Researchers from the VA Medical Center and Boston University examined the spinal cords of two football players and a boxer diagnosed with ALS and found a different motor neuron disease linked to head trauma. Gehrig was cremated, so his own case may never be settled.
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Avoiding Illness
How diet and lifestyle affect cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other illnesses.
- All desks
- Abortion
- Accutane
- Acetaminophen
- Acid Reflux
- Acidic Foods
- Acne
- Acrylamide
- Acupuncture
- Additives
- ADHD
- Adiposity
- Advisories
- Aerobic Exercise
- Aflatoxin
- Agave
- Agent Orange
- Aging
- Agriculture
- AIDS
- Air Pollution
- Airline Passengers
- Airport
- ALA
- Alcohol
- Alcoholic Beverage
- Alerts
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- Alli
- Aloe Vera
- ALS
- Alternative Medicine
- Aluminum
- Alzheimer's
- Amalgam
- AMD
- Ampyra
- Amygdala
- Anal Cancer
- And
- Anemia
- Angiogenesis
- Animal Protein
- Animals
- Anorexia
- Anthocyanins
- Anthrax
- Anti-Angiogenesis
- Anti-Obesity
- Antibacterial
- Antibiotic
Heart & Blood
For Heart Health, Chocolate is a Girl's Best Friend
Short trials have found chocolate's flavonoid antioxidants lower blood pressure, and population studies tie consumption to lower cardiovascular mortality, but effects in people with established coronary disease are unknown. Murray Mittleman's team studied intake in survivors of a first heart attack.
Obesity
Obesity Rates Vary by Ethnicity
Kristine Madsen's team examined fitness assessment data on 8.3 million children in grades 5, 7 and 8 and found black, Hispanic and American Indian girls were two to three times more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic whites, whose rates dipped slightly to 10 percent.
Heart & Blood
Should McDonald's offer free statins?
Researchers led by Darrel Francis weighed the heart risk added by a daily Quarter Pounder with cheese and a small milkshake against the risk cut by statins in trials of 42,848 patients, and found most statins offset the extra fat. They suggest a free statin served alongside the meal.
Heart & Blood
Statins with your Big Mac?
Imperial College London researchers compared the added cardiovascular risk from a Quarter Pounder with cheese and a small milkshake against the risk reduction from daily statins across seven trials of more than 42,000 patients, and found the two roughly cancel. Experts say not to take it literally.
Avoiding Illness
CDC: Do you Know where your Chicken has Been?
The CDC's 2007 surveillance counted 1,097 foodborne outbreaks, 8 percent below the annual average, causing more than 21,000 illnesses and 18 deaths. Poultry was the leading source at 17 percent, followed by beef at 16 percent and leafy vegetables at 14 percent.
Heart & Blood
Emerging Research Suggests Heart Disease Could Have a Natural Fix!
Ninety patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors took daily oral L-arginine or placebo. Those on L-arginine showed greater large artery elasticity and lower systemic vascular resistance, along with falls in systolic blood pressure and aldosterone levels.
Obesity
Growing Waistline Increases Mortality - at Any Weight
In a large study in the August 2010 Archives of Internal Medicine, a larger waist was linked to higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer at every level of body mass index, in men and women alike, including people who are not overweight.
Cancer
Breast Cancer Risk: One Size May Not Fit All
USC researchers tracking 3,000 women from 1995 to 2006 found 15 years or more of estrogen therapy raised breast cancer risk 19%, and estrogen with progestin raised it 83%. Thinner women faced greater post-HRT risk than obese women, which the team did not explain.
Obesity
Larger waistline linked with greater risk of premature death
Eric Jacobs and colleagues followed 48,500 men and 56,343 women aged 50 and over for six years. Waists above 47 inches in men and 42 inches in women carried roughly twice the risk of death, and the raised risk showed up in every body mass index category.
Heart & Blood
Healthy Hearts Indicate Healthy Brains
Boston University researchers scanned the hearts and brains of 1,500 Framingham Offspring participants and found those with low and middle cardiac output showed about two more years of brain aging than those with high output. Whether the link is causal is still unresolved.
Avoiding Illness
FDA Approves Flu Vaccine
The FDA has approved flu vaccines for the 2010-11 season, and adults will need only one shot rather than the two required when swine flu arrived too late for last year's formulation. The CDC now recommends vaccination for everyone over 6 months old.
Heart & Blood
Sleep Duration Linked to Heart Health
A West Virginia School of Medicine study of more than 30,000 adults in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey found people sleeping over nine hours a night were 1.5 times more likely to report heart attack or stroke, and adults under 60 sleeping five hours had triple the risk.
Heart & Blood
Calcium Supplements Linked to Heart Attack Risk
Pooling 11 randomized trials covering more than 12,000 women, Auckland researchers report in the BMJ that those taking calcium supplements were 31 percent more likely to have a heart attack: 143 cases against 111 on placebo. None received vitamin D, and calcium from food is excluded.
Obesity
Maintaining Weight Loss Just a Click Away
In an NIH-funded trial that followed 348 overweight adults for 28 months, participants who logged in to a weight management website at least once a month kept off 9 of the 19 pounds they had lost, while those who checked in for only 14 months kept off 5 pounds.
Diabetes
New Sensor Brings Fresh Hope to Diabetics
UC San Diego bioengineers and GlySens describe in Science Translational Medicine an implantable glucose sensor with wireless telemetry that kept recording in animals for more than a year. If human trials and FDA review follow, it could spare patients finger sticks.
Other Diseases
Sleep Disorder Linked to Parkinson's
Researchers at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center followed 27 patients whose REM sleep behaviour disorder preceded Parkinson's disease or Lewy body dementia by at least 15 years. Onset averaged age 49, with neurodegenerative disease appearing at a median age of 72.
Cancer
American Cancer Society Site Improved
The American Cancer Society rebuilt cancer.org, which draws 23 million visitors a year, with new search and navigation. The site is now organized into Learn About Cancer, Stay Healthy, Find Support & Treatment, Explore Research and Get Involved sections.
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