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June 2007 - Posts
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Breathing exercises can cut asthma symptoms of breathlessness by a third, reported The Independent (28 June 2007). The newspaper was generally accurate in its report of a small randomised controlled trial. The trial has some limitations and the authors themselves recognise the need for further research to confirm the findings.
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Analyses of a national sample of individuals with alcohol dependence (alcoholism) reveal five distinct subtypes of the disease, according to a new study by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Researchers have discovered that a protein called ATM kinase, which plays a crucial role in repairing double-strand breaks in DNA, also helps prevent cells with this type of DNA damage from dividing, thereby blocking the passage of persistent DNA damage on to daughter cells. Persistent DNA damage can lead to the development of cancer. These results, from a study conducted in mice by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and others appeared online June 28, 2007 in the journal Cell and will be published in the July 13, 2007 issue of the journal.
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Scientists have discovered a new type of mouse embryonic stem cell that is the closest counterpart yet to human embryonic stem (ES) cells, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today. The cells are expected to serve as an improved model for human ES cells in studies of regeneration, disease pathology and basic stem cell biology.
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When it comes to low back pain, physicians generally advise exhausting nonsurgical options before resorting to surgery. But a new study shows that for degenerative spondylolisthesis with spinal stenosis, surgery provides significantly better results than nonsurgical alternatives. The study, published in the May 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is the second in a series reporting findings of the Spine Patients Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT), a five-year, multicenter study supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health.
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Antidepressants known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may increase the risk of osteoporosis reported five newspapers on 26 June 2007 (1-5). The broadly accurate reports were based on two studies (6,7) that found an association between SSRIs and bone loss but were not designed to demonstrate cause and effect.
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Scientists from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Integrative Bioinformatics Inc. have made an important discovery about the role of an enzyme called ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein (ATM) in the body’s ability to repair damaged DNA. NIAMS and NCI are part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today it will provide $4.8 million to establish and support a repository for its Knockout Mouse Project. This award is the final component of a more than $50 million trans-NIH initiative to increase the availability of genetically altered mice and related materials.
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A brief skill-building program on practices to reduce exposure to sexually transmitted disease (STD) and HIV improved the self-reported protective behaviors of inner-city black women for up to one year and actually decreased their risk of acquiring an STD, according to a study appearing in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The women received the program from specially trained nurses either individually or in small group sessions at an inner-city women’s health clinic. The study was conducted as part of the “Sister to Sister: The Black Women’s Health Project,” funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Girls who suffered childhood sexual abuse are more likely to develop alcoholism later in life if they possess a particular variant of a gene involved in the body’s response to stress, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new finding could help explain why some individuals are more resilient to profound childhood trauma than others.
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Some improvements to the NLH site have now been made: here are the details. We hope these changes will be useful to you: please let us have your feedback and further suggestions.
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Find out about some new features on NLH....
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The herbal remedy echinacea could cut the risk of catching a cold by more than half, reported five newspapers (25 June 2007). The newspapers were largely accurate in reporting the findings of a well-conducted meta-analysis. The review authors caution that more research needs to be done on the safety of echinacea.
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Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids protect against the development and progression of retinopathy, a deterioration of the retina, in mice. This is the major finding of a study that appears in the July 2007 issue of the journal Nature Medicine. The study was a collaborative effort by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston, the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Goteborg in Sweden, and the National Eye Institute (NEI) and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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The NLH Later Life Specialist Library brings you a summary of the evidence on dementia.
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Boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder had higher levels of hormones involved with growth in comparison to boys who do not have autism, reported researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine.
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Oestrogen only hormone replacement therapy (HRT) reduces calcium plaque build-up in the arteries of women in their 50s, but should only be used for menopausal symptoms, and not to prevent cardiovascular disease, reported two newspapers (21st June 2007). In general the newspapers accurately reported the reliable findings of a well conducted study.
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The National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health, announces the release of an extensive selection from the papers of Mary Lasker (1899–1994), a noted patron of science, medical research advocate, and health promoter, on the Library’s Profiles in Science Web site.
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The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) welcomes six new members to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NACCAM). The Council serves as the principal advisory body to NCCAM, a component of the National Institutes of Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.
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New results from a substudy of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen-Alone Trial show that younger postmenopausal women who take estrogen-alone hormone therapy have significantly less buildup of calcium plaque in their arteries compared to their peers who did not take hormone therapy. Coronary artery calcium is considered a marker for future risk of coronary artery disease.
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Researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have identified the gene that accounts for most cases of Goltz syndrome, a rare skin disorder that can also affect bone and eye development.
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Rosehips may provide an effective treatment for sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis, reported three newspapers (18th June 2007). The reports were based on the findings of an unpublished trial. These findings will need to be published and reproduced if rosehips are to be established as an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
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An update of the evidence on this topic, produced by the NLH Health Management Specialist Library
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An update of the evidence on this topic, produced by the NLH Eyes and Vision Specialist Library.
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The hormone therapy letrozole could stop tumour growth and extend life in women with oestrogen-sensitive ovarian cancer, reported four newspapers on 15 June 2007 (1-4). The newspaper reports were generally accurate in their reporting of this small preliminary study. Further research is required before any definitive conclusions can be drawn.
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The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today launched the three-year pilot phase of a new program that will help bring state-of-the-art cancer care to patients in community hospitals across the United States.
