antidepressants that have flooded the market since the release of fluoxetine (Prozac) more than 20 years ago. read more...

add a comment | category: Depression | Views: 0

Protect the Preemies - November 18th Is Premature Baby Awareness Day

healthnews.com — My mother always tells the story that my brother and I didn’t want to be Fall babies as predicted and were stubborn enough to be born in the Summer months. Although my older brother and I are three years apart, we were both born three months early, the preemie-preemies. Hospitals have come a long way since the 1980s but premature birth is still a huge risk for babies and for those that survive, just the fact that the babies weren’t fully developed in the womb before birth can cause health and mental problems down the line. One in every 8 babies born in the United States are premature. (Premature is defined as delivery prior to 37 weeks of gestation.) A lot of babies are kept in the hospital weeks or months after delivery until they are able to go home, throwing families into turmoil waiting for their little one to get released, hopefully without any lingering health problems. read more...

add a comment | category: Pregnancy | Views: 0

Health Costs Negatively Affecting Those Who Need It Most

healthnews.com — If report cards were issued to countries for their health care system—the U.S. would not be on the principal’s “A” list. Compared with other industrialized nations, the U.S. comes in last when it comes to preventing deaths through appropriate medical care, despite spending more than twice as much on each person. The increase in premature births throughout the country recently earned the U.S. a “D” rating in the first annual Premature Birth Report Card from the March of Dimes. And millions of Americans with chronic conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes aren’t getting the care they need because they lack health insurance, putting them at high risk for complications. But a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund really puts things into perspective. read more...

add a comment | category: Work and Life | Views: 0