New Media Medicine - Medical News

Sleep - Not too much, not too little!

Published on 22-03-2010 06:15 AM

The public are used to being bombarded with information on how to manage their weight, including the importance of getting enough sleep. It now appears however that either too little OR too much sleep can lead to weight gain by laying down visceral fat around visceral organs. Clearly the laying down of fat in such places is especially dangerous. ...

Information is Care

Tim Robbins

Published on 22-03-2010 06:15 AM

Involving patient more in their care has been shown not only to improve health outcomes, but also to reduce healthcare costs. In a 914 geriatric patient trial, giving “guided care” whereby patients are given the information and confidence they need to be involved in their own treatment saw an 11% reduction in their total treatment costs vs “usual” care. A further study in diabetic patients showed that the level of patient involvement was almost predictive of outcome in 2 years time. ...

Friendly Bacteria – the Mircobiome

Tim Robbins

Published on 08-03-2010 10:38 AM

The human body contains 10 times more microbes than the human body has cells. Further study of gut bacteria has shown that these bacteria contain 3.3 million genes in comparison to just 23,000 human genes. What is most remarkable however is how similar one person’s gut bacteria are to anyone else’s. In a study of 126 Europeans each person was found to have 40% of their bacteria shared by at least half the other study participants. ...

Dementia – Don’t Discriminate

Tim Robbins

Published on 04-03-2010 08:21 AM

At the London nightclub Pacha, the Department of Health and Alzheimer's Society launched a new campaign to inform the public about dementia. The launch featured people with dementia ballroom dancing. This highlights the underlying message of the campaign that people with dementia are often still capable, functioning human beings. ...

Coronary heart disease: Understanding Junk

Tim Robbins

Published on 04-03-2010 08:21 AM

A big step forward has been made in understanding how polymorphisms in a region of junk non-coding DNA (an intron) can affect the risk of heart disease. The intron in question is located on chromosome 9, and until now it’s role in increasing cardiovascular risk has been unknown. ...

HIV: When treatment becomes prevention

Tim Robbins

Published on 04-03-2010 08:21 AM

Aggressively treating HIV infection before symptoms become apparent could improve patient outcomes and control the spread of the disease. The studies conducted in both developing and developed countries; including the US and Africa, support the ‘seek, test and treat’ hypothesis. This hypothesis has been around for over a decade indeed the treatment of pregnant women to avoid transmission to offspring is an example of this. ...

Better Mouse Models

Tim Robbins

Published on 04-03-2010 08:21 AM

The usefulness of mice as animal models in hepatic research has taken a great leap forward. One of the most commonly cited problems with animal models is that they are different and respond differently to experiments/treatments as compared to humans. However a team at the Salk institute in California has generated a mouse with a human liver. ...

The Truth about TB

Tim Robbins

Published on 26-02-2010 03:07 AM

“The Truth about TB” is a new campaign launched to try to fill an awareness gap in Tuberculosis knowledge among high risk groups, medical professionals and the general public. In particular Asian, African and homeless people are being targeted. With 8000 cases of TB a year the disease is by no means historical, yet a lack of knowledge and remaining stigma are hampering people accessing and utilising care. ...

Migraines: Prophylaxis vs Treatment

Tim Robbins

Published on 23-02-2010 01:18 PM

There is a place for prophylaxis when dealing with migraine patients whose symptoms are affecting their quality of life. This was suggested by a recent systemic review from Canada, which looked at a series of meta-analyses and individual studies examining differing medications. ...

Personalized Cancer Tracking

Tim Robbins

Published on 19-02-2010 03:15 PM

A newly developed ability to track the progress of cancers based on genetic alterations unique to each individual has been heralded as “revolutionary.” The technique uses the polymerase chain reaction to amplify tumour DNA shed into the blood stream. The tumour DNA is identified by individually specific DNA mutations. This furthers the importance of personalised medicine from just treatment to include both prognosis and monitoring. ...

Antibiotics Can Actively Make Bacteria Stronger

Tim Robbins

Published on 19-02-2010 12:25 AM

Current understanding of the way bacteria develop resistance has been challenged. The current thought that resistance is caused by a few bacteria, which by chance had the ability to resist the antibiotic, was initially challenged when it was found that the surviving bacteria were also then more resistant to other subsequent yet different antibiotics. ...