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Male-only clinics
scotched
EDINBURGH —
Several pioneering male health clinics have been forced
to close due to lack of funding. The centres —
which aimed to get the average health-unconscious Scotch
male to take better care of himself — were set
up after the Scottish Executive doled out over £4
million two years ago. Scottish men have one of the
lowest life expectancies in Europe and studies have
shown they see a doctor half as often as the lassies.
The resources invested in the so-called Well Man clinics
will be re-routed to a new preventative care program.
"We need to shift the focus from illness to wellbeing.
Only by doing so can we tackle the deep roots of health
inequality in Scotland," a spokeswoman for the Scottish
Executive told the Edinburgh News.
Black
Death in La-La Land
LOS ANGELES —
An LA woman is being treated for the bubonic plague,
LA health officials announced last week. They believe
the unidentified woman contracted the disease from fleas
in her upscale Los Angeles neighbourhood home. The last
urban outbreak of the disease, also in LA, happened
in 1984 and resulted in about a dozen deaths. The bubonic
plague, which is widely believed to be the same illness
as the historical pest or Black Death, is characterized
by swollen black lumps under the skin, and flu-like
symptoms.
A
chip off the old block
CINCINNATI —
One snorer breeds another, say researchers from the
Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Their study, published
in the April issue of Chest, found that kids
have triple the chance of being snorers if their parents
saw logs at night. Allergies also double a kid's likelihood
of snoring at night. For the study, researchers looked
at 700 one-year-olds, and they found that 15% of the
tots snored three times or more a week. The data also
hinted at an association between snoring and ADHD.
Not
so fast... mums should wait a bit between babies
BOGOTA —
Women wishing to up the odds of having a healthy baby
should space their labours 18 months apart, according
to research published in JAMA on April 19. The
Columbian researchers' analysis of over 11 million pregnancies
revealed that not giving the mother's body sufficient
time to recover from pregnancy and nursing depletes
her nutrients and puts the next baby at risk. Waiting
too long between pregnancies, on the other hand, could
mean decreased fertility and poor fetal development.
For each month under 18 months between pregnancies,
the risk of premature birth rose by nearly 2%.
Parkinson's
sufferers march to beat of their own drummer
NEW YORK —
The value of music therapy for Parkinson's sufferers
is well documented, but now a team of researchers at
the Methodist Neurology Institute has set out to find
what rhythms work best. The trial, which is going into
its first phase, hopes to determine which kind of acoustic
stimuli will help Parkinson's patients move and function
better. The ultimate goal of the research would be to
create a device, similar to an iPod, tailored to Parkinson's
patients' needs. The Grammy Foundation is helping to
support the research.
Villainous
new bug emerges
BETHESDA, MD —
A new pathogenic bacteria was found in the swollen lymph
nodes of a patient with a rare immune disease called
chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), researchers reported
in PLoS Pathogens on April 14. The novel bacterium
is classified as an Acetobacteraceae, the first
of the family to cause disease in humans. The infected
patient suffered fever, lymph node inflammation and
weight loss, but he survived. His depleted immune system
managed to identify the bacterium as an invader before
it was too late. The symptoms were mimicked when the
team injected a CGD mouse with the isolated pathogen,
supporting their theory that the bug did the damage.
Frauds
and filthy scalpels cost patients their eyes
CHICAGO —
A federal court has found two Chicago execs guilty of
deliberately abusing their FDA approval to sell 168
lemon medical sterilizers to US hospitals. The president
and VP of regulatory affairs of AbTox had previously
received the FDA's OK for a one-cubic-foot device that
sterilized stainless steel surgical instruments. They
used this FDA seal of approval to sell a larger, untested
cleaning machine. The scam netted them a cool $18 million
US. Their knavery led to tragedy as 18 patients were
blinded in one eye by infections that could be traced
back to dirty instruments.
Goth
teens drawn to self-harm
GLASGOW —
Suicidal behaviour and self-harm are more common among
youths who identify with goth subculture, according
to a study published April 14 in a BMJ Online First.
Goths are typically characterized by their black dress,
distinctive makeup and taste for macabre music. The
team of Glasgow researchers who wrote the study questioned
1,258 19-year-olds who were part of a larger health
and lifestyle study. They found that 53% of the teens
who identified themselves as "goths" reported deliberately
harming themselves and 47% attempted suicide. Researchers
note however, that this goth (originally short for 'gothic')
subculture attracts relatively few and that most of
these kids already had these self-destructive tendencies
prior to painting their fingernails black.
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