Every year around the world an estimated 100,000 people die from snake bites, but thanks to something that Australian researchers stumbled upon, the survival rates may soon improve.
And it’s as simple as applying an ointment — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Scientists say they expect to soon restore sight to people suffering from one of the most common forms of blindness.
Amblyopia, or lazy eye, is the largest cause of single-eye blindness in adults affecting about 3 per cent of the population.
It can also cause the loss of vision in one eye in early childhood — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The team led by Langer and Zeitels has now developed a polymer gel that they hope to start testing in a small clinical trial next year. The gel, which mimics key traits of human vocal cords, could help millions of people with voice disorders — not just singers such as Andrews and Steven Tyler, another patient of Zeitels’ — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Scientists have proposed an intriguing new way to fight malaria: turning people into human time bombs for mosquitoes.
A cheap deworming pill used in Africa for 25 years against river blindness was recently shown to have a power that scientists had long suspected but never before demonstrated in the field: When mosquitoes bite people who have recently swallowed the drug — called ivermectin or Mectizan — they die — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A gene has been linked to 70% of hard-to-treat breast cancers which are resistant to hormone therapies, in US research.
The study published in Nature used a new technique which tested hundreds of genes at once, rather than one at a time.
Scientists said there was a lot of potential for significant impact
if drugs could be developed.
Cancer Research UK said it would be interesting to see where the study led — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Médecins Sans Frontières has lashed out at the CIA for using a fake vaccination programme as a cover to spy on Osama bin Laden on Thursday, saying it threatened life-saving immunisation work around the world.
The international medical aid charity said the ploy used by US intelligence, revealed this week in the Guardian, was a grave manipulation of the medical act
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
Doctors are being warned not to befriend patients on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter because of the risk that this could breach rules on confidentiality.
The British Medical Association said medical staff and students should reject any approaches by current and former patients to avoid the risk of blurring the boundaries of the doctor-patient relationship — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The ability to breathe has been restored to mice with spinal cord injuries, in what US researchers describe as a medical first — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has issued a warning about the latest generation of oral contraceptive pill.
The British Medical Journal recently published two reports warning that women on the fourth generation pill are more likely to develop life-threatening blood clots.
The studies looked at pills containing drospirenone, marketed in Australia as Yasmin and Yaz — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A set of glasses packed with technology normally seen in smartphones and games consoles is the main draw at one of the featured stands at this year’s Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.
But the exhibit isn’t about the latest gadget must-have, it’s all about aiding those with poor vision and giving them greater independence — via redwolf.newsvine.com
John Z is 28, and wrote this a year ago. He’s married to Sarah, with three kids at time of writing; Harry (4.5) Charlie (2) and Ruth (3mths). He has Asperger’s syndrome and prefers to share this sort of thing pseudonymously. He was very angry when he wrote this — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Women with repeated miscarriages can be reassured that their chance of having a healthy baby is the same as women who have never miscarried, say experts — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A leading international neuroscientist has criticised the Australian Government’s commitment to funding research into dementia.
More than 250,000 Australians suffer dementia and that number is expected to balloon to almost 1 million by 2050 as the population ages.
With 1,500 new cases each week in Australia, dementia is described as an impending epidemic — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Mounting evidence suggests there is no link between mobile phones and brain cancer, according to a review by the Institute of Cancer Research — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Scientists in Melbourne say they have found out why a high proportion of people with HIV develop dementia — via redwolf.newsvine.com
An extreme eight-week diet of 600 calories a day can reverse Type 2 diabetes in people newly diagnosed with the disease, says a Diabetologia study.
Newcastle University researchers found the low-calorie diet reduced fat levels in the pancreas and liver, which helped insulin production return to normal.
Seven out of 11 people studied were free of diabetes three months later, say findings published in the journal.
More research is needed to see whether the reversal is permanent, say experts — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A chemical compound found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and brussels sprouts, selectively kills cancer cells, scientists have found — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Naki’o is the first dog to be fitted with a complete set of bionic legs that work naturally to allow him to run, jump and even swim. The prosthetics were designed and fitted in a pioneering procedure by Martin Kaufmann, founder of Orthopets
The home-made drug that Oleg and Sasha inject is known as krokodil, or crocodile
. It is desomorphine, a synthetic opiate many times more powerful than heroin that is created from a complex chain of mixing and chemical reactions, which the addicts perform from memory several times a day. While heroin costs from £20 to £60 per dose, desomorphine can be cooked
from codeine-based headache pills that cost £2 per pack, and other household ingredients available cheaply from the markets.
It is a drug for the poor, and its effects are horrific. It was given its reptilian name because its poisonous ingredients quickly turn the skin scaly. Worse follows. Oleg and Sasha have not been using for long, but Oleg has rotting sores on the back of his neck.
Photographs of late-stage krokodil addicts are disturbing in the extreme. Flesh goes grey and peels away to leave bones exposed. People literally rot to death — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A new study has found that high caffeine use, combined with stress, can cause people to exhibit psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.
The research suggests that around five coffees, or the equivalent of 200mg of caffeine, may be enough to tip people over the edge and cause psychotic-like symptoms — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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