Link between health care spending, quality unclear

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Whether states, hospitals and smaller practices that spend more money on health care provide better treatment is still an open question, according to a new review of past studies.“This is really one of the central issues we’re grappling with today in health care,” said Peter Hussey from the RAND Corporation in Arlington, Virginia.The topic is especially pressing because...

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Brain image study: Fructose may spur overeating

This is your brain on sugar — for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn’t register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found.It’s a small study and does not prove...

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FDA approves Salix’s diarrhea drug for HIV/AIDS patients

(Reuters) – U.S. health regulators approved Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd‘s drug to treat diarrhea in HIV/AIDS patients on antiretroviral therapy, a combination of medicines used to treat HIV infection.Diarrhea is a common reason why HIV/AIDS patients discontinue or switch their antiretroviral therapies.The drug, called Fulyzaq, is intended to be used in HIV/AIDS patients whose diarrhea is not caused...

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Democrats, Republicans apart on key “fiscal cliff” issues: Reid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Sunday that Democrats and Republicans still had key differences in talks to avert a looming year-end “fiscal cliff,” and he had not been able to make a counteroffer to the latest Republican proposal.“I’ve had a number of conversations with the president and at this stage we’re not able to make a counteroffer,” Reid said on the Senate...

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Brazil president, cancer survivor, pronounced healthy

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who survived lymphoma cancer in 2009, was pronounced healthy by doctors after a routine exam on Friday.Rousseff’s health was “within normal levels,” according to a statement released by her office following the check-up at the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo, one of South America‘s leading cancer treatment centers.Rousseff underwent chemotherapy...

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House sets Sunday session as “fiscal cliff” deadline nears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives will return to Washington on Sunday night, just over a day before income tax rates are set to spike higher, in a last-ditch chance to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff.”Senior Republican aides confirmed that House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday told members to be back in Washington in time for a 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT) legislative session on Sunday.The...

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Web-based info may not increase cancer screening

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Offering women information on colon cancer screening via the web does not get them to take up screening any more effectively than printed materials, according to a new study.“It’s disappointing that the web didn’t have more effect,” said Dr. David Weinberg of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, the report’s lead author.Although the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force...

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Wife’s Garbled Text a Sign of Stroke

Dec 25, 2012 12:57pmSending garbled texts may be a sign of stroke. Image credit: Stone/Getty Images.Smartphone autocorrect is famous for scrambling messages into unintelligible gibberish but when one man received this garbled text from his 11-week-pregnant wife, it alarmed him:“every where thinging days nighing,” her text read. “Some is where!”Though that may sound like every text you’ve ever received,...

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Truth About Santa Still Stings Adults

Emily Charlton, as a wide-eyed fourth grader, said she felt betrayed by her classmates on her elementary school playground during recess just before the holidays.“It was a day or two before Christmas break so we were talking about what we had asked for and I remember saying at one point, ‘Well I asked Santa for…’ and everyone started laughing,” said Charlton, now a 29-year-old waitress from San Diego....

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Fear, finger-pointing mount over U.S. fiscal cliff

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. lawmakers voiced rising fear on Sunday that the country would go over “the fiscal cliff” in nine days, triggering harsh spending cuts and tax hikes, and some Republicans charged that was President Barack Obama‘s goal.“It’s the first time that I feel it’s more likely that we will go over the cliff than not,” Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said...

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Hepatitis C tests continue after NH tech’s arrest

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Hospitals across the country recommended hepatitis C testing for about 7,900 patients last summer after a traveling medical worker was accused of stealing drugs and infecting patients with tainted syringes in New Hampshire. But five months later, nearly half of those who were possibly exposed to the liver-destroying disease in other states have yet to be tested.Described by prosecutors...

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Gilead A Strong Buy On New HIV Treatments

By Jordo Bivona – December 21, 2012 | Tickers: BMY, GILD, YMI | 0 CommentsJordo is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.Despite the expiration of some of its HIV patents in 2018, Gilead Sciences’ (NASDAQ: GILD) new HIV treatments will enable the company to extend its HIV-based profitability for...

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Spartan Bioscience Announces 6,000-Patient Study of Personalized Medicine for Cardiac Stents

Landmark clinical trial begins for rapid DNA testing and personalized anti-blood clotting drugs.Ottawa, Ontario (PRWEB) December 20, 2012Spartan Bioscience today announced the start of a 5,945-patient study of personalized medicine for cardiac stent patients. The study is sponsored by the Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic and is entitled “Tailored Antiplatelet Initiation to Lessen...

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Court approves Amgen’s $762 million payment in drug case

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday approved a $ 762 million payment from Amgen Inc, the final step to resolve nearly a dozen criminal and civil cases stemming from the sale of its once-blockbuster anemia drug Aranesp and several others.Prosecutors previously said in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday the company had agreed to pay $ 612 million in a civil settlement, a $ 14 million criminal...

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Watch: ‘Kings Park’: Stories From an American Mental Institution

Home > Video > Health > Health News‘Kings Park’: Stories From an American Mental Institution‘Kings Park’: Stories From an American Mental InstitutionDocumentary revisits shuttered state hospital on New York’s Long Island.Quadriplegic Mom Uses Thoughts to Control Robotic ArmQuadriplegic Mom Uses Thoughts to Control Robotic ArmJan Scheuermann, 52, can now feed herself thanks to technology from...

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Teva to enter Korean drugs market with Handok venture

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has entered into a joint venture with Handok Pharmaceuticals, aiming to gain a foothold in the $ 14 billion Korean market.The agreement ends months of speculation that Teva was interested in making an acquisition in South Korea, where the Israeli company noted healthcare spending is expected to reach as much as 9 percent of gross domestic...

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Analysis: Boehner opens door to tax hikes, shifts U.S. fiscal cliff talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner’s offer to accept a tax rate increase for the wealthiest Americans knocks down a key Republican road block to a deal resolving the year-end “fiscal cliff.”The question now boils down to price – which income levels, what rates and what’s offered in return. Such major questions, still unanswered so close to the end of the year...

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School murders silence “cliff” rhetoric as deadline nears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mass murder in Connecticut silenced “fiscal cliff” talk on Saturday as the White House and Congress quietly got ready for a final scramble to avert the tax hikes and spending cuts set for the New Year, with sessions of the U.S. House of Representatives now scheduled just days before Christmas.President Barack Obama canceled a trip he had planned to make next Wednesday to Portland,...

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Menopause quality of life unchanged by soy supplements

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Menopausal women who took soy supplements during a two-year trial reported no differences in quality of life compared to their counterparts taking placebo pills, U.S. researchers report.It’s possible that soy could still offer women some benefits through menopause, said the study’s lead author Dr. Paula Amato, from Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, “but...

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U.S. faces task of running dozens of health exchanges

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fourteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia so far have told the federal government they plan to operate healthcare exchanges under President Barack Obama‘s reform law, leaving Washington with the daunting task of creating online marketplaces for at least two-thirds of the country.On the eve of a federal deadline for states to say whether they will run their own exchanges,...

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