UPI Health Business articles from October 2005

UPI Health Business archives from October 2005

The Age of Autism: Critics have their say.
October 3, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED In recent columns, we have explored reports by parents linking the onset of their child's autism to vaccinations. These parents strongly suspect a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines -- and in some cases, the...

Eat To Live: Say goodbye to Beluga.
October 3, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON Say goodbye, temporarily we hope, to one of the world's greatest sources of protein. On Sept. 22 the Fish and Wildlife Service gave notice that they "are suspending import of and foreign commerce in beluga sturgeon...

Docs may drop patients who refuse vaccines.
October 3, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- More than one-third of pediatricians would cease providing medical care to a family that refuses all vaccinations, reveals a new survey coming on the heels of a warning by federal...

Study: Exercise helps GI symptoms in obese.
October 3, 2005... Byline: ANNA CARBINO WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Increasing physical activity may reduce gastrointestinal symptoms in obese sufferers, according to a study released Monday. The study, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology...

Some storm victims still lack healthcare.
October 3, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The fight in Washington over providing Medicaid coverage for victims of Hurricane Katrina is delaying health benefits for some storm evacuees, a Louisiana state official said Monday. ...

New battery stimulates damaged nerves.
October 3, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A device an inch long and only a little wider than a pencil lead is poised to help people with a wide variety of dysfunction, such as Parkinson's disease, urinary incontinence, epilepsy,...

NIH announces PGRN second-phase projects.
October 4, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The National Institutes of Health has announced its focus projects for the second five-year phase of the Pharmacogenetics Research Network, a nationwide group of scientists studying how...

Caregiving: Traveling nurses take off.
October 4, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN The ad was so alluring I was tempted to leave journalism, get a nursing degree and become a traveling nurse, where for each 13-week assignment I would be given a safe and pet-friendly furnished place to live, among other...

The Driving Doctor: Seeing the light.
October 4, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI Something utterly basic is missing from the thoughts of too many drivers on today's highways: the importance of turning their vehicles' lights on just before it starts getting dark. So often -- by my personal...

Technique may expand kidney transplants.
October 4, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The results of a new study suggest that a kidney transplantation strategy once deemed unfeasible may enable those in need of kidneys to be matched with compatible donors, which could...

The Age of Autism: A whole-body illness.
October 4, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED One advantage of writing an ongoing column is trends become evident as readers respond over time -- trends that might not emerge in a single installment, no matter how detailed. Here's one of those trends: Something...

Gene array predicts breast cancer outcome.
October 4, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Researchers in Sweden have identified 64 genes that can predict who will respond to breast-cancer treatment after surgery more accurately than the currently accepted prognostic markers for...

Experts weigh value of telephone medicine.
October 5, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Doctors and patients generally prefer face-to-face meetings when bad medical news is involved, but some experts think such interactions also could be conducted over the telephone -- if done...

Ped Med: In praise of breakfast.
October 5, 2005... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ Forgetting their American Express cards may pose payment problems for adults, but leaving home without breakfast can leave some children short on health. Fitness and good nutrition are essential during the rapid...

Eat To Live: New food surveys discourage.
October 5, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON Three surveys have come out this week from three respected sources that make it hard to understand the goals of Americans in their eating habits. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has found through a...

Unwed moms likelier to stay that way.
October 5, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A provocative new study suggests women who have children out of wedlock have a harder time marrying than those who don't -- and that those who do find a spouse often end up on the wrong side...

Scientists replicate deadly 1918 flu virus.
October 5, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Scientists for the first time have reconstructed the 1918 Spanish influenza virus strain that caused the deadliest flu outbreak in history in an attempt to ward off another worldwide...

Feds to relax rules to spread e-record use.
October 5, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt said Wednesday the federal government will seek to relax some of its consumer-protection rules in an effort to speed the use of...

Study: Implantable defibs cost-effective.
October 6, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Eight large, randomized trials of implantable cardiac defibrillators -- devices that correct rapid irregular heartbeats before they become fatal -- have shown the defibs justify their high...

The Driving Doctor: Lessons long learned.
October 6, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI I often speak to groups of parents with teenagers who are approaching or who have reached the legal driving age. The parents attend because they want to gather the knowledge they need to help their kids through the...

Caregiving: Grandparents in the middle.
October 6, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN Some 6 million U.S. children -- about 1 in 12 -- live in households headed by grandparents or other relatives, known as kinship caregivers. More than 400,000 of these "grandparents in the middle" in New York state...

D.C. lawsuit seeks milk warning labels.
October 6, 2005... Byline: JOHN P. GRAMLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in District of Columbia Superior Court accuses nine dairy retailers of failing to warn customers about the dangers of milk. Ten D.C.-area...

