- WEDNESDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) — People taking dopamine
agonists to treat Parkinson's disease are at risk for impulse-control
disorders such as compulsive gambling, buying and sexual behavior,
University of Pennsylvania researchers report.

In fact, people taking these particular medications are three times
more likely to engage in these behaviors compared with Parkinson's
patients not taking these drugs.

The connection [...]

- WEDNESDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) — The high blood pressure
drug losartan shows promise in treating Marfan syndrome, according to a
small study by Johns Hopkins University researchers.

Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects connective tissue.

The clinical trial of 18 children with severe Marfan syndrome found
that losartan slowed the enlargement of the aorta, the [...]

- WEDNESDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) — A new anti-clotting drug
that could be one of the long-sought alternatives to commonly used blood
thinners has performed well in hip and knee replacement patients,
physicians report.

The drug, rivaroxaban, was more effective at reducing potentially fatal
blood clots than heparin, with no increase in side effects, according to
studies by three [...]

- WEDNESDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) — A new vaccine for
rotavirus — a leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea in infants and
children — may account for this year's less severe season, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The highly contagious virus is shed in the stools of infected people
and is transmitted by [...]

ATLANTA - A federal advisory panel has endorsed a second vaccine to combat a common and potentially fatal virus that causes diarrhea and vomiting in children.
The new two-dose vaccine for infants, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in April. The vaccine advisory committee agreed Wednesday that it should be added [...]

NEW YORK - Scientists have identified a gene that may raise the risk of getting the most common kind of Alzheimer’s disease by about 45 percent in people who inherit a certain form of it.
That form of the gene appears to hamper a brain cell’s ability to take in calcium, researchers said. If drugs can [...]

Construction continues on the Freedom Tower foundations at the World Trade Center site on Friday, June 20, 2008, in New York. In addition to the tower, three office towers, a transportation hub and the Sept. 11 memorial are under construction. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK - Many of the thousands of people who have [...]

Surgeons operate to extract the liver and the kidneys from a brain-dead woman at the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (UKB) hospital in Berlin in this January 12, 2008 file photo. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) -
New guidelines are needed to inform
people about the risks of organ transplants after four organ
recipients in Chicago got HIV and hepatitis C from a [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
U.S. government experts recommended
GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Rotarix vaccine to prevent infant
diarrhea on Wednesday, giving doctors and parents two choices
of oral vaccines to protect against rotavirus.

Glaxo said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended adding
Rotarix to the choices for immunizing infants against the
sometimes deadly intestinal virus. Merck and Co [...]

A boy sits with his dog looking at the harbour beach where a swan was found dead in Cellardyke, Fife, eastern Scotland on April 6, 2006. (Nigel Roddis/Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) -
A lower IQ increases a person's risk of
developing a common form of dementia, a British study found on
Wednesday.

The study published in the journal Neurology examined
Scottish [...]