The American health care sector accounts for 8 percent of the country`s carbon dioxide emissions, according to a first-of-its-kind calculation of health care`s carbon footprint. ...

New Mayo Clinic research studied the association between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and prostate size and found that routine annual evaluation of prostate growth is not necessarily a predictor for the development of prostate cancer. However the study suggests that if a man`s PSA level is rising quickly, a prostate biopsy is reasonable to determine if he has prostate cancer. These findi...

The effectiveness of a screening colonoscopy may depend on the time of day it is performed. According to a new UCLA study, early-morning colonoscopies yielded more polyps per patient than later screenings, and fewer polyps were found hour by hour as the day progressed. The findings, published in the November issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, point to the need for more ...

Dartmouth computer scientist Hany Farid has new evidence regarding a photograph of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Farid, a pioneer in the field of digital forensics, digitally analyzed an iconic image of Oswald pictured in a backyard setting holding a rifle in one hand and Marxist newspapers in the other. Oswald and others claimed that the incriminating photo was a fake, notin...

Most biopsies following mammograms reveal benign abnormalities, not cancer. But women may not have to endure the medical costs, stress and potential complications that accompany such invasive biopsies forever. A University of Florida biomedical engineering researcher is making progress on an "optical biopsy" that has the potential to determine whether growths are cancerous without ever p...

According to the Institute of Medicine, more than 90 million Americans suffer from low health literacy, a mismatch between patients` abilities to understand healthcare information and providers` abilities to communicate complex medical information in an understandable manner. In two recent studies, researchers at the University of Missouri found that two groups — those with limited English p...

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that a sometimes deadly stomach bug, Clostridium difficile, is on the rise in outpatient settings. Clostridium difficile is a serious bacteria that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. These findings were presented October 26 at the 2009 American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Annual Meeting in San Diego. Clos...

A new study has found that chronic disruption of one of the most basic circadian (daily) rhythms — the day/night cycle — leads to weight gain, impulsivity, slower thinking, and other physiological and behavioral changes in mice, similar to those observed in people who experience shift work or jet lag. The research, presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for N...

Compared to the general population, patients starting dialysis have an increased risk of death that is not attributable to a higher rate of death from cardiovascular causes, as previously thought, according to a study in the October 28 issue of JAMA. Several studies have shown that cardiovascular disease accounts for 40 percent to 50 percent of deaths in patients with end-stage kidney disease, acc...

Globalisation and industrialisation are causing diseases to spread from humans to animals, a study has shown. Researchers from The Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh have shown that a strain of bacteria has