Citizens urged to guide healthcare policy.
October 6, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A national citizen's commission is about to start dozens of public meetings in an effort to sample suggestions to attack relentlessly rising healthcare costs and continual increases in the...

Actos may reduce heart attacks, strokes.
October 6, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- British scientists said Thursday a new study funded by the manufacturers of the diabetes drug Actos indicates the medication reduces the risk of death, heart attack and stroke in patients...

FitFile: Women's health campaign launched.
October 7, 2005... Byline: LIZZIE WOZOBSKI WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- The Society for Women's Health Research and Verizon have launched a groundbreaking health literacy campaign for women. The "Her Healthy Life" program will focus on educating...

Eat To Live: Exotic meats gaining interest.
October 7, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON While supermarkets make food shopping convenient and fast, the experience, in my view, is fraught with disappointment and frustration. It really doesn't much matter in which chain you shop. They all stock the same...

Personalized cancer therapy closer.
October 7, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- The recent discovery in Sweden of a group of 64 genes that can be used to predict whether women with breast cancer will respond to treatment following surgery moves the infant field of DNA...

Injured Soldiers Bring Home Rare Infection.
October 7, 2005... Byline: K.L. CAPOZZA SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A recent outbreak of Acinetobacter baumannii infections among patients at military medical facilities across the country is presenting a treatment challenge for clinicians, adding to the...

Stem cells used to repair fetal defect.
October 8, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Researchers said Saturday they have used stem cells collected from the amniotic fluid surrounding fetal lambs to grow windpipes, and then implanted the tissue back into the fetuses while...

Eat To Live: Nutrition-watch bakery opens.
October 10, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON Here's what sounds like the storyline pitch for an indie film directed by an idealist just out of school. A Mexican food business is launched by four men with established careers in fields miles from nutrition...

The Age of Autism: More sick kids.
October 10, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED In our last column, "A whole-body illness," we wrote: "Something is medically wrong with many, many autistic children. To be more precise, many things are wrong with them. Yet autism is defined by the health authorities...

Antigenics says Oncophage looks promising.
October 10, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Antigenics said preliminary phase III results indicate its personalized cancer vaccine Oncophage may extend median survival by eight months in patients with advanced melanoma, compared...

Caregiving: Anything but routine.
October 11, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN There doesn't seem to be standard practice for doctors to deliver medical or laboratory test results, so often the patient -- or the caregiver -- is left to wonder: Is no news good news, or did the doctor forget? ...

The Driving Doctor: More calls to save gas.
October 11, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI Over the past few weeks, since hurricanes Katrina and Rita socked the nation's Gulf Coast oil production and refining capacity with a one-two punch, prominent individuals and institutions have been calling to save...

Uh-oh, watch out for cookie dough.
October 11, 2005... Byline: LIZZIE WOZOBSKI WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- It's raw, it's gooey and it's so good. Not only are Americans getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they're also sneaking uncooked dough as a treat. And that might not...

Erection problems may signal heart disease.
October 11, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Men who have difficulty achieving an erection may be at high risk for clogged arteries and heart disease, a study released Tuesday indicates. The study, which appears in the Oct. 18...

Study: PFP shows modest effect on quality.
October 11, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Coaxing doctors with pay-for-performance incentives may achieve only a limited effect on early disease detection, a preliminary study suggests. The study, released Tuesday and...

Report sees new vaccine potential.
October 11, 2005... WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Vaccines have helped curb or even eradicate some of the worst outbreaks in history, but their potential as cures for other diseases remains strong, a new report suggests. The report, "Vaccine development:...

16 Health IT projects get $22.3 million.
October 12, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Part 15 of a continuing series. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality within the Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $22.3 million to 16 grantees to implement...

Ped Med: Fruitful way to health.
October 12, 2005... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ Parents can pave a fruitful way to health for their children -- even before their birth, studies suggest. If mouse research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis holds any water,...

Eat To Live: Cloned meat for dinner.
October 12, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON How do you feel about the cloning of meat? Or feeding it to your family? And what about cereal soaked in milk from a cloned cow? Around the nation, producers of livestock from cloned animals are waiting for the...

The Age of Autism: 'My child is toxic'.
October 12, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED This column receives a welcome avalanche of correspondence, but our recent discussion of autism as a "whole-body illness" has generated more e-mail and faster than any other topic we've considered. The mail comes...

New antibiotic offers hope for resistance.
October 12, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Scientists said Wednesday they have discovered a new class of antibiotics in a fungus that is as powerful as penicillin and vancomycin, and it may prove useful in the battle against...

Insurers oppose employer tax-break cuts.
October 12, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Health insurers have criticized a White House advisory panel's proposed recommendation that Congress eliminate tax breaks for employer-sponsored medical coverage. The President's...

