Body

Contrary to a common recommendation to avoid eating popcorn, nuts and corn to prevent diverticular complications, a large prospective study of men indicates that the consumption of these foods does not increase the risk of diverticulosis or diverticular complications, according to a study in the August 27 issue of JAMA.

An analysis of Ayurvedic medicines (based on a traditional medical system commonly used in India) purchased via the Internet found that one-fifth of these products contain levels of lead, mercury or arsenic that exceed acceptable standards, according to a study in the August 27 issue of JAMA.

An analysis of randomized trials indicates that for critically ill adults, tight glucose control is not associated with a significantly reduced risk of death in the hospital, but is associated with an increased risk of hypoglycemia, calling into question the recommendation by many professional societies for tight glucose control for these patients, according to an article in the August 27 issue of JAMA.

The drug allopurinol, which lowers uric acid levels, appears to reduce blood pressure in adolescents with newly diagnosed hypertension, according to a preliminary report in the August 27 issue of JAMA.

Reducing levels of uric acid in blood lowered blood pressure to normal in most teens in a study designed to investigate a possible link between blood pressure and the chemical, a waste product of the body's normal metabolism, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) – It's no secret that humans are having a huge impact on the life cycles of plants and animals. UC Santa Barbara's Steven D. Gaines and fellow researcher Dov Sax decided to test that theory by studying the world's far-flung islands.

Many theories have sought to explain what causes the baggy lower eyelids that come with aging, but UCLA researchers have now found that fat expansion in the eye socket is the primary culprit.

As a result, researchers say, fat excision should be a component of treatment for patients seeking to address this common complaint.

STANFORD, Calif. - Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine are shedding light on how type-1 diabetes begins.

Doctors have known the disease is caused by an autoimmune attack on the pancreas, but the exact trigger of the attack has been unclear. Now, a new study in mice implicates the immune signal interferon-alpha as an early culprit in a chain of events that upend sugar metabolism and make patients dependent on lifelong insulin injections.

New research from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, shows that—for women—the caffeine advantage is indeed everything it's cracked up to be. Females who don't drink coffee can get just as much of a caffeine boost as those who sip it regularly, according to a study in the latest edition of Nutrition Research.

For just one late-summer night each year, the shallow waters off the coast of Puerto Rico fill with the pale-pink spawn of elkhorn corals -- the tiny, round packets of the adult corals' eggs and sperm. This year, Iliana Baums, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, was there to collect the coral spawn as part of a research and education project to grow the newborn juvenile corals for distribution to aquaria and to the wild. "It looks like it's snowing," she said, "except that the egg and sperm packets rise underwater to the surface rather than fall to the ground."

TORRANCE (August 25, 2008) – The first multicenter study of the accuracy of some of the latest cardiac imaging technology found it was 99 percent as effective in ruling out obstructive coronary artery stenosis - or narrowing of these arteries – as the more expensive and invasive coronary angiography traditionally used by physicians, according to research published online by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Amsterdam, 26 August 2008 - Studies have shown that approximately 16% of patients with localised prostate cancer regret their treatment choice. European Urology (http://www.europeanurology.com), the official journal of the European Association of Urology, will be publishing an article by J.W. Moul et al. comparing differences in satisfaction and regret between patients who underwent open retropubic radical prostatectomy and robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

Australian hospitals should avoid prescribing expensive broad-spectrum antibiotics for pneumonia to avoid the development of more drug-resistant super bugs, according to a University of Melbourne study.

The study, by PhD researcher and Austin Health Infectious Diseases consultant, Dr Patrick Charles, shows that only 5 per cent of people admitted to hospital with community-acquired pneumonia had infections caused by organisms that could not be successfully treated with penicillin combined with an "atypical" antibiotic such as doxycycline or erythromycin.

Early cancer detection can significantly improve survival rates. Current diagnostic tests often fail to detect cancer in the earliest stages and at the same time expose a patient to the harmful effects of radiation. Led by Dr. Patrick McCann, a small group of internationally known researchers at the University of Oklahoma with expertise in the development of mid-infrared lasers is working to create a sensor to detect biomarker gases exhaled in the breath of a person with cancer.

A case study of three health care institutions -- public, for-profit and not-for-profit -- within one metropolitan area found that self-pay patients must navigate a system that provides no guarantees medical centers will follow their own policies for providing uncompensated care.

The study is published in the August issue of the journal Medical Care.