http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Chronic pain is experienced by as many as two out of three older adults. Now, a new study finds that pain may be more hazardous than previously thought, contributing to an increased risk of falls in adults over age 70. The findings appear in the November 25 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). http://phys.org/news178306314.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:50:06 EST news178306314 (PhysOrg.com) -- Patients do not need to fast before having their cholesterol tested, a major study has found. http://phys.org/news177338824.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:06:15 EST news177338824 As more Canadians are diagnosed with H1N1 influenza infection, some will be admitted to hospital. The most severely affected may be treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and placed on a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe while they recover from the infection. http://phys.org/news177248922.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:10:03 EST news177248922 The American health care sector accounts for nearly a tenth of the country's carbon dioxide emissions, according to a first-of-its-kind calculation of health care's carbon footprint. http://phys.org/news177097375.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:43:24 EST news177097375 (AP) -- Most hospitalized heart failure patients are sent home without widely recommended inexpensive pills, despite a program to get more doctors to follow treatment guidelines, a study suggests. http://phys.org/news175277881.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:10:01 EST news175277881 (AP) -- A sperm donor passed on a potentially deadly genetic heart condition to nine of his 24 children, including one who died at age 2 from heart failure, according to a medical journal report. http://phys.org/news175277857.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:18:22 EST news175277857 Twenty years of screening for breast and prostate cancer - the most diagnosed cancer for women and men - have not brought the anticipated decline in deaths from these diseases, argue experts from the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in an opinion piece published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association." http://phys.org/news175276772.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:11:20 EST news175276772 (AP) -- A new study suggests less-invasive keyhole surgery for prostate cancer may mean a higher risk for lasting incontinence and impotence when compared with traditional surgery. http://phys.org/news174652851.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:41:41 EST news174652851 (AP) -- Rapidly worsening breathing problems in the sickest swine flu patients in Mexico and Canada present a scary worst-case scenario and could foreshadow what U.S. doctors face as winter flu season sets in, new reports suggest. http://phys.org/news174569212.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:40:15 EST news174569212 (PhysOrg.com) -- Training in mindfulness meditation and communication can alleviate the psychological distress and burnout experienced by many physicians and can improve their well-being, University of Rochester Medical Center researchers report in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). http://phys.org/news172855325.html Medicine & Health Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:40:01 EST news172855325 Mayo Clinic researchers report that distress and fatigue among medical residents are independent contributors to self-perceived medical errors. The findings appear today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). http://phys.org/news172856076.html Medicine & Health Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:34:59 EST news172856076 Critical care experts at Johns Hopkins are reporting initial success in boosting recovery and combating muscle wasting among critically ill, mostly bed-bound patients using any one of a trio of mild physical therapy exercises during their stays in the intensive care unit (ICU). http://phys.org/news172767869.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:06:14 EST news172767869 Patients who sustain injury to their kidneys and require in-hospital dialysis are three times more likely to need long-term dialysis later in life compared to those without a history of this condition, says a new study from St. Michael's Hospital. Patients with acute kidney disease are a high-risk group for whom early medical surveillance and intervention may prevent progression to irreversible end-stage kidney disease. http://phys.org/news172253361.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:00:01 EST news172253361 Black patients have lower rates of successful resuscitation and are less likely to survive an in-hospital cardiac arrest compared to white patients, according to a study in the Sept. 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://phys.org/news172252868.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:20:02 EST news172252868 A new framework of recommendations created by health informatics researchers may help doctors and hospitals prepare for a federal initiative to expand the use of electronic health records (EHRs). The recommendations from faculty at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine appear in a commentary in the Sept. 9 edition of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://phys.org/news171652574.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:30:02 EST news171652574 A brain-imaging study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory provides the first definitive evidence that patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have lower-than-normal levels of certain proteins essential for experiencing reward and motivation. http://phys.org/news171652613.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:17:27 EST news171652613 At a time when medicine tends to focus on patients as a "collection of visceral organs and a nervous system," systems medicine provides a new approach to medical practice that is "anticipated to result in more comprehensive and systematic patient care." In a commentary published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Sept 2), Howard J. Federoff, MD, PhD, executive vice president for health sciences and executive dean of the School of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center, and Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, associate dean at the Georgetown University Law Center ask, "Is there a future for systems medicine" particularly as the country considers a health care overhaul? http://phys.org/news171046091.