Diabetes is a debilitating health condition which is expected to reach epidemic proportions in the next 20 years. According to the World Health Organisation, 108m people around the world had diabetes in 1980; by 2014 that figure was 422m. Three years later in 2017, 425m people worldwide were living with the disease and this figure...
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Google and Verily Roll Out Automated Eye Screenings in India
Verily, the life sciences research arm of Alphabet, and Google, the original part of the now giant company, are launching in India a screening program to identify people with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME). The program relies on an automated machine learning algorithm, developed over the past few years by Verily and that just receive the European CE mark, that doesn’t...
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Prenatal vitamins may reduce the risk of autism in high-risk families
Researchers at the University of California have found that mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be able to reduce the risk of autism in further offspring by taking prenatal vitamins during their first month of pregnancy. Study author Rebecca Schmidt and colleagues believe this is the first study to suggest that maternal...
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Study finds women seek and resist help for alcoholism in different ways than men
A new study from the University of Iowa finds that women are less likely to get help for a drinking problem and are more likely to believe the problem will get better on its own. The study, which digs deep into the differences in the way men and women handle excessive alcohol consumption, suggests that different strategies for dealing with the problem should be developed for men and women. “We should ask ourselves, ‘How...
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Promising new drug for treatment-resistant depression – esketamine
Treatment-resistant depression affects 1 in 3 of the estimated 16.2 million adults in the U.S. who have suffered at least one major depressive episode. For them, two or more therapies have failed and the risk of suicide is much greater. It’s a grim prognosis. The chemical structure of esketamine. The chemical structure of ketamine. As there...
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How fasting and exercise can supercharge the body’s cellular vacuum cleaner
One of the many useful things our bodies do on their own is rid themselves of proteins that are no longer of use. Whether the proteins are defective, toxic or simply surplus to requirements, our cellular machinery can act swiftly and decisively when shedding this dead weight. But by figuring out new ways to control...
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Autoimmune disorders may up risk for carpal tunnel syndrome
Po-Cheng Hsu, M.D., from Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan, and colleagues used data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2015 from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database to examine the correlation between CTS and common autoimmune disorders (autoimmune rheumatic disease [ARD] and inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]). The researchers identified 3,291 ARD and IBD patients...
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FDA: Pulmonary embolism risk up with tofacitinib 10 mg for RA
Currently, the 10-mg dose of tofacitinib is only approved in the dosing regimen for patients with ulcerative colitis. When tofacitinib received FDA approval, the agency called for a clinical trial among RA patients to evaluate the risk for heart-related events, cancer, and infections with tofacitinib doses of 5 mg and 10 mg twice daily combined...
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Age, race impact atherosclerotic risk with psoriasis
Kathryn A. Arnold, from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and colleagues used deidentified, aggregate electronic medical record data from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University hospitals to identify 12,184 patients with a diagnosis of psoriasis. The researchers found that ASCVD prevalence was 2.4-fold higher among patients with psoriasis in both whites...
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How a common oral bacteria makes colon cancer more deadly
Findings may help predict aggressive colon cancer and identify new treatment targets COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER NEW YORK, NY (March 4, 2019)–Researchers at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine have determined how F. nucleatum — a common oral bacteria often implicated in tooth decay — accelerates the growth of colon cancer. The study was published online in the journal EMBO Reports. Why it matters The...