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  • Benzodiazepine Often Used in Older People Despite Risks
    Despite known risks for older people, use of benzodiazepines—a class of sedative and anti-anxiety medications—remains common in this group. The findings raise questions about why so many prescriptions are written for older adults when there are often safer alternatives.   Benzodiazepines include the medications alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), and lorazepam (Ativan). These drugs are widely prescribed to treat anxiety and sleep problems. But while effective, they have serious…
  • Antibiotic overuse - why it is dangerous
    The development and widespread adoption of so-called “antibiotics”—drugs that kill bacteria and thereby reduce infection—has helped billions of people live longer, healthier lives. However, the more we rely on antibiotics, the more bacteria develop resistance to them, which makes treating infections that much more challenging. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overuse of antibiotics by humans—such as for the mistreatment of viral infections—means these…
  • Elastic implant 'restores movement' in paralysed rats
    The latest innovation, described in the journal Science, is an implant that moves with the body and provides both chemical and electrical stimulation. When it was tested on paralysed rats, they moved again. One of the scientists, Prof Stephanie Lacour, told the BBC: "The implant is soft but also fully elastic to accommodate the movement of the nervous system.  "The brain pulsates with blood so it moves a lot, the spinal cord expands and retracts many times a day, think about bending…
  • Hope for new breakthrough Antibiotic drug
    The experimental drug, which was isolated from a sample of New Englanddirt, is called teixobactin. It hasn’t yet been tested in people, though it cured all mice infected with antibiotic-resistant staphylococci bacteria that usually kills 90 percent of the animals, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. Bacteria appear to have a particularly difficult time developing resistance to the drug, potentially overcoming a major problem with existing antibiotics…
  • Cambridge University finds gene behind killer disease - Triple negative breast cancer
    Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease, does not respond to hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen, or targeted drugs like Herceptin and nearly one quarter of patients diagnosed will not survive for more than five years. Now researchers at Cambridge University and the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute have found that the BCL11A gene is overactive in eight out of ten patients. The study opens the door for therapies which suppress the gene and…
  • 1 in 7 suffer from serious allergy, says India study
    According to the World Allergy Organization, almost 40% of the globe's population is genetically prone to severe allergic reactions. In an effort to understand the intensity of the allergy pattern in India, a clinical laboratory conducted a comprehensive study in 2014. 15.7% of people had allergy. While 43.93% of those tested positive suffered from dust allergy, 20.6% were allergic to pollens, 10.5 % to fungus and 10.3% to animal dander. "Such a high number clearly indicates that immunity…
  • Reading On A Screen Before Bed Might Be Killing You
    You've heard that using screens before bedtime can mess with your sleep, but new research suggests the problem is even more serious and can make you feel like a zombie the next day. The findings could impact anyone who uses an eReader, laptop, smartphone, or certain TVs before bed. "We know from previous work that light from screens in the evening alters sleepiness and alertness, and suppresses melatonin levels," Dr. Anne-Marie Chang, an associate neuroscientist in BWH’s Division of Sleep and…
  • 44% advised unnecessary surgery: 2nd opinion-givers
    Unnecessary surgery is not new in medicine. Stenting, knee replacements, hysterectomies are often found to be unnecessary on second opinion.  "We found that the discrepancy in opinions (between the patient's doctors and the second opinion-giver) was highest in heart problems at 55%," said Dr Shome. Knee replacements and hysterectomies were second at 48% while infertility was third on the list with 45% discrepancy in opinions. "We have doctors seeking opinions if they themselves are asked…
  • Hope in the battle against bulging waistlines
    More than 2.1 billion people, or nearly 30% of the global population, are overweight or obese. Excess weight leads to about 5% of worldwide deaths. On current trends, almost half of the world’s adults will be fat by 2030. Over the past three decades, according to a study in the Lancet, a medical journal, no nation has slimmed down. But a new study from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the consultancy’s research arm, offers some hope. It looks at 74 anti-obesity measures around the…