Month: August 2014

A California man’s condition has greatly improved thanks to an organ donation from a family he had helped years before.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed a $16.3 billion bill on Thursday designed to provide veterans with more timely medical care and fix problems in the scandal-plagued Veterans Affairs department. The plan passed Congress last week and aims to address what Obama on Thursday called "outrageous" misconduct at VA hospitals and clinics that included modifying records of delayed care. The VA was thrust into the spotlight this spring after allegations surfaced that it had covered up the months-long wait times some veterans had to endure before receiving medical care. Former head of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki resigned in late May as the scandal mounted, and last week the Senate unanimously confirmed former Procter & Gamble Co Chief Executive Officer Robert McDonald.

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters – Scientists who believed they had started to decipher links between a GlaxoSmithKline H1N1 pandemic flu vaccine and the sleep disorder narcolepsy have retracted a study after saying they cannot replicate their findings. The paper, originally published in the journal Science Translational Medicine in December 2013, suggested narcolepsy can sometimes be triggered by a scientific phenomenon known as “molecular mimicry,” offering a possible explanation for its link to GSK’s “swine flu” vaccine, Pandemrix. The results appeared to show that the debilitating disorder, characterized by sudden sleepiness and muscle weakness, could be set off by an immune response to a portion of a protein from the H1N1 flu virus that is very similar to a region of a protein called hypocretin, which is key to narcolepsy. GSK, which has been funding Mignot’s research into links between the vaccine and narcolepsy, said in a statement it believed “the original scientific hypothesis remains a valid one that needs to be further explored”.

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Researchers have more evidence linking a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables to better health outcomes. The idea that fruits and veggies are good for you isn’t new, of course. What’s new in this study is that researchers saw a dose-response relationship: the more fruits and veggies people ate, the less likely they were to have heart problems or die while researchers were studying them. The protective effects of fruits and veggies leveled out at five servings per day, which supports current dietary recommendations, senior author Dr. Frank B. Hu, of the departments of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, told Reuters Health by email.

COTONOU (Reuters) – A hospital in Benin is treating a Nigerian man suspected of having contracted Ebola and authorities have sent a sample of his blood to Senegal for testing, Health Minister Dorothée Gazard said on state television on Thursday. The case is unconfirmed but Gazard’s announcement triggered widespread fears in the capital Cotonou. Many people said they would stock up on food and stop eating at popular roadside food stalls to avoid possible infection, witnesses said. (Reporting by Samuel Elijah; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Andrew Roche)

Getting dressed is a challenge for patients in leg-lengthening contraptions.

… health fitness · celebrity body transformations · ketogenic diet weight loss … Britney Spears showed off her chiseled abs and dramatic weight loss … Britney previously credited a low carb Nutrisystem diet for her weight loss, … to a diet isn't easy because she loves high-carb, high-calorie, sugary foods.

Michelle Kang Kim, MD, MScAssociate Director of Endoscopy, Mount Sinai HospitalAssistant Professor of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiGastrointestinal cancers occur in the digestive system, including both the upper and lower digestive tracts. Older people and those with a strong family history — a parent or first-degree…