Health Watch

• Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy: Q&A

  

  Posted 8:45 PM 5/14/2013

  May 14, 2013 -- Actress and activist Angelina Jolie's recent decision to have a preventive double mastectomy highlights the difficult choices facing women who find out they have a high risk for breast cancer because of their genes.

  Although relatively rare, mutations in the BRCA1 and (More)
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• Antibiotics May Relieve Back Pain Symptoms

  

  Posted 6:43 PM 5/10/2013

  May 10, 2013 -- Taking antibiotics could relieve symptoms of chronic lower back pain for up to 40% of people, according to a new study.

  Danish researchers say they've found a link between many cases of back pain and infection from bacteria.

  Some experts (More)
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• Fewer Patients Awake During Operations

  

  Posted 2:59 PM 3/14/2013

  March 14, 2013 -- Being aware of what's going on during an operation under general anesthesia sounds scary. The good news is a new study suggests it happens less often than had been thought.

  Previous research has found that about 1 in 500 patients is aware or awake under general anaesthesia. The new report, from the U.K.'s Royal College of Anaesthetists, finds it is far less common, about 1 case in 15,000.

  Researchers also found that even where (More)
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• Grow Your Own Replacement Tooth?

  

  Posted 2:19 PM 3/12/2013

  March 12, 2013 -- Growing a replacement tooth from your own cells may be a step closer, according to new research.

  It is still too early for use in people, but the technique involves taking stem cells and growing more of them to produce a very small, immature tooth, similar to what a tooth would look like when it starts to grow in an embryo.

  "It's very (More)
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• Q&A: Valerie Harper's Cancer

  

  Posted 9:49 PM 3/6/2013

  March 6, 2013 -- Actress Valerie Harper, best known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda in the 1970s, has learned she has leptomeningeal carcinomatosis.

  The condition happens when cancer spreads to the brain and spinal cord.

  Now 73, Harper told People magazine she received the diagnosis in January.

  The American (More)
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• Shifting Temps May Prime You for Spring Allergies

  

  Posted 3:54 PM 3/5/2013

  March 5, 2013 -- Spring allergy season is again off to an early start in many parts of the country, and doctors say there are some signs it may be even more miserable than usual this year.

  Last year was the fourth warmest winter on record, with consistently mild temperatures. That led to record-breaking pollen counts that struck (More)
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• Lack of Sleep Disrupts Genes

  

  Posted 7:01 PM 3/1/2013

  March 1, 2013 -- Sleeping fewer than six hours for several nights in a row affects hundreds of genes responsible for keeping us in good health, says a new study.

  Research led by the U.K.'s Surrey Sleep Research Centre found that people who were subjected to sleep deprivation for a week underwent changes at a molecular level that could affect their (More)
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• Q&A: Breast Cancer in Young Women

  

  Posted 9:22 PM 2/28/2013

  Feb. 28, 2013 -- Young women found the news surprising and more than a little scary: Cases of advanced breast cancer have been rising in women 25 to 39 over the past three decades, researchers reported this week.

  From 1976 to 2009, the number of cases of advanced breast (More)
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• Caffeine Linked to Low-Birth-Weight Babies

  

  Posted 6:01 PM 2/19/2013

  Feb. 19, 2013 -- New research suggests that caffeine is linked to low-birth-weight babies and that drinking coffee is linked to a longer pregnancy.

  The report suggests that drinking 200-300 milligrams of caffeine per day raised the risk of a (More)
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• Dental X-rays Linked to Brain Tumors

  

  Posted 4:19 AM 4/10/2012

  April 10, 2012 -- Getting frequent dental X-rays appears to increase the risk for a commonly diagnosed brain tumor, a new study finds.

  Exposure to ionizing radiation -- the kind found in X-rays -- is the biggest known environmental risk factor for (More)
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• Study: No Link Between Cell Phone Use and Cancer

  

  Posted 10:59 PM 10/20/2011

  Oct. 20, 2011 -- In recent years, people have been whipsawed by conflicting studies about the risks posed by low levels of radiation given off by cell phones.

  Now, one of the largest and longest-running studies ever to look for a link between mobile phone use and brain tumors shows that cell phone use doesn't increase the risk of (More)
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• Seizure Drug May Extend Lives of Brain Cancer Patients

  

  Posted 10:25 PM 8/31/2011

  Aug. 31, 2011 -- As many as half of all people with a common and potentially lethal type of brain cancer known as a glioblastoma will have a seizure at some point during their illness.

  Doctors often prescribe a drug to help control these seizures. But until now little was known about which drug, if any, is the best choice.

  When added to standard treatment, an older seizure drug, called (More)
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