A recent study has linked chronic insomnia to broader mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
Each year, the medical and reduced productivity costs associated with insomnia among U.S. workers is estimated to be $92.5 to $107.5 billion, according to a survey conducted by the Washington-based National Sleep Foundation (NSF).
According to the Sleep Disorders Clinic at Samsung Medical Center, one in five adults suffers from sleep disorders.
Source: The Chosun Ilbo / Korea
Researchers have been studying ways in which women can better protect themselves against HIV/AIDS. In a 3-year multi-million dollar study of African women who used a latex diaphragm, it was found that women who used the diaphragm had the same infection rates as women who did not.
The study concludes that a latex diaphragm is not an effective method for women to protect themselves against HIV.
Another trial run in 2000 that had tested whether contraceptive jelly Nonoxynol-9 might be used by women for HIV prevention also failed, concluding that the women who used the Nonoxynol-9 were in fact more likely to be infected by the HIV virus than women who were given a placebo gel.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (7/12/07)
Breast-cancer patients carrying two well-known genes linked to the disease have the same survival chances as noncarriers of the genes who develop the disease, according to a study by Israeli and Canadian researchers.
The study was aimed in part at shedding light on whether breast-cancer treatment should be tailored differently for women with the two gene mutations, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. The results provided no decisive answers on that question, but could provide some comfort to carriers who might feel the odds stacked against them.
Asian-Americans, both those born here and new immigrants, have distinctive patterns of cancer incidence that doctors should consider when treating them, researchers have found.
A report appearing today in the journal CA is “one of the most comprehensive summaries of cancer among Asian-Americans,” according to the American Cancer Society, which publishes the journal.
A new robotic device called the Myomo e100, IS designed to help stroke patients regain motion in their arms.
The device, worn as an arm brace, works by sensing weak electrical activity in patients’ arm muscles and providing just enough assistance that they can complete simple exercises, like lifting boxes or flipping on light switches. By practicing such tasks, patients may begin to relearn how to extend and flex the arm, rebuilding and strengthening neurological pathways in the process.
“The device is designed to help get patients over a functional hump” so they can start moving the weakened arm again, said John McBean, a mechanical engineer who developed the technology with Kailas Narendran, an electrical engineer and computer scientist. (The two began the project in 2002, in a graduate robotics class at M.I.T.)
Source: NYT
Giving antibiotics to prevent recurrent urinary tract infections in small children won’t help and may even hurt, a new study finds.
Reporting in the July 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers say the use of antibiotics as prevention boosts risks for drug resistance while doing nothing to shield kids from future urinary tract infections (UTIs).
A single pill appears to hold promise in curbing the urges to both smoke and drink, according to researchers trying to help people overcome addiction by targeting a pleasure center in the brain.
The drug, called varenicline, already is sold to help smokers kick the habit. New but preliminary research suggests it could gain a second use in helping heavy drinkers quit, too.
A recent study suggests that taking selenium supplements for a number of years increased the chances of developing diabetes. Tiny amounts of selenium, which occurs naturally in the soil and a wide range of foods, are essential for a healthy metabolism. There is also good evidence that selenium protects against prostate cancer.
Burger King has begun using trans fat free cooking oil, and says that the restaurant will be trans fat free by the end of 2008.
The experimental drug abiraterone, which prevents testosterone production anywhere in the body, may reduce blood levels of the prostate cancer marker prostate-specific antigen (PSA) by half, new research shows.
The study also found that the drug can shrink tumors in men whose prostate cancer has continued to grow despite treatment.