- THURSDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) — U.S. drug regulators said
Thursday that they were investigating whether the cholesterol-lowering
drug Vytorin might be linked to cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has informed health-care
professionals that the agency was investigating a report from the
so-called Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Aortic Stenosis (SEAS) trial of a
possible association [...]

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — A new method of identifying protein
structures related to Alzheimer's disease has been developed by
researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The research team says its computer-based technique could help in the
development of drugs that could prevent the formation of such
structures.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by two kinds of [...]

- THURSDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) — A new way of processing red
tomatoes that may boost their disease-fighting power has been developed by
Ohio State University researchers.

Red tomatoes are rich in the antioxidant lycopene, a naturally
occurring pigment believed to help prevent cancer and other chronic
diseases. The standard structure of lycopene in red tomatoes is linear,
which [...]

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — Suffering respiratory or ear
infections in early childhood, having a dog in the house as a newborn, and
even being raised in a large family all appear to increase the risk of
snoring later in life, new research suggests.

The findings may seem incidental but, the study authors point out,
snoring has [...]

- (HealthDay News) — Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy
of CenterWatch:

Melanoma

If you are 18 or older, have histologically confirmed
Stage IV melanoma, a life expectancy of greater than 12 weeks, and are
willing to provide informed consent, you may be eligible for this
study.

The research site is in Robbinsdale, Minn.

More Information

Please see http://www.centerwatch.com/patient/studies/cat791.html.
—–

Infertility

[...]

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration has approved Nplate (romiplostim), a drug that stimulates
bone marrow to make needed platelets in people with a rare bleeding
disorder called immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

The disorder, affecting about 140,000 people in the United States,
causes a low count of platelets, a component that helps [...]

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — New details about how
rheumatoid arthritis destroys bone have been uncovered by University of
Rochester Medical Center researchers, who said their findings are already
helping efforts to create new drugs to reverse the process.

Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that affects about two
million Americans, causes swelling, pain and deformity [...]

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — Gastric banding, a surgical
procedure designed to combat obesity, appears to boost the risk for
developing or exacerbating symptoms of gastro-esophageal reflux disease
(GERD).

The finding stems from a review of research on the link between obesity
and reflux. The experts concluded that gastric bypass may help reduce
GERD, but gastric banding [...]

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — Patients who smoke are more
likely to develop bleeding after throat surgery, a U.S. study finds.

This increased risk was noted in patients who had
uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) — a procedure in which excess tissue is
removed from the throat — with tonsillectomy, but not in patients who had
tonsillectomy alone.

The study [...]

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — Using lasers to spot troubled
teeth before cavities form, researchers hope to turn the dentist's
drill into a relic of the 20th century.

The technology, called “Raman spectroscopy” (RS), is not brand new. In
fact, scientists in other fields have long been using it to distinguish
between various chemicals, based on their [...]