Study: Cut subsidies, not Medicaid.
October 12, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A watchdog group is urging Congress to cut billions of dollars in subsidies for the healthcare industry instead of Medicaid benefits, as lawmakers examine possible healthcare spending cuts...

Open-access journals struggling.
October 13, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- About 40 percent of new open-access scientific journals are not yet covering their costs and only 24 percent are breaking even, according to the first survey of the new field. The...

Caregiving: Food safety is a big concern.
October 13, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN Part 1 of 2. Food poisoning caused by bad hygiene or unsafe food practices can topple a big strong healthy man, but young children and the elderly are most at risk. "About a year ago we had an extensive case of...

FitFile: Sage advice for aging athletes.
October 13, 2005... Byline: ANNA CARBINO WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Individually tailored exercise regimens are key to keeping aging athletes active, says a report in the October issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The...

Suicide law could affect prescriptions.
October 13, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Oregon's assisted-suicide law, currently being examined by the U.S. Supreme Court, contains implications beyond the immediate issue, such as whether there should be limits on how drugs can...

The Driving Doctor: Ease up and save a lot.
October 13, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI More conservation advice: Remove your foot from the gas pedal as soon as you see either 1) a hazard or 2) a reason to stop -- and you can save an amazing amount of gasoline. Of all the actions you can take to...

Marijuana may spur new brain cells.
October 13, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Scientists said Thursday that marijuana appears to promote the development of new brain cells in rats and have anti-anxiety and anti-depressant effects, a finding that could have an...

WHO official says world can beat bird flu.
October 14, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The recent announcement that a strain of bird flu had spread to Romania and Turkey has heightened long-standing concerns about a global pandemic of the deadly virus, but a World Health...

Bioshield II drug incentives questioned.
October 14, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Brand-name drugmakers are finding themselves at odds with business groups over pharmaceutical patent extensions contained in a pending Senate bill intended to fight bioterrorism. The...

Eat To Live: Music makes good wine.
October 14, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON Approach on foot across the Siena foothills and you can hear Carlo Cignozzi's vineyard before you see it. Prince Charles may talk to his flowers and plants, but winemaker Cignozzi plays classical music to his vines....

Health Wrap: Of polio and pandemics.
October 14, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED There was bad news on the health front this week. Bird flu arrived in Europe, and the polio virus showed up in Minnesota. On Thursday the European Union confirmed that a poultry farm in northwestern Turkey has been...

New stem cell techniques spare embryos.
October 16, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Two teams of scientists said Sunday they each had devised a unique method to obtain embryonic stem cells without destroying a viable embryo. Their intention was to develop alternative...

Breast implants OK with lump surgery.
October 17, 2005... Byline: EDWARD SUSMAN DENVER, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Women who have breast implants can safely undergo breast-cancer surgery without having to discard them, new research suggests. Previous small studies had indicated breast-conserving...

High-dose radiation zaps prostate cancer.
October 17, 2005... Byline: ED SUSMAN DENVER, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- High-dose, two-day radiation treatment for prostate cancer offers results similar to other more extensive, more expensive radiation-based treatments, researchers reported Monday. "We believe...

The Age of Autism: Connecting new dots.
October 17, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Until now, the debate over a possible link between ethyl mercury and autism has focused on its use in vaccines beginning in the 1930s, when the first children diagnosed with the disorder were born. But medicines...

Marijuana less cancerous than tobacco.
October 17, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Marijuana is less carcinogenic than tobacco smoke and may even have some anti-cancer properties, new research suggests. Robert Melamede, chair of biology at the University of Colorado...

Senator urges generic Tamiflu.
October 17, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Roche Pharmaceuticals was asked Monday to suspend its patents on Tamiflu to allow governments to bolster anti-influenza medications and improve lagging preparedness against a possible...

Outside View: DNA and the job market.
October 17, 2005... Byline: CHRISTOPHER J. FALVEY It is always a little strange -- and even scary -- when the worlds of high-tech science and professional basketball meet. Such a thing happened this month with Eddy Curry of the Chicago Bulls. It became clear...

Eat To Live: Farro is the healthiest grain.
October 18, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON If it weren't for the parking lot filled with cars, it would be easy to believe on a golden day of autumnal sunshine at Monte Oliveto Abbey that time had stopped in 1313. That was the year the vast pink Italian...

Online journal to cover clinical trials.
October 18, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- PLoS Clinical Trials, a new online journal, will be launched next spring to report results of all randomized controlled clinical trials on humans in all medical and public-health...

