Tag: diseases and treatments
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Health
Kauffman Foundation awards researcher entrepreneurial fellowship
Praveen Kumar Vemula, a postdoctoral researcher in the Karp Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is one of 13 researchers to receive the Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurial Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. Vemula…
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Health
Common ECG finding may indicate serious cardiac problems
A common electrocardiogram (ECG) finding that has largely been considered insignificant may actually signal an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (a chronic heart rhythm disturbance), the future need for a…
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Health
AML patients benefit from stem cell transplants
A stem cell transplant (SCT) from a compatible donor early in the course of disease is the best approach for the majority of young and middle-aged adult patients with acute…
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Science & Tech
Health, life insurers hold billions in tobacco stocks
More than a decade after Harvard Medical School researchers first revealed that life and health insurance companies were major investors in tobacco stocks – prompting calls upon them to divest…
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Health
Glutamine supplements show promise in treating stomach ulcers
Nearly 20 years ago, it was discovered that bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori were responsible for stomach ulcers. Since then, antibiotics have become the primary therapy used to combat the…
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Health
Survey: Many Americans protecting themselves against H1N1
As part of a series about Americans’ response to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has released a…
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Health
Cancer chemotherapy: An unfolding story
To launch his lecture on cancer chemotherapy, Luke Whitesell ’79, RI ’06 displayed an image of an origami crab: a double visual metaphor. The crab is the traditional symbol of…
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Health
Smokers get help with the use of electronic health record
Although the dangers of smoking are well known, tobacco still remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States. The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that physicians…
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Health
Smoking, high blood pressure and being overweight top three preventable causes of death in the U.S.
Smoking, having high blood pressure, and being overweight are the leading preventable risk factors for premature mortality in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at…
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Health
Electronic system may reduce adverse drug events
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General hospitals report that using a computerized application to record and track patients’ medications could decrease the occurrence of potentially harmful medication discrepancies.…
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Health
Majority of new cases of diabetes in older U.S. adults could be prevented
Even as science searches for more clues about the causes of diabetes and medications to prevent it, the vast majority of new cases of the disease in older adults could…
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Health
Eating fatty fish once a week reduces men’s risk of heart failure
Eating salmon or other fatty fish just once a week helped reduce men’s risk of heart failure, a recent study shows, adding to growing evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are of benefit to cardiac health.
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Health
A more direct delivery of cancer drugs to tumors
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) has demonstrated a better way to deliver cancer drugs…
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Health
HMS professor devises single test for cancers
Imagine visiting a doctor’s office five years from now and, as a routine part of your annual physical, getting an accurate test that can tell whether you have cancer long…
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Health
Breast cancer danger rising in developing world
Women in developing nations, once thought to have a small chance of contracting breast cancer, are increasingly getting the disease as lifestyles incorporate risk factors common in industrialized nations, panelists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said Tuesday (April 14).
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Health
Study links steroid abuse to key biological, psychological characteristics
A study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital sheds new light on anabolic steroid users, augmenting previous research suggesting that users can become dependent on the drugs and showing for…
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Health
For cancer cells, genetics alone is poor indicator for drug response
In certain respects, cells are less like machines and more like people. True, they have lots of components, but they also have lots of personality. For example, when specific groups…
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Health
Waist size predictor of heart failure in men and women
Adding to the growing evidence that a person’s waist size is an important indicator of heart health, a study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that larger waist circumference is associated with increased risk of heart failure in middle-aged and older populations of men and women.
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Health
Simple bedside test improves diagnosis of chronic back pain
A simple and inexpensive method of assessing pain, developed by Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), is better than currently used techniques for distinguishing neuropathic pain – pain caused…
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Health
Hearing could hold key to unlocking schizophrenia mystery
Measuring brain waves in response to hearing a variety of tones appears to be a useful way to begin understanding the underlying genetic abnormalities associated with schizophrenia, says a study…
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Health
Study identifies human genes required for hepatitis C viral replication
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers are investigating a new way to block reproduction of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) — targeting not the virus itself but the human genes the…
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Science & Tech
Link found between religious belief, intensive medical care at end of life
In a new study of terminally ill cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that those who draw on religion to cope with their illness are more likely to…
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Health
Glass tables: An overlooked safety threat
Many households harbor a threat to young children that safety regulations, surprisingly, have overlooked: glass-topped tables and tables with glass panels. A review by Children’s Hospital Boston, in collaboration with…
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Health
Obesity linked to dangerous sleep apnea in truck drivers
Truck crashes are a significant public health hazard, causing thousands of deaths and injuries each year, with driver fatigue and sleepiness being major causes. A new study by Harvard researchers…
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Health
Higher temperatures lead to more severe headaches
Although large numbers of headache sufferers, particularly individuals who struggle with migraines, attribute their pain to the weather, there has been little scientific evidence to back up their assertions. Now,…
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Health
Weight loss bottom line: Fewer calories
A new study by Harvard researchers and colleagues shows that eating fewer calories leads to weight loss, regardless of where those calories come from. Many popular diets emphasize either carbohydrate,…
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Health
Topical treatment wipes out herpes with RNAi
Harvard Medical School researchers have succeeded in developing a topical treatment that, in mice, wipes out herpes virus, one of the most intractable sexually transmitted human diseases. Judy Lieberman, professor…
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Health
Elevated urate levels may slow progression of Parkinson’s disease
Naturally elevated levels of the antioxidant urate may slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease in men. Researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MGH-MIND) and Harvard School of Public…
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Health
Chromosomal abnormality linked to autism disorders
Researchers have fitted another piece into the complex genetic puzzle that is autism, finding DNA deletions and duplications on a specific chromosome that they say explains one to two percent…