Growth hormone is not the anti-aging bullet for healthy adults

A review of published data on use of human growth hormone (GH) by healthy elderly people found that the synthetic hormone was associated with small changes in body composition but not in body weight or other clinically important outcomes. more  

New study to test Statin-Parkinson's link

Researchers are sufficiently worried by new study results that they are planning clinical trials involving thousands of people to examine the possible link between Parkinson's disease and statins, the world biggest selling drugs, reports Patrick Walter in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. more

Growth hormone is not the anti-aging bullet for healthy adults

A review of published data on use of human growth hormone (GH) by healthy elderly people found that the synthetic hormone was associated with small changes in body composition but not in body weight or other clinically important outcomes. more  

Review study finds association between tobacco smoking and increased risk of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that causes an estimated 2 million deaths each year. The majority of those deaths occur in developing countries, home to more than 900 million of the world's 1.1 billion smokers. In addition, about half of the world's people cook and heat their homes with coal and biomass fuels such as wood, animal dung and charcoal, which generate indoor air pollution. In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiologic data to quantitatively assess the association between smoking, passive smoking and indoor air pollution and TB. They found consistent evidence that smoking is associated with an increased risk of TB; they also found that passive smoking (secondhand smoke) and the burning of biomass fuels was associated with an increased TB risk. more

Study profiles rural individuals most likely to have recurrent trauma center admissions  

About 3.4 percent of patients treated in rural trauma centers appear to be recidivists, meaning that they have visited the facility more than once for separate injuries, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Substance abuse appears to be the common feature among urban and rural recurrent trauma patients. more

Patients with amnesia 'live in the present'  

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, have shown that people with damage to the hippocampus, the area of the brain that plays a crucial role in learning and memory, not only have trouble remembering the past but also in imagining new and future experiences. more

Risk of death increases with combined heart and stroke prevention surgery

Patients who undergo combined heart bypass surgery and carotid endarterectomy, the most commonly used stroke prevention surgery, significantly increase their chances of death or stroke, according to a study published in the January 16, 2007, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. more

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