'Sex safe for most heart patients'

Good news: sex is safe for most heart patients. Read more >>

Preventive hemophilia A treatment reduces annual bleeding events and frequency of infusions

CHICAGO, USA: A Rush University Medical Center led international research team has announced that a treatment to prevent bleeding episodes in children with hemophilia A also is effective for adolescents and adults. Read more >>

Million pens to aid school kids

BiC has committed to donating at least one million pens to disadvantaged learners in March 2012, via its 'Choose BiC and Change a Future' campaign, which has over 20 different products carrying a campaign sticker. Each time one of these packs is sold, the company donates a pen to a disadvantaged child. The READ Educational Trust will distribute the pens to more than 200 000 schools. Read more >>

No walk in the park: factors that predict walking difficulty in elderly

[Karen N. Peart] Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that the likelihood of becoming disabled with age increases with the following factors: having a chronic condition or cognitive impairment; low physical activity; slower gross motor coordination; having poor lower-extremity function; and being hospitalized. Women are also more likely than men to become disabled in their later years. Read more >>

Limpopo hospital food supplies to be addressed

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has vowed to get to the bottom of the problems experienced in various government hospitals in Limpopo, including reports of shortage in food supplies for patients. Read more >>

Limpopo hospitals run out of food

[Russel Molefe] Some hospitals in Limpopo have been hit by food shortages, with patients now relying on relatives for daily supplies because of the apparent failure by the government to pay service providers. Read more >>

Food inflation will hurt consumers

Food price inflation is one of the main reasons that contributed to the Reserve Bank Governor, Gill Marcus' decision not to hike interest rates. Food inflation is currently 11.6%, considerably more than the overall inflation rate of 6.1%. Read more >>

Powerful people overestimate their own height

ITHACA, NY, USA: Maybe the powerful really do feel bigger than the rest of us: A recent study led by a Cornell University researcher finds that the psychological experience of power makes people feel taller than they are. Read more >>

Statins may protect against death from aneurysm, Yale study finds

[Helen Dodson] A study by Yale School of Medicine reveals that survival rates for patients with a thoracic aneurysm are significantly better, and complications are fewer, among patients who take statin cholesterol drugs than those who do not. The study appears in the American Journal of Cardiology. Read more >>

Sweeping genetic analysis of rare disease yields common mechanism of hypertension

[Bill Hathaway] Analyzing all the genes of dozens of people suffering from a rare form of hypertension, Yale University researchers have discovered a new mechanism that regulates the blood pressure of all humans. Read more >>

Autism redefined: Yale researchers study impact of proposed diagnostic criteria

Getting an autism diagnosis could be more difficult in 2013 when a revised diagnostic definition goes into effect. The proposed changes may affect the proportion of individuals who qualify for a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, according to preliminary data presented by Yale School of Medicine researchers at a meeting of the Icelandic Medical Association. Read more >>

Government departments (and Cope) get attachment orders

The Gauteng government has denied that a sheriff was detained when she arrived at the offices of Gauteng Premier, Nomvula Mokonyane's office with an attachment order to remove furniture from the premises. Read more >>

Are we compromising our children's health?

[Dr Craig Nossel] A decline in physical activity and physical education, as well as poor eating habits and increased sedentary time are leading to a significant increase in childhood obesity on one hand and stunted growth on the other. If not addressed now, the incidence of lifestyle diseases is likely to rise dramatically in the future. Read more >>

Back-street abortions on the rise, global report warns

PARIS, FRANCE: A long-term fall in the global abortion rate has tapered off and the number of unsafe pregnancy terminations is rising worryingly, according to a report published by The Lancet on Thursday, 19 January. Read more >>

Scientists reveal first 3D image of cancer prevention molecule

Cancer Research UK scientists have created the first 3D structure of a key protein that protects against the development of cancer, according to research published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology on Sunday, 22 January. Read more >>

Cancer Research UK launches 'outpatients' trial of breast and ovarian cancer drug

Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office has re-launched a trial of a promising drug to treat inherited breast and ovarian cancer - but this time taken as a tablet by outpatients. Read more >>

Digital Optometry donation supports development of optometric studies

Digital Optometry will be contributing R2 million rand to support the study of Optometry across South Africa with the donation of over R600 000 worth of optometric software, as well as a prize to the top performing optometric student participating universities. Read more >>

Children with ADHD benefit from healthy lifestyle options as first-line treatment

WINSTON-SALEM, NC, USA: Every year between 3 and 10% of school-age children in this country are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Increasingly, families are using natural or complementary therapies to improve their child's attention or behavior, and often seek advice from an integrative pediatrician, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Read more >>

Social workers seek ill breadwinners

Mpumalanga's social development department has assigned social workers to identify impoverished families whose breadwinners are too sick to work. Read more >>

Six dead in Mpuma floods

[Cobus Coetzee, Thabisile Khoza, Yvonne Silaule] The Mpumalanga provincial government has started mop-up operations and repairing damaged infrastructure after heavy rains wreaked havoc in the Lowveld last week. Read more >>