ReWalk: First and Only Exoskeleton Cleared by FDA — FDA allows marketing of first wearable, motorized device that helps people with certain spinal cord injuries to walk – Exoskeleton leader ReWalk Robotics announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the company’s ReWalk Personal System for use at home and in the community.
US CDC says more lab workers may have been exposed to anthrax – CDC announced that approximately 75 Atlanta-based staff are being monitored or provided antibiotics because they may have been unintentionally exposed to live Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) after established safety practices were not followed.
Ten new e-cigarette brands and over 240 new flavors appear monthly on the web — Older brands more likely to push health and price; newer ones focus on consumer choice – 10 new brands and more than 240 new flavours of e-cigarette are coming to market every month, reveals a new study. The study is one of nine pieces of research on e-cigarettes to come out of the State and Community Tobacco Control Research (SCTC) Initiative, funded by the US National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
How to prevent disparities in colon cancer screening – People living in poverty are less likely to be screened regularly for colorectal cancer — and more likely to develop the disease and die from it. How to end these disparities — and raise screening rates, lower disease rates, and prevent deaths?
The mammography dilemma — Complex benefits and harms of mammography require individualized approach – A comprehensive review of 50 year’s worth of international studies assessing the benefits and harms of mammography screening suggests that the benefits of the screening are often overestimated, while harms are underestimated.
REACT clinical trial supports new approach of accelerated treatment for Crohn’s disease – The final results from an international clinical trial involving nearly 2,000 patients with Crohn’s disease support the use of a new management strategy referred to as accelerated step-care as a best practice for the care of active Crohn’s disease.
Miriam Hospital study shows social gaming site effective weight loss tool – Researchers from The Miriam Hospital have found that DietBet, a web-based commercial weight loss program that pairs financial incentives with social influence, delivers significant weight losses.
First biological marker for major depression could enable better diagnosis and treatment – Teenage boys who show a combination of depressive symptoms and elevated levels of the ‘stress hormone’ cortisol are up to fourteen times more likely to develop major depression than those who show neither trait, according to a research study published.
Secondhand smoke exposure increases odds of hospital asthma readmission for children – A new study shows that exposure to secondhand smoke at home or in the car dramatically increases the odds of children being readmitted to the hospital within a year of being admitted for asthma. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, raises the possibility that measurement of tobacco exposure could be used in clinical practice to target smoking cessation efforts and reduce the likelihood of future hospitalizations.
How a versatile gut bacterium helps us get our daily dietary fiber – A common gut bacterium – Bacteroides ovatus – helps us metabolize a main component of dietary fibre xyloglucan from the cell walls of fruits and vegetables, revealed by researchers from University of British Columbia in the journal Nature.