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John Bucher, Ph.D., will serve as the new associate director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP), and will begin managing the day-to-day operations of the program on June 18. The NTP is an interagency program with the mission to coordinate, conduct and communicate toxicological research across the U.S. government.
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Crystal methamphetamine use among young adults in the United States is considerably higher than previous surveys indicate, according to new research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, published in the July issue of the journal Addiction, found 2.8 percent of young adults (ages 18-26) reported use of crystal methamphetamine in the past year during 2001-2002. Annual prevalence of crystal methamphetamine use by young adults (ages 19-28) was measured at 1.5 percent by NIDA’s 2004 Monitoring the Future Survey; however this most recent data analysis suggests use rates are even higher.
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The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the College On Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) will jointly present the 2007 Media Award to John Hoffman, Vice President, Home Box Office (HBO) Documentary, for his role in co-producing the groundbreaking HBO documentary series “Addiction.”
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Few older people die with brains untouched by a pathological process, however, an individual’s likelihood of having clinical signs of dementia increases with the number of different disease processes present in the brain, according to a new study. The research was funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Julie Schneider, M.D., and colleagues report the findings in the journal Neurology online today.
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An international research consortium today published a set of papers that promise to reshape our understanding of how the human genome functions. The findings challenge the traditional view of our genetic blueprint as a tidy collection of independent genes, pointing instead to a complex network in which genes, along with regulatory elements and other types of DNA sequences that do not code for proteins, interact in overlapping ways not yet fully understood.
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The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today it will provide $20.65 million for 14 High-End Instrumentation (HEI) grants that will fund cutting-edge equipment required to advance biomedical research. Awarded to research institutions around the country, the one-time grants support the purchase of sophisticated instruments costing more than $750,000.
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An update of the evidence on this topic, produced by the NLH Diabetes Specialist Library
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A team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has uncovered a set of genes that are turned on, or expressed, at high levels only in the blood vessels that feed tumors in mice and humans. These genes, and the proteins they encode, are important new potential targets for novel drugs that could selectively cut off a tumor’s blood supply without affecting the blood vessels of healthy tissues, overcoming one of the major concerns of current anticancer therapies targeted at blood vessel growth.
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New research supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) shows that the anticonvulsant medication gabapentin, which is used for certain types of seizures, can be an effective treatment for the pain and other symptoms associated with the common, often hard-to-treat chronic pain disorder, fibromyalgia.
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Alzheimer’s disease researchers may be able to reduce the time and expense associated with clinical trials, according to early results from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a public-private research partnership organized by the National Institutes of Health. Preliminary results from ADNI show how it might yield improved methods and uniform standards for imaging and biomarker analysis, so these techniques can be employed in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
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A drug used to treat high blood pressure may be an effective treatment for Parkinson's disease reported eight newspapers (11 June 2007). The articles are based on a laboratory study involving mice engineered to have a disease similar to progressive Parkinson's disease. These findings cannot be applied to people at present.
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An update of the evidence on this topic, produced by the NLH Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Specialist Library.
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National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., announced today the formation of two working groups—one external, the other internal — to examine the NIH peer review process, with the goal of maximizing its effectiveness.
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Statins are safe and effective for lowering cholesterol reported the Daily Mail, 7 June 2007. The report is based on a clinically focussed overview of the evidence for the safety of statins, which concluded that they are well-tolerated and safe when used at standard doses.
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Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a survival mechanism in a common type of bacteria that can cause illness. The mechanism lets the bacteria protect itself by warding off attacks from antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are defense molecules sent by the body to kill bacteria.
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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today released its NIAID Research Agenda for Multidrug-Resistant (MDR) and Extensively Drug-Resistant (XDR) Tuberculosis (TB).
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The Fogarty International Center, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will host “The Disease Control Priorities Project: First Year Anniversary Celebration, Implementing the Research Agenda,” a meeting to review key messages of the Disease Control Priorities Project (DCPP) and highlight its impact on health policy and programs in developing countries.
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A new compound, called ABT-888, has passed the first stage of clinical examination using a new model for drug development that promises to shorten — by up to six to 12 months — the timeline for taking anticancer drugs from the laboratory to the clinic, according to a team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
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Herceptin given in conjunction with chemotherapy before surgery can eradicate breast cancer tumours reported two newspapers (4 June 2007). The newspaper reports appear to be based on a conference presentation, but it is not possible to evaluate the reliability of the findings as insufficient details are available.
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An update of the evidence on this topic, produced by the NLH Women's Health Specialist Library
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Based on clues provided by a study with transgenic mice, a research group at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has developed a strategy that will be tested as the first treatment for people with hereditary inclusion body myopathy (HIBM), a rare, degenerative muscle disease.
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Five new members have been appointed to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health (ACRWH), which held its semiannual meeting recently in Bethesda, Maryland.
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A blood test that detects proteins commonly released by a growing tumor could one day become a useful tool for monitoring the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation treatment in people with advanced throat cancer, according to a study published in the June 1, 2007, issue of Clinical Cancer Research. Scientists in the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), two of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with researchers of the University of Michigan, found that throat cancer patients who showed a decline in several cancer-related proteins following chemotherapy and radiation treatment were more likely to remain in remission, while those who experienced a large rise over time in those proteins frequently exhibited a return of throat cancer.
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Grant Information
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This Web site was made possible in part by NIH Grant Number R43 DK70418
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