"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

(Ivanhoe Newswire) –Teenagers suffering from depression who do not respond well to their first antidepressant may have a viable treatment option.

Results of a large study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health reveal teens who do not respond to a first antidepressant are more likely to respond to combination therapy — another antidepressant and psychotherapy.

Researchers observed 334 depressed teens who did not respond to treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) — paroxetine (Paxil), citalopram (Celexa) or fluoxetine (Prozac) — alone for more than two months. They report 55 percent of teens who switched from their current medication to a different SSRI plus cognitive behavioral therapy responded to treatment.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Blood testing for mood disorders may help the medical community come up with better treatments for the conditions.

Currently, there are no blood tests for mood disorders. And relying on patients to rate the severity of their symptoms and on the clinicians’ impression may limit the chances of effective treatment and new drug development.

Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine instead propose a new way to help identify blood biomarkers to help determine mood state.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Antidepressant medications like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft have become almost as common as bread and butter — but are depression rates rising, or are these medications just being overprescribed to people who don’t really need them?

A new study suggests despite the high rates of prescriptions, antidepressants only help patients suffering from severe depression. British researchers wanted to see if a patient’s response to antidepressants depends on how badly depressed they are. To do so, they reviewed clinical trials submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for four of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants. Before antidepressants are be approved by the FDA, clinical trials must be conducted to evaluate their effectiveness.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — One moment you feel fine. The next, your heart is racing at almost double the pace. Atrial fibrillation affects more than two million Americans. Although it is the most common arrhythmia, medicines for the condition only work about half the time. Now, researchers are testing a new tool that may help put a patient’s heart back on track.

Fifty-six year old Tom Calvaresi is the driving force behind his family winery. So when his heart started feeling funny, he didn’t ignore it.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Water is not only good for your body — it’s good for the police! The general location a person drank water is recorded in their hair, showing where they have been in recent weeks and years. This could help police track the past movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims.

“You are what you eat and drink — and that is recorded in your hair,” co-author Thure Cerling, University of Utah, was quoted as saying.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — The next time you have a bad hair day, think twice before you point fingers at the weather … your genes may be to blame!

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have uncovered a gene involved in determining hair texture in humans. Mutations in the P2RY5 gene cause hereditary “wooly” hair — hair that is coarse, dry, tightly curled and sparse.

Since wooly hair is most commonly found in Pakistani families, researchers performed a genetic analysis of six families of Pakistani origin with hereditary wooly hair. The mutated P2RY5 gene was clearly found mutated and deemed the cause for the family’s hair texture.

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How the Allergist/Immunologist Can Help: Consultation and Referral Guidelines Citing the Evidence. Allergic disease affects more than 50 million people in the United States, and is

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Some California physicians say a recent settlement between a Ventura hospital and the Dept. of Justice underscores the importance of a self-governing medical staff.

Community Memorial Hospital in December 2007 agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the facility gave improper gifts, loans and payments to some doctors in exchange for Medicare patient referrals. No doctors were named in the agreement, and the hospital did not admit any wrongdoing. Community Memorial administrators voluntarily disclosed the financial relationships, which took place under the hospital’s former leadership.

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Fewer children outgrowing allergies to milk, eggs Wed, Dec 26, 2007 (HealthDay News) Childhood milk and egg allergies may be more persistent and harder to outgrow than they

PCRM >> News and Media Center >> Nutrition Experts Tell Top U.S
In January, PCRM unveiled a new educational campaign ( www.StrongBones.org ) to dispel dairy industry myths about how much calcium children need as well as milk’s ability to

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(Ivanhoe Newswire)  Now that the FDA has declared meat and milk from cloned animals is safe to eat, a number of companies are producing cloned animals for the livestock industry.  Some are already marketing semen from clones.

A poll done by Consumers Union found that 89 percent of consumers want their food labeled to indicate whether it’s from cloned animals.   But should access to DNA from every unique clone be made public?  Patrick Cunningham of Dublin’s Trinity College and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government of Ireland thinks so.