Culture

Doctors are encouraging people to take advantage of Christmas gatherings with relatives to discuss family medical histories to help tackle ill-health.

The call from clinical academics follows a study which shows that individuals with a family history of premature heart disease – heart attacks or stroke in a first degree relative before the age of 60 years – continue to have a higher risk of dying despite earlier referral to GPs, lifestyle changes and drug treatments.

Washington, DC—About 8.8 percent of the privately insured population in 2012 had diabetes or was diagnosed as being at high risk for diabetes, up from 8.3 percent in 2011, but the rates of disease varied depending on age, gender and region of the country, says a new report from HCCI. In 2012, over one quarter of men between the ages of 55-64 and nearly one in 10 Southerners had diabetes or were at risk for diabetes.

Hong Kong, China -- Research presented today at the 4th Asia-Pacific Osteoporosis Meeting showed that second hip fractures are more deadly than first hip fractures. Based in Hong Kong, the study evaluated the overall incidence of a second hip fracture and subsequent mortality in 43,832 patients, aged 65 or above, with operatively treated first hip fracture during the years 2000-2011. The patients' mean age was 82±7.38 and the male to female ratio was 3:7. A total of 2,399 second hip fractures were identified.

Hong Kong, China -- A cross-sectional study by investigators from Tokyo University has found that exercising in middle age is a protective factor against sarcopenia and effective in maintaining muscle strength and physical performance. Sarcopenia is a disease associated with the ageing process, resulting in loss of skeletal muscle mass and muscle strength and/or function in the elderly. The multiple adverse health outcomes include physical disability, poor quality of life and premature death.

One in five people believes that doctors should be allowed to help the elderly who are not seriously ill, but who are tired of living, to die, if that is their stated wish, reveals research published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

And one in three thinks that the oldest old should be allowed to take a pill to end their life if that's what they want to do, the study shows.

The findings are based on the survey responses of just under 2000 members of the general public in The Netherlands, where physician assisted suicide has been legal since 2002.

DARIEN, IL – A new study suggests that treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy improves golf performance in middle-aged men.

A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team has discovered a possible mechanism behind the elevated risk of cardiovascular disease in women infected with HIV, a risk even higher than that of HIV-infected men. In the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases the investigators report finding that HIV-infected women had a greater prevalence of the type of coronary artery plaque most vulnerable to rupture than did uninfected women.

WASHINGTON — In a case series seemingly tailor-made for cinematic tragedy or farce, emergency physicians report severe botulism poisoning from a batch of potato-based "wine" (also known as pruno) cooked up in a Utah prison. The study was published online Tuesday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Emergency Department Identification and Critical Care Management of a Utah Prison Botulism Outbreak") .

WASHINGTON (Dec. 13, 2013) – Researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have identified a new method to determine whether a patient's heart will fail, which in the future may help physicians better treat patients and tailor therapeutic interventions. Their novel approach may help predict which patients with heart failure will do well and which patients will not. Heart failure affects five million individuals in the U.S.

San Francisco, CA. (December 13, 2013) – Patients receiving the widely used anesthesia drug etomidate for surgery may be at increased risk or mortality and cardiovascular events, according to a study in the December issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

SAN ANTONIO — For women with metastatic breast cancer who had elevated amounts of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in their blood after a first line of chemotherapy, switching immediately to a different chemotherapy did not improve overall survival or time to progression, according to the results of a phase III clinical trial presented here at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 10-14.

Hong Kong, China--A new study presented today at the IOF Regionals 4th Asia-Pacific Osteoporosis Meeting in Hong Kong supports widespread evidence that individuals who have suffered a fracture are at significantly increased risk of subsequent hip fractures. In fact, previous studies have shown that half of patients presenting with hip fractures have suffered a prior fracture.

Philadelphia, Pa. (December 13, 2013) – Rates of unnecessary cesarean section and other potentially risky obstetric procedures show some significant differences between rural and urban hospitals in the United States, reports a study in the January issue of Medical Care. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

James Bond's alcohol consumption may explain why he prefers his martinis "shaken, not stirred" say researchers in the Christmas edition of The BMJ this week.

That means if you have no sense of humor, you can stop reading.

They show that Bond's weekly alcohol intake is over four times the recommended limit for an adult male, putting him at high risk of several alcohol related diseases, such as alcoholic liver disease, cirrhosis, impotence, and alcohol-induced tremor, and an early death.

In a paper published in the Christmas edition of The BMJ, researchers have looked at how German composer Richard Wagner's disabling migraines and headaches influenced his operas.

As composer of frequently performed operas worldwide, Wagner's medical problems have been investigated in numerous accounts and he even described his headaches and symptoms as the "main plague of his life".

Researchers in Germany therefore wanted to show how Wagner used his suffering to compose his operas, using Siegfried as an example.