"EARLY October brought two developments in the world of cancer screening: the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with its calls for regular mammograms for women, and a new recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force that healthy men not undergo screening for prostate cancer.

It’s a stark juxtaposition: screening is good for women and bad for men. But just how different are these two cancer screening tests?

The answer is: not very. Neither is like the decision of whether or not to be treated for really high blood pressure. That’s an easy one — do it. Instead, both breast and prostate cancer screening are really difficult calls, and the statistical differences between them are only of degrees. Reasonable individuals, in the same situation, could make different decisions based on their valuation of the benefits and harms of screening...."

"British scientists have identified a gene responsible for regulating chronic pain, called HCN2, and say their discovery should help drug researchers in their search for more effective, targeted pain-killing medicines.

Scientists from Cambridge University said that if drugs could be designed to block the protein produced by the gene, they could treat a type of pain known as neuropathic pain, which is linked to nerve damage and often very difficult to control with currently available drugs..."

A new analysis finds a potential link between regular consumption of chocolate and a reduced risk of heart disease. Those who eat the most chocolate on a regular basis lower their risk by one-third.

The analysis — published yesterday in the online version of the British Medical Journal — examined recent studies involving more than 100,000 people, looking for a trend.

The studies compared people who ate chocolate more than once a week to those who ate it less often. The chocolate lovers also cut their risk of diabetes by 31 percent and of stroke by 29 percent.

RT @theIOM: On stage: Lucas Marrow from ElizaLive - Uses speech recognition to interact with patients about #health # ...

Read: Fascinating graphics. Mapping the Nation's Well-Being - Interactive Map #health #wellbeing #community #USA

...They've found that turmeric's active ingredient, curcumin, works in the lab to fight skin, breast and other tumor cells. In fact, human clinical trials employing curcumin have already been launched.
Now, working with cell cultures in a laboratory, scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have discovered that curcumin blocks the activity of a gastrointestinal hormone implicated in the development of colorectal cancer, the country's second leading cancer killer with nearly 60,000 deaths annually. In a paper published in the current issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the UTMB researchers link the gastrointestinal hormone neurotensin, which is generated in response to fat consumption, to the production of IL-8, a potent inflammatory protein that accelerates the growth and spread of a variety of human cancer cells, including colorectal and pancreatic tumor cells.

Curry derivative preserves brain health after stroke: curumin-based hybrid drug is neurotrophic and neuroprotective

Rats given access to high-fat foods showed some of the same characteristics as animals hooked on cocaine or heroin--and found it hard to quit even when given electric shocks

Alzheimer's has an 'infectious' mechanism. #science #health

“@KentSchaefer: CPR switch: Chest presses first, then give breaths
(AP) #health”

Toward the first nose drops to treat brain cancer

Be still my heart!! "Dark chocolate helps keep arteries open for business" via @drves

Small amount of dark chocolate daily reduces blood pressure without weight gain

apparently mary poppins was right

Mosquitoes: flying vaccinators of the future? #science #vaccine #malaria #health #news #mosquito #genetics #scidev

Hitting PPAR on the course of cystic fibrosis: correcting PPAR-gamma signaling defect limits CF severity in mouse model

The genes that make codeine and morphine have been sequenced. #science #news #drugs #opium #biology #genetics #health

Turning tables on prostate cancer's drug resistance

King Tut has DNA test solves death mystery: malaria did it #science #archeo #egypt #genetics #health #medical #news

very cute - but this could SO never be shown in the US

The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels & the Business of AIDS– a must-read for the socially-conscious global citizen

Mayo researchers find obesity key: he energy-saving mechanism is controlled by ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) chan... http://bit.ly/7EPksA

Balancing protein intake, not cutting calories, may be key to long life http://bit.ly/6qFMI0 via @sciencedaily

Current research suggests that a common oral bacterium may exacerbate autoimmune disease. Multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease where the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord, affects nearly 1 in 700 people in the United States. Patients with multiple sclerosis have a variety of neurological symptoms, including muscle weakness, difficulty in moving, and difficulty in speech.

breast cancer survivor

Longevity tied to genes that preserve tips of chromosomes http://ow.ly/161JZX

Key Provisions in the "Affordable Health Care for America Act"- http://bit.ly/2C4klr

Most understndable healthcare doc I've found: http://bit.ly/KTvDR

Stats on free market vs "socialized" medicine; interesting how US health outcomes jump when people hit medicare

An Australian infant with a rare and usually fatal disease has been cured with treatment that has previously been used only on mice, in what doctors are claiming is the first medical procedure of its type in the world.

The infant, known as Baby Z, was born with molybdenum cofactor deficiency type A, a rare progressive neurodegenerative disorder in which a build-up of toxic sulphite causes fits and brain damage, and results in death in infancy.

'Spoonful Of Sugar' Makes The Worms' Life Span Go Down http://ow.ly/15ZA64

Life is not so sweet (sadly)! Glucose Shortens Life Span in C. elegans - molecular mechanism uncovered http://bit.ly/1Zv9xe

Amputees who feel the presence of a phantom limb can be trained to move it in impossible ways http://bit.ly/Kn1RN

AIDS vaccine surprises scientists, proves partially successful: In an early-morning announcement today, researc.. http://bit.ly/3N5mTW

Krugman

How much omega-3 fatty acid do we need to prevent cardiovascular disease?: 200 mg dose of DHA per day is enough .. http://bit.ly/14wdB1

Besides being vile and stupid, however, the editorial was beside the point. Investor’s Business Daily would like you to believe that Obamacare would turn America into Britain — or, rather, a dystopian fantasy version of Britain. The screamers on talk radio and Fox News would have you believe that the plan is to turn America into the Soviet Union. But the truth is that the plans on the table would, roughly speaking, turn America into Switzerland — which may be occupied by lederhosen-wearing holey-cheese eaters, but wasn’t a socialist hellhole the last time I looked.

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A group of nanoengineers, biologists and physicists have used innovative approaches to deduce the internal structure of chromatin, a key player in DNA regulation, to reconcile a longstanding controversy in this field. This new finding could unlock the mystery behind the origin of many diseases such as cancer.