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Drug Offers Alternative to Surgical Treatment After Miscarriage

A drug first used to reduce the risk of stomach ulcers in people taking certain types of painkillers offers an alternative to surgery after miscarriage, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and other research institutions. The study appears in the August 18, 2005, New England Journal of Med...

Discarded placentas deliver researchers promising cells similar to embryonic stem cells

Routinely discarded as medical waste, placental tissue could feasibly provide an abundant source of cells with the same potential to treat diseases and regenerate tissues as their more controversial counterparts, embryonic stem cells, suggests a University of Pittsburgh study to be published in the journal Stem Cells and available now as an early online publication in Stem Cells Express. A...

Depression model leaves mice with molecular scar

In addition to triggering a depression-like social withdrawal syndrome, repeated defeat by dominant animals leaves a mouse with an enduring "molecular scar" in its brain that could help to explain why depression is so difficult to cure, suggest researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). In mice exposed to this animal model o...

Healthy coral reefs of Madagascar resisting damage from climate change

Healthy coral reefs of Madagascar's northeast coast have so far resisted the damaging effects of warmer ocean temperatures attributed to global climate change, say scientists who recently studied the region. The survey of a previously unexplored region in March 2006 by scientists from Conservation International and its partners documented a much greater variety of life than expected, inclu...

Underweight women at greater risk of miscarriage

Women who have a low body mass index before they become pregnant are 72% more likely to suffer a miscarriage in the first three months of pregnancy, but can reduce their risk significantly by taking supplements and eating fresh fruit and vegetables, according to study findings published online today. These are some of the findings of a new study, which appears today in the online edition o...

Magnetic system could be key to surgery without scars

Physicians at UT Southwestern Medical Center and engineers at UT Arlington have collaborated to invent a groundbreaking system that could be key to delivering on the promise of surgery without scars. The new technique, which is still in the developmental stage, allows for magnetically maneuvering laparoscopic surgical tools inserted into the abdominal cavity through the bellybutton or thro...

FDA causes unnecessary scare about common painkillers

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has caused an unnecessary scare about some pain relievers by adding a warning to drugs that are safe, says Curt Furberg, M.D., Ph.D., from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. At the same time, he says the agency has failed to recognize the harm of a pain reliever that should be taken off the market. "The FDA is adding 'black box' warnings...

Living with water scarcity -- world must act now

Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind over the next 50 years. "With earth's water, land and human resources it is possible to produce enough food for the future ?but it is probable that today's food production and environmental trends will lead to crises in many parts of the world" says David Molden Dep...

New sucker-footed bat discovered in Madagascar

Scientists have discovered a new species of bat that has large flat adhesive organs, or suckers, attached to its thumbs and hind feet. This is a remarkable find because the new bat belongs to a Family of bats endemic to Madagascar--and one that was previously considered to include only one rare species. The new species, Myzopoda schliemanni, occurs only in the dry western forests of Madag...