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:57:03 EST news171046091 (AP) -- A new study links hormone therapy for prostate cancer with a higher risk of death in older men who've had serious heart problems. http://phys.org/news170440583.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:00:03 EST news170440583 Is it more urgent for hospitals, doctors and nurses to focus resources on preventing the thousands of falls that injure hospitalized patients each year, or to home in on preventing rare but dramatic instances of wrong-side surgery? Is it best to concentrate immediately on preventing pediatric medical errors or on preventing drug interactions in the elderly? http://phys.org/news170438785.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:08:25 EST news170438785 A new study from NYU School of Medicine found that women may have a slightly higher risk of death than men in the thirty days following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but that these differences appear to be attributable to factors such as severity and type of ACS. The study, published in the August 26, 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found however that overall there was no significant difference in mortality observed between the sexes after a heart attack. The large observational study pooled 136,247 ACS patients from 11 independent, international randomized clinical trials between 1993 and 2006. http://phys.org/news170437772.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:00:02 EST news170437772 Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified a common gene variant carried by as many as a third of the general population that is believed to play a major role in determining why people do not respond to a popular anti-clotting medication, Plavix. If the medication doesn't work, patients are at increased risk for subsequent heart attacks, strokes and other serious cardiovascular problems. http://phys.org/news170436030.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:21:50 EST news170436030 (PhysOrg.com) -- Lessons learned from research into the societal effects of post-Apartheid "truth and reconciliation" hearings in South Africa are now being applied to a U.S. National Institute of Peace-sponsored study of the long-term mental health impact on Cambodians from human rights tribunals targeting the killing of millions by the nation's former Khmer Rouge regime, says James L. Gibson, Ph.D., a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of a study published Aug. 6 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). http://phys.org/news170080864.html Other Sciences Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:41:42 EST news170080864 When estrogen-lowering drugs no longer control metastatic breast cancer, the opposite strategy might work. Raising estrogen levels benefited 30 percent of women whose metastatic breast cancer no longer responded to standard anti-estrogen treatment, according to research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions. http://phys.org/news169831573.html Medicine & Health Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:50:01 EST news169831573 Expansion of renewable energies should appreciably improve the health status of the 700,000 US workers employed in the energy sector, according to a commentary by Medical College of Wisconsin researchers, in Milwaukee. Their review is published in the August 19, 2009, issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://phys.org/news169831712.html Medicine & Health Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:29:04 EST news169831712 A commonly held belief that severe influenza pandemics are preceded by a milder wave of illness arose because some accounts of the devastating flu pandemic of 1918-19 suggested that it may have followed such a pattern. But two scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, say the existing data are insufficient to conclude decisively that the 1918-19 pandemic was presaged by a mild, so-called spring wave, or that the responsible virus had increased in lethality between the beginning and end of 1918. http://phys.org/news169227271.html Medicine & Health Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:35:35 EST news169227271 (PhysOrg.com) -- Both being more physically active and adhering to a Mediterranean-type diet appears to be associated with reduced Alzheimer's risk, according to a new report in the August 12, 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). http://phys.org/news169226008.html Medicine & Health Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:15:18 EST news169226008 Men and women who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer and began regular use of aspirin had a lower risk of overall and colorectal cancer death compared to patients not using aspirin, according to a study in the August 12 issue of JAMA. http://phys.org/news169225524.html Medicine & Health Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:06:46 EST news169225524 A team approach to preventive healthcare delivery for older adults developed by researchers from Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute improves health and quality of life, decreased emergency department visits and lowered hospital admission rates. By the second year the new model saved money for the sickest (those with three to four chronic diseases), and in the third year, a year after the home-based intervention ended, it saved even more. http://phys.org/news169209472.html Medicine & Health Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:38:18 EST news169209472 As leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime testify in a human rights tribunal, in harrowing detail, for the killing of more than a million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979 a central medical question remains unanswered: will the trials help a society heal or exacerbate the lingering affects of widespread trauma? http://phys.org/news168623943.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:10:01 EST news168623943 (AP) -- Scientists have found seven key genes in the type of brain tumor affecting Sen. Edward Kennedy that together can predict how aggressive a patient's cancer will be. http://phys.org/news166809744.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:03:07 EST news166809744