Friday, Feb 06th
Last update10:09:45 AM GMT
Health Glance
Half of all American doctors responding to a nationwide survey say they regularly prescribe placebos to patients. The results trouble medical ethicists, who say more research is needed to determine whether doctors must deceive patients in order for placebos to work.
The most common placebos the American doctors reported using were headache pills and vitamins, but a significant number also reported prescribing antibiotics and sedatives
Scientists have made a dramatic leap forward in the treatment of multiple sclerosis with the discovery of a drug that not only halts the disease but can also reverse it.
The discovery is being hailed as the biggest advance against the debilitating neurological condition for more than a decade and could prove effective against other, similar diseases. The MS Society said it was "delighted" by the results.
Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first federal study of the problem.Hammer has played the leading role in introducing pulse diagnosis, which has thousands of years of history in China, to the West. Modernized to incorporate the ills of the post-industrial age, contemporary Chinese pulse diagnosis (CCPD) enables practitioners to identify an extraordinary range of states -- mental, spiritual, emotional and physical -- simply by feeling a person's pulse. A typical session costs $50 to $100.
Pulse diagnosis can also find trouble before symptoms arise. So Hammer and other CCPD practitioners -- who only number in the hundreds in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand -- say that along with modern medical technology, acupuncture, herbs, exercise and a good diet, it's a crucial part of effective preventive medicine
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will soon encourage doctors to discuss the financial costs of chemotherapy as one of the side effects that patients should consider in deciding which treatment to proceed with, or whether to use treatment at all.
The price of cancer drugs is rising at a rate of 15 percent per year, in particular as new and expensive biotechnology drugs hit the market. Some of these drugs may cost $100,000 or more for a course of treatment.
One study to report here is about the effect of vitamin D in the risk of breast cancer.
The study led by Blackmore KM and colleagues from Mount Sinai Hospital in Ontario, Canada showed that increased intake of vitamin D through diet and exposure to the sun was associated with a 24 percent reduced risk of estrogen-receptor- (ER) and progesterone-receptor- (PR) defined breast cancer.
Eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight when combined with a high-fat, high-calorie diet, according to a new study with rats.
Although previous studies have shown that being leptin resistant can lead to rapid weight gain on a high-fat, high-calorie diet, this is the first study to show that leptin resistance can develop as a result of high fructose consumption. The study also showed for the first time that leptin resistance can develop silently, that is, with little indication that it is happening.
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