A study published online in JAMA on Thursday suggests 7% of men and women in the US carry the Human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes a distinct form of cancer that affects the part of the throat that sits at the back of the mouth. The study suggests oral HPV infection is predominantly sexually transmitted, and estimates that men are nearly three times more likely to have the virus than women. Maura L. Gillison, Professor in the College of Medicine at Ohio State University (OSU), and others carried out the study...

According to a study published on bmj.com, heart disease or premature death is not associated with consuming food fried in sunflower or olive oil. The study was conducted in Spain, a country in the Mediterranean where sunflower or olive oil is used for frying. The researchers stress that their results would probably not be the same in countries which primarily use solid and re-used oils for frying. One of the move prevalent cooking methods in the Western Hemisphere is frying. Food absorbs the fat of the oils when fried, increasing the amount of calories in the food...

An article, which is part of the JAMA/Archives journals 'Less is More' series that is published in the January 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that in the U.S. overusing the health care services appears to be an understudied problem given that research literature is limited to only a few services and rates of overuse vary widely. Background information in the article states that overuse of medical services, as in those services that provide no benefit or where the benefits are outweighed by harm, tend to contribute to high health care costs...

Findings published Online First by Archives of Neurology, a JAMA/Archives journal, show that people who keep their brain active throughout their lives with cognitively stimulating activities like reading, writing and playing games seem to have lower levels of the β-amyloid protein, which is the major part of the amyloid plaque in Alzheimer disease. The recently developed radiopharmaceutical carbon 11-labeled Pittsburgh Compound B ([ 11 C]PiB), has enabled researchers to image fibrillar (fiber) forms of the β-amyloid (Aβ) protein. Susan M. Landau, Ph.D...

Following the AHVLA's confirmation of the discovery of Schmallenberg virus (SBV) on four sheep farms in Norfolk, Suffolk and East Sussex, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) has renewed its call for heightened vigilance. Scientists believe that the virus is vector-borne, even though they have not ruled out other routes of transmission. At the present moment, the clinical signs observed together with meteorological risk models, indicate that the four farms were affected either in summer or autumn 2011. Hereditary defects are now being seen at lambing time...

There has been a large drop in the rate of leg and foot amputations among Americans aged 40 and over with diagnosed diabetes, according to a new study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the February issue of Diabetes Care. The study reports that between 1996 and 2008 the rate of such amputations fell by 65%. The authors suggest the most likely reason for this large drop in leg and foot amputations among people with diagnosed diabetes is improvements in blood sugar control, foot care and management of diabetes...

Avastin and Sutent, two breast cancer drugs, do not lead to longer survival, probably because they encourage an increase in the number cancer stem cells in breast tumors, according to a study carried out on mice by researchers from the Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (early edition). Even though Sutent (sunitinib) and Avastin (bevacizumab) do shrink breast cancer tumors and slow down the rate at which the cancer develops, their effects are short-lived - the cancers starts growing again and metastasizes (spreads)...

The odds of a major depressive episode are more than double for those working 11 or more hours a day compared to those working seven to eight hours a day, according to a report is published in the Jan. 25 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. The authors, led by Marianna Virtanen of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London, followed about 2000 middle aged British civil servants and found a robust association between overtime work and depression...

Led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, scientists have, for the first time, created stem cell-derived, in vitro models of sporadic and hereditary Alzheimer's disease (AD), using induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with the much-dreaded neurodegenerative disorder...

Scientists studying ocean microorganisms have encountered something they have never seen before. A marine virus that cons certain photosynthetic bacteria into letting it come inside because it appears to offer a "helping hand" by bringing resources very like their own to help them acquire phosphorus, a nutrient they are desperately short of. Once inside, the virus uses the host's cellular resources to replicate itself. About ten hours later, the host cells explode and release the viral progeny back into the ocean. Qinglu Zeng and Sallie "Penny" W...

The Mayo Clinic released its study of aging report today and announced that more than six percent of Americans, aged seventy to eighty-nine years, suffered from mild cognitive impairment (MCI). They also state that the data show more men are affected than women, and those with only high school education seem more affected than those with some level of higher education. MCI is an intermediary stage between a 'normal' level of forgetfulness associated with old age, and more developed dementia caused by conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. Lead author Rosebud O. Roberts, M.B., Ch.B...

According to BMJ Careers, In April 2012, 94.2% of the emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England will be able to take on primary care trust commissioning budgets as they passed the strategic health authority (SHA) risk assessment of their configuration. Just 5.8% of groups were rated as "red" in a risk rating system that measures 4 areas relating to the size of the commissioning group, practice engagement, and shape, while 94.2% of groups were rated as "amber" or "green...

Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified a potential target for the development of anti-craving medications for people with addictions to stimulants such as methamphetamine. The discovery centres on a brain receptor related to the chemical dopamine, which has a complex role in addictive behaviours...

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that while an individual's risk of heart disease may be low in the next five or 10 years, the lifetime risk could still be very high, findings that could have implications for both clinical practice and public health policy. "The current approach to heart disease prevention focuses on only short-term risks, which can give a false sense of security, particularly to individuals in their 40s and 50s," said Dr. Jarett Berry, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center who was lead author of the study...

Ovarian cancer is a major cause of death worldwide. Approximately 25,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and 15,000 women will die from it in the United States alone. The novel anti-cancer drug diindolylmethane (DIM) has been shown in laboratory to inhibit the growth of ovarian cancer cells. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine has looked in detail at the action of DIM and showed that it works by blocking the activation and production of the transcription factor STAT3...

The total cost of asthma due to traffic-related air pollution is much higher than previous estimates, according to new research. The study, published online ahead of print in the European Respiratory Journal, has revealed the true extent of the healthcare costs associated with living close to a busy road. The researchers studied Long Beach and Riverside; two communities in Southern California that have high levels of regional air pollution and where there are large roads close to residential neighbourhoods...

Research led by scientists at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has exploited a revolutionary genetic technique to discover how human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) drugs target the parasite which causes the disease. The new knowledge could help lead to the development of better treatments for the tens of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa who are affected each year. The findings, published in Nature, are based on the simultaneous analysis of thousands of genes and the action of the five drugs effective against HAT, also known as sleeping sickness...

Limiting certain essential nutrients for several days before surgery - either protein or amino acids - may reduce the risk of serious surgical complications such as heart attack or stroke, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. The study appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of Science Translational Medicine...

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has completed a comprehensive study of an unexplained skin condition commonly referred to as Morgellons and found no infectious agent and no evidence to suggest an environmental link. The full results are reported in the Jan. 25 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. In this study, investigators took an in-depth look at a skin condition characterized by unexplained lesions that contain fibers, threads, or other foreign material, accompanied by sensations of crawling, biting, or stinging...

Tumor-targeted bioluminescent bacteria have been shown for the first time to provide accurate 3D images of tumors in mice, further advancing the potential for targeted cancer drug delivery, according to a study published in the Jan. 25 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. The specially engineered probiotic bacteria, like those found in many yoghurts, were intravenously injected into mice with tumors, after which the researchers took full body bioluminescent images...