The News Review:
- Health Highlights: Jan. 22, 2007
- Silent treatment: Age-old homeopathy is making itself known once again
- Old monkeys, new memory clues
- Scripps Howard News Service
- Artificially engineered magnetic nanoparticles for ultra-sensitive…
- A healthy boom; Local hospital construction, renovations total at…
Health Highlights: Jan. 22, 2007
Forbes - Jan 22, 2007
07, 12:00 AM ETHere are some of the latest health and medical newsdevelopments, compiled by editors of HealthDay: Blood Pressure Drug Helps Mice withMuscular DystrophyThe widely-used blood pressure drug losartan reduced muscledamage in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most commonform of the condition in children, concludes a Johns HopkinsUniversity study published online Monday in the journal NatureMedicine. Following six months of treatment with the drug, the mice showeda significant reduction in muscle damage, increased grip strengthin their fore- and hind-limbs, and less fatigue in repetitivetests, the Associated Press reported. The only current treatment for Duchenne causes side effects, soit's worth investigating whether losartan can offer analternative, said Dr. Valerie Cwik, medical director of theMuscular Dystrophy Association. Cwik did not take part in thestudy.
Silent treatment: Age-old homeopathy is making itself known once again
Northwest Herald - Jan 22, 2007
But homeopathic medicine has been around for more than 200 years. Popes, presidents, prime ministers and celebrities have relied on it to treat ailments ranging from the flu to cancer. Parents turn to it to relieve their babies’ colic, teething pains and cold symptoms. “It’s not well-known in the Midwest because, and this is a personal opinion, we are very set in our ways,” said Tricia Braatz, manager of the Vitamin Shoppe in Geneva, who promotes homeopathic medicine and has used it for her sinuses and to help her now-grown daughter sleep at night as a baby. Skeptics say homeopathic remedies, while not harmful, may be a waste of money because they are not proven to be effective… ”Unlike conventional medicine, homeopathy requires more research on the part of the patient. Even if you go to a homeopathic doctor, you’ll likely end up sitting down with that person and talking over your ailment in depth. “I haven’t really, to be honest with you, seen a lot of information out there on homeopathy,” said Tina Falco, assistant manager of Nature’s Cornucopia in McHenry, which stocks the medicine. “I’ve used different ones. Some don’t work. I think that a lot of people, they need to research it.
Old monkeys, new memory clues
Sacramento Bee - Jan 22, 2007
Tuszynski had little difficulty recruiting eight human volunteers with early Alzheimer’s for a UC San Diego trial that involved having their own cells genetically modified and implanted in their brains. That was partly because people with Alzheimer’s have so few alternatives, and partly because the same treatment in UC Davis monkeys had reduced the rate of their cell loss and been safe, he said. His initial results in humans, published last year in Nature Medicine, showed a slower mental decline in the test subjects and no adverse effects. Today, Tuszynski is doing more monkey research into gene-aided treatments for aging and spinal cord injuries. His studies, too, end with analysis of the dead subject. “For us, the ethical arithmetic is very straightforward,” Tuszynski said. “Do we subject potentially millions of people to a procedure of unproven benefit, or do we subject a couple of dozen monkeys to the procedure to determine whether it’s of sufficient potential to justify testing in humans?”Not everyone who looks at that equation reaches the same conclusion.
Scripps Howard News Service
HNN Huntingtonnews.net - Jan 22, 2007
“The simplest things can injure muscle,” said Dr. Ronald Cohn, an
assistant
professor of pediatrics and neurology and lead author of the study,
published online Sunday, Jan. 21, 2007 by the journal Nature Medicine. “Running a mile down the street causes microscopic tears in leg
muscles,
which normally go unnoticed because muscles are so efficient at
repairing
themselves. ”
So Dietz’s team then considered whether blocking excess TGF might be a
strategy against other muscle diseases, particularly Duchenne MD, the
most
common form of muscular dystrophy in children, which causes muscle
fibers to
be extremely fragile. The disease often kills before victims reach
early
adulthood. In another round of tests on mice genetically engineered to have MD,
the
researchers tested both the blocking protein and losartan, while
leaving
another group of mice untreated.
Artificially engineered magnetic nanoparticles for ultra-sensitive…
News-Medical.net - Jan 22, 2007
In order to boost this signal, and improve the ability of MRI to detect the smallest tumors, researchers at Yonsei University in Seoul developed a new chemical method for making iron oxide nanoparticles that would enable them to more carefully control the physical and magnetic properties of these particles. As a result of this effort, described in a publication in the journal Nature Medicine, the investigators were able to detect small tumors implanted into mice. , who is also a member of Northwestern University’s.
A healthy boom; Local hospital construction, renovations total at…
Free with registration - Crain's Detroit Business - AccessMyLibrary.com - Jan 22, 2007
2 billion in local medical projects are under way or set to begin construction this year, according to Crain’s research for its list of largest construction projects (Page 14). For many contractors and architects, health care is a leading lifeline for new business development as health care systems renovate or build additional hospitals or satellite buildings in farther-flung suburbs. With the cyclical nature of the various categories for new business, the boom in health care is helping to counter other categories that are flat or down. The Associated General Contractors Greater Detroit Chapter estimates local health care construction was up 10 percent in 2006 and will be up more than 10 percent this year. “We’ve got six studios.
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