All medicine + health stories

Grapefruit compound may help combat hepatitis C infection

yvette — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:44:36 -0500

A compound that naturally occurs in grapefruit and other citrus fruits may be able to block the secretion of hepatitis C virus (HCV) from infected cells, a process required to maintain chronic infection. A team of researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine (MGH-CEM) report that HCV is bound to very low-density lipoprotein (vLDL, a so-called “bad” cholesterol) when it is secreted from liver cells and that the viral secretion required to pass infection to other cells may be blocked by the common read more

Drug based on MGH discovery may significantly improve treatment of dangerous blood disorder

yvette — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:51:43 -0500

Two clinical trials of the novel drug romiplostim (Nplate) show that it significantly improved platelet levels in patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a hematologic disorder that can cause uncontrolled bleeding. An international research team reports Phase 3 trial results for the drug, which duplicates the action of a natural hormone discovered by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigator, in the February 2 issue of The Lancet.

Peter Black named President-Elect of World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies

404132862 — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:01:56 -0500

Peter Black, MD, PhD, Franc D. Ingraham Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and founding chair of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Neurosurgery has been elected President-Elect of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), a professional and scientific nongovernmental organization composed of five continental associations, 89 national neurosurgical societies and six affiliate societies representing approximately 25,000 neurosurgeons worldwide.

Symposium addresses disparities in Native American health care

404132862 — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:46:01 -0500

Sunshine Dwojak, a fourth-year Harvard Medical School student, was 26 when her mother died of heart disease, leaving behind three children. Dwojak’s mother was 48.

“My grandmother said our family ‘just wasn’t lucky,’ and my aunt said that ‘longevity doesn’t run in our family,’” Dwojak said. Growing up, she saw many of her family members suffer from mental illness, heart disease, diabetes, and substance abuse.

Percentage of Katrina survivors with mental disorders increasing

404132862 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 13:15:53 -0500

According to the most comprehensive survey yet conducted of people affected by Hurricane Katrina, the percentage of pre-hurricane residents of the affected areas in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi who have mental disorders has increased significantly compared to the situation five to eight months after the hurricane.

Improving women's health key Indian strategy

jake — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:16:46 -0400

Detailed research of Indian health disparities has revealed that significant differences in access to health care exist even within families, with the health and nutrition of women and girls taking a backseat to that of men and boys.

That was the picture painted Monday (Oct. 22) by Gita Sen of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India, and an adjunct lecturer on population and international health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

Sen was one of the speakers at a two-day symposium hosted by the Harvard School of Public Health, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Boston University’s Global Health Initiative, and Tufts University.

Shore Fellows awarded valuable time

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:33:21 -0400

N. Stuart Harris, an emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, is also an active researcher doing groundbreaking research on hypoxia — a shortage of oxygen in the body.

Stem Cell Summit draws 500 participants

404132862 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:44:43 -0400

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick Wednesday (Oct. 3) called on those attending the second day of a Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI)-sponsored Stem Cell Summit to support his proposed $1 billion life sciences initiative “so we can get partnering with you.”

While Massachusetts has a unique concentration of researchers, academic institutions, biotech companies, and investment in the life sciences, “we can’t just rest on our laurels,” Patrick said. “I ask you to make your voices heard,” the governor continued. “Make your interests known. When the bill comes out for hearings — show up.”

Weight gain between first and second pregnancies and sex ratio

404132862 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:08:13 -0400

A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, found that mothers who experienced an increase in weight from the beginning of the first pregnancy to the beginning of the second pregnancy may be slightly more likely to give birth to a baby boy during their second pregnancy. The study appears online September 24, 2007 in the journal Fertility & Sterility.

Stem cells may enhance capability of heart cells to regenerate

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:21:50 -0400

During a fatal heart attack, at least 1 billion heart cells are killed in the left ventricle, one of the heart’s two big lower pumping chambers that move blood into the body.

In less severe coronaries, dead cardiac cells are replaced by connective tissue cells that form scar tissue in the damaged heart. But the result is never very satisfactory. Scarred ventricular walls are thin, and don’t contract very well — a problem in a workhorse organ designed for sustained pumping.

Inadequate heart repair concerns British-trained developmental biologist Christine Mummery, who has made cardiac cells her specialty. She’s the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Radcliffe Fellow, and will be in residence at Harvard for a semester.

Mental disorders cause 1.3 billion ‘out of role’ days annually

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:05:24 -0400

The importance of role disability, that is, inability to work or carry out usual activities, has become increasingly recognized as a major source of indirect costs of illness because of its high economic impact on ill workers, their employers, and society. However, there is limited information on the amount of disability associated with a wide range of specific physical and mental conditions.

New findings published by Kathleen Merikangas from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Ronald Kessler from Harvard Medical School and colleagues in the October 2007 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry show that more than half of U.S. adults have a mental or physical condition that influences their role functioning.

Chili pepper cocktail points to wide-awake surgery

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:56:32 -0400

Imagine an epidural or a shot of Novocain that doesn’t paralyze your legs or make you numb yet totally blocks your pain. This type of pain management is now within reach. As a result, childbirth, surgery, and trips to the dentist might be less traumatic in the future, thanks to researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) who have succeeded in selectively blocking pain-sensing neurons in rats without interfering with other types of neurons.

The pint-sized subjects received injections near their sciatic nerves, which run down their hind limbs, and subsequently lost the ability to feel pain in their paws. But they continued to move normally and react to touch.

Research links panic and heart attack in older women

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:46:39 -0400

New research has linked panic attacks in older women with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from all causes, adding panic attacks to the growing list of mental and emotional conditions with potentially deadly physical effects.

A study of more than 3,300 women ages 51 to 83 indicated that panic attacks were relatively common, suffered by about 10 percent of those in the study. While heart attacks and strokes were relatively rare, those suffering panic attacks had four times the risk of heart attack, three times the risk of heart attack or stroke, and twice the risk of dying from any cause as those who didn’t.

Children forgotten part of AIDS picture

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:30:59 -0400

The forgotten faces of the AIDS epidemic belong to children: infected, neglected, and orphaned by a disease that ravages not only their bodies, but also their families and communities, according to a gathering of international AIDS experts Monday (Sept. 24).

Though one out of six AIDS deaths globally is a child, children are less often targeted for intervention than adults. Support for children infected or orphaned by the disease most often comes from extended family members or from organizations within their community.

Farmer, Magaziner: Get involved!

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:25:36 -0400

Physician and medical anthropologist Paul Farmer and Ira Magaziner, a one-time policy adviser in the Clinton White House, brought humor, counsel, and cautions to a public conversation on student engagement Sept. 20.

Greeting them was a packed-to-the-ceiling John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, where the crowd was noisy, young, and ready to laugh — egged on by Farmer’s explosive wit. Magaziner, measured and lugubrious, happily played the young doctor’s straight man.

Not that the panel was a laughing matter. With audience questions included, it was a 90-minute look at global health challenges and related avenues for student activism.