Cancer patients conceal alternative meds.
October 18, 2005... Byline: CHARLENE LAINO DENVER, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Many people with cancer may be concealing their use of vitamins, herbs or other complementary medicines from their doctors -- an omission that could compromise their treatment, a new study...

Radiation, chemo cuts OK for lymphoma.
October 18, 2005... Byline: EDWARD SUSMAN DENVER, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Cutting chemotherapy 50 percent, reducing by half the amount of the body that receives radiation, and reducing the radiation dose by one-third still allows effective treatment for Hodgkin's...

Studies: Hospital care gap slowly closing.
October 18, 2005... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Hospital care in the United States is improving, but the gap between the best and the worst institutions remains too large and must be closed, three new studies have concluded. The...

Caregiving: Avoiding food-borne illness.
October 18, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN Part 2 of 2. The other day, the meat department of a major grocery chain wrapped my raw chicken only in paper. Had I not placed it in a plastic bag provided in many meat departments, the chicken liquid -- which can cause...

In Mali, women debate circumcision.
October 18, 2005... Byline: ELIZABETH BRYANT BAMAKO, Mali, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- By culture and by circumstance, Djeneba Gamara is in many ways an emancipated woman. The 42-year-old widow is the breadwinner of a sprawling family that includes three children...

The Driving Doctor: What rolls up ...
October 18, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI Among the essential strategies that can improve your vehicle's fuel economy and cost you little or nothing, be sure to add the phenomenon of gravity. Notice I didn't say "force" of gravity, because no one...

Expert: Don't rely on Tamiflu for bird flu.
October 18, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Governments hurriedly stockpiling the anti-viral drug Tamiflu should beware of relying on the medication for protection against avian influenza, a U.S. preparedness official has warned....

Radiation helps prostate-cancer patients.
October 18, 2005... Byline: CHARLENE LAINO DENVER, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Certain men with prostate cancer live longer without relapsing if they receive radiation immediately after surgery, researchers reported Tuesday. In a study of more than 400 men who had...

South Korea to lead new stem-cell center.
October 19, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A multi-national partnership led by South Korean researchers soon may be cloning human cells to generate embryonic stem cells for research intended to lead to insights into various...

Breast cancer drug therapy can be limited.
October 19, 2005... Byline: CHARLENE LAINO DENVER, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Most breast-cancer patients do not need to take another hormone drug after completing five years of standard tamoxifen treatment, researchers said Tuesday, in findings that could slash drug...

Analysis: Stem-cell findings move senators.
October 19, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Opponents of embryonic stem-cell research have been emboldened by recent experiments in which scientists succeeded in extracting the cells without destroying the embryos containing them....

Ped Med: Counting ways to trim the fat.
October 19, 2005... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ How do we get our children down to a healthy dress/pants size? Let us count the ways. "The burden placed on our society by obesity and related chronic diseases is enormous," said Dr. William Dietz, director of...

Committee hedges on biodefense bill.
October 19, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Senators have backed a new measure designed to boost medical preparedness against terrorist attacks, though lawmakers remain divided on several key issues. Members of the Health,...

Group pushes electronic medical records.
October 19, 2005... Byline: ANNA CARBINO WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Making healthcare information more efficient and accessible to individuals is the vision of participants at "Accelerating Transformation through Health IT," a conference hosted in...

Eat To Live: It's official -- fish is good.
October 19, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON The good news is that eating fish is good for us. The bad news is that eating fish can be very bad for us. The bottom line is the benefits outweigh the risks. In a study published Wednesday in the American Journal...

Radiation eases shingles pain.
October 19, 2005... Byline: CHARLENE LAINO DENVER, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Radiation therapy can help ease the potentially debilitating pain of shingles, researchers reported. "Radiation is a safe and efficient therapy that could be a cost-effective alternative...

HealthWrap: Of stomachs and superbugs.
October 19, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Maybe you can't be too rich, but it now appears you can be too thin and too clean. New studies suggest that the increasingly popular stomach surgery to reduce obesity is far riskier than previously believed, with...

Radiation adjustment can stop hair loss.
October 19, 2005... Byline: EDWARD SUSMAN DENVER, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Adjusting the application of radiation technology could prevent hair loss in patients treated for brain tumors, researchers reported Wednesday. Hair loss is one of the more socially and...

Annual PSA tests shown to save lives.
October 20, 2005... Byline: CHARLENE LAINO DENVER, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Men who do not have yearly PSA tests are three times more likely to die from prostate cancer than those who undergo the annual screenings, new research has found. PSA screening is one of...

FluWrap: Israel, Jordan plan response.
October 20, 2005... Byline: KATE WALKER The fight against bird flu may be easier than first thought, thanks to a test developed by an avian virologist at Penn State University. The rapid diagnostic test, known as dot-ELISA, is capable of testing for all...