Diseases/Conditions News

FRIDAY, April 25 (HealthDay News) -- Even when air pollution levels are within current air quality standards, inner-city children with asthma suffer, a new study finds.

THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Adding chemotherapy to other treatments being giving to patients with mesothelioma, a lung cancer usually linked to asbestos exposure, does not appear to improve either survival or quality of life.

TUESDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- Recently developed types of imaging techniques enable researchers to map brain circuits and chemical systems believed to play a role in depression, bipolar disorder and other mood disorders, and may help lead to improved treatments.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - If the Peace Corps wishes to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS, it needs to send expertise, not just youthful zeal. That was what Ethiopian officials politely told Peace Corps country director Peter Parr when he approached them last summer with a proposal to send a batch of volunteers to work on the pandemic.

WEDNESDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- A medical glove made from a new type of latex that appears less likely to cause allergic reactions than traditional latex has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Results from a mid-stage trial showed treatment with Genentech Inc's Avastin improved survival for patients with recurring brain cancer, the company said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs' top mental health official said Tuesday he made a poor choice of words when he sent his colleagues an e-mail about suicide data that started out with "Shh!"

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A review of antiretroviral treatment (ART) regimens initiated in HIV-infected women revealed that nearly half of the regimens were either not specifically recommended for initial ART or were in fact against US HIV treatment guidelines.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said they had identified a chemical contaminating the blood-thinner heparin from China and also shown how it could cause a sometimes fatal allergic reaction in people.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A drug prescribed to prevent fractures in breast cancer patients whose tumors have spread may actually help slow the cancer itself, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

FORT DRUM, New York (Reuters) - Fort Drum, a bleak U.S. Army base in upstate New York, is a test case for how the military is handling a looming mental health crisis.

LONDON (Reuters) - Would the hundreds of men who paid to have sex with "Alicia" have cared if they knew she was being held captive by a trafficker who raped her and pimped her, and that she was infected with HIV?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday new data shows a contaminant found in some batches of heparin is likely behind hundreds of allergic reactions and scores of deaths reported in patients given the blood thinner.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Breast cancer patients who get newer scans called magnetic resonance imaging are more likely to opt for mastectomies, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

MONDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- Parents of children with autism have double the odds of having been hospitalized for a psychiatric condition than parents of children without autism, according to a comprehensive review of Swedish medical registries.

SUNDAY, April 20 (HealthDay News) -- For gardeners with allergies, it can be difficult to enjoy their passion for plants when they have to cope with the misery of sneezing, itchy eyes, congestion and, in some cases, an asthma attack.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Children who survive cancer while they are young are five to 10 times more likely than their healthy siblings to develop heart disease, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

MONDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- New studies in the field of epigenetics -- which looks at how environmental factors can change gene function without altering DNA sequence -- are identifying new molecular targets that may lead to improved drug treatment of depression, scientists report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lung cancer patients who took Eli Lilly and Co's Alimta after finishing their normal course of chemotherapy lived 40 percent longer without any tumor progression than patients who took a placebo, researchers reported on Thursday.

MONDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- A small proportion of adopted American teens appear to be at heightened risk for different emotional and behavioral problems than their non-adopted counterparts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Breast cancer patients with lower levels of vitamin D were far more likely to die and far more likely to have their cancer spread than women with normal levels, Canadian researchers reported on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older people with low blood levels of vitamin D and high blood levels of parathyroid hormone are more likely to be depressed, Dutch researchers report.

A growing number of women with early stage breast cancer seem to be choosing to have the whole breast removed instead of just the cancerous lump, doctors are reporting.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Low levels of vitamin D in elderly people may lead to increased depression and other psychiatric problems, Dutch researchers said in a study released Monday.

Children who survive cancer face a much greater risk of heart problems later in life than their brothers and sisters who did not have cancer, new research shows.

CHICAGO - American children take anti-psychotic medicines at about six times the rate of children in the United Kingdom, according to a comparison based on a new U.K. study.

Evidence is growing that vitamin D, which the skin makes from sunshine, is linked to lower risk of breast cancer and other cancers. But that doesn't mean it's good to get a golden tan — and certainly not a sunburn.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Suicides and "psychological mortality" among US soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan could exceed battlefield deaths if their mental scars are left untreated, the head of the US Institute of Mental Health warned Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Blocking parts of the nervous system that regulate body temperature can reduce hot flashes and improve sleep in survivors of breast cancer, researchers reported on Thursday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In another sign pointing to an inherited component to autism, a study released on Monday found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child's risk of being autistic.