Year: 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, grievously wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, made an emotional plea on Wednesday for Congress to take action to curb gun violence, but a National Rifle Association executive said new gun laws "have failed in the past and they'll fail again." Speaking haltingly, Giffords implored lawmakers to "be bold, be courageous" as she opened testimony at the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the December 14 massacre in which a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. …

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Couples wanting to improve their sex lives may want to look at how they divide household chores, because men and women who follow traditional roles have sex more often than other couples, researchers said on Wednesday. In a study that analyzed the roles of 4,500 heterosexual married couples in the United States, researchers found that when women handled the cooking, cleaning and shopping, and men did yard work and car maintenance, they had more active sex lives. …

RNA Fragments May Yield Rapid, Accurate Cancer Diagnosis

According to Life is Better Rescue, a Lakewood, Colo.-based animal shelter, it was one of the largest animal rescue events in state history. Thirteen different animal welfare groups teamed together to rescue 161 cats from a Colorado Springs home on Tuesday. Here are the details.

Reported by ABC News’ Gillian Mohney: In the competitive and bruising world of pro-football it seems nothing is too far-fetched for battered players in search of a fast cure, or an edge, even one made from the antlers of New Zealand deer. Deer antler spray…

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – New research suggests that obese kids – adolescent girls, in particular – are more likely to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) than normal-weight youth. That doesn't prove carrying around some extra weight in childhood causes MS – in which the protective coating around nerve fibers breaks down, slowing signals traveling between the brain and body. But it does suggest rising levels of obesity in young people could mean more MS diagnoses than in the past, according to lead study author Dr. …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Veteran pornography actor Ron Jeremy, one of the industry's biggest stars, was in intensive care and undergoing surgery for an aneurysm near his heart in Los Angeles, his manager said on Wednesday. Jeremy, 59, the star of more than 2,000 adult films, drove himself to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles early on Wednesday after suffering from chest pains. "He just felt chest pains, like a very heavy weight," Jeremy's manager Mike Esterman told Reuters. "He is being worked on for an aneurysm near his heart," Esterman added. …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Regular yoga classes could help people with a common heart rhythm problem manage their symptoms while also improving their state of mind, a new study suggests. According to the American Heart Association, about 2.7 million people in the U.S. have atrial fibrillation (AF), in which the heart's upper chambers quiver chaotically instead of contracting normally. People with AF are often prescribed drugs such as beta blockers to help control their heart rate and rhythm. …

While many of us still search for the magic bullet that will take and keep away extra pounds, medical science is doing what it can to improve health by unlocking the mysteries of weight control one piece at a time. People counting calories for weight loss may also want to re-think when they eat as a new study finds that eating at certain times of the day produced more weight loss in some study participants who ate the same amount of calories as other participants who ate at different times.

(Reuters) – A Medicare advisory panel on Wednesday expressed skepticism that brain scans using radioactive imaging agents can affect health outcomes of people with early symptoms of memory and cognitive problems. The medical panel’s lack of confidence could deter reimbursement for Eli Lilly’s recently approved Amyvid, an imaging agent used to detect levels in the brain of plaque made from beta amyloid protein. The plaque is considered by many researchers to be a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. (Reporting By Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Mental Health Innovation: BasicNeeds