HLAC Health News

The journal issue mentioned might be worth including in GEFitness bibs: "The editors of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, have created a new online collection of important recent research papers on concussions and head injury in sports."

Yes, this is a must for GEF. Thanks Brig.

If we do a book on the health impact of the environment, we might want to consider television--the media, more broadly--as part of the environment. Exposure and overexposure to the media is certainly part of the experience of living in much of the US, Europe, and Asia.

I could've done this study! I have not let Nia watch any telly yet except she did catch some Sesame Street. I can't stand the whining of Sponge Bob.

The new Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) is part of a larger multi-agency initiative announced Tuesday by the White House to reduce overall prescription drug abuse in the United States.

This disease is in a lot of our books.

15 March 2012 Last updated at 05:50 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News Looking at the back of the eye may offer an insight into the health of someone's brain, according to the US researchers. A small study, published in the journal Neurology, linked damage to the retina with declining brain function.

But this doesn't mean endurance sports are bad for you, researcher says.

In a proactive effort to help stem healthcare spending, nine medical specialty organizations have published their top 5 lists of tests, treatments, or services that are unnecessary or at least should include a thorough conversation between patients and their doctors regarding the benefits and risks of before undertaking the procedure.

Fascinating, and a little scary? "Ripping a page from the world of sci-fi, scientists from the University of California, Berkeley have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to take a high-tech peek into the blood flow and neural signaling patterns of an individual's brain. In turn, they have created a computer program that carefully "reads" and decodes these patterns, then reconstructs them back into images that approximate what the individual had just seen... In the end, the computer was able to successfully sift through all the digested information, mining for the 100 specific visual clips that it deemed most similar to the imagery the team members had seen. The result: a blurry but accurate and flowing reconstruction of the movie trailers the team volunteers had viewed."

10 million American children diagnosed with ADHD during doctors' visits

Nine United States specialty societies representing 374,000 physicians developed lists of "Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question" in recognition of the importance of physician and patient conversations to improve care and eliminate unnecessary tests and procedures. These lists represent specific, evidence-based recommendations physicians and patients should discuss to help make wise decisions about the most appropriate care based on their individual situation. Each list provides information on when tests and procedures may be appropriate, as well as the methodology used in its creation.

The review, which appears this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, covers 14 clinical trials that included more than 20,000 people with a history of cardiovascular disease. After pooling and re-analyzing the trial data, the researchers found no differences in the risk of new cardiac events or heart-related death in people taking fish oil supplements versus placebo.

New topic?

Our entries on acupuncture (in GEM and GEAM) don't seem to address the modern scientific explanations and theories about how acupuncture works, what it does. This article might help when we next update the topic.

Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications (G4H), a new, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the development, use, and applications of game technology for improving physical and mental health and well-being. The Journal breaks new ground as the first to address this emerging, widely-recognized, and increasingly adopted area of healthcare. Published bi-monthly, Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications will be released in fall 2011. Forthcoming articles for early issues of Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications include research on the effectiveness and design strategies of: Games intended to develop the social skills of people with conditions such as autism Exergames aimed at motivating more activity in physical education classes An alternate realty game designed to increase physical activity Exergames for young adults and families Games to help treat eating disorders and habits such as smoking Games to improve cognitive function in older adults The use of simulations to help develop the interpersonal skills of family members of veterans suffering from PTSD

A gene has been linked to at least three cancers in different tissues in the body, US researchers say. Their findings, reported in the journal Science, showed a fifth of melanomas (skin cancer), Ewing's sarcomas (bone) and glioblastomas (brain) had a defective copy of the gene STAG2.

As vaccines go, the flu shot is no exemplar. A comprehensive new review of the research, published online by The Lancet Infectious Diseases, finds that the vaccine prevented illness in 59% of adults aged 18 to 64, and in eight of 12 flu seasons studied.

For several years, public health officials have been concerned that gonorrhea, one of the most prevalent STDs in the world, might become resistant to the last widely available antibiotics used to treat it, a class of drugs called cephalosporins.

Experts are urging residents of several states to beware of the "giant hogweed," a tall plant native to Central Asia with umbrella-size flowers containing toxic sap that can cause burns, blisters and, in some cases, even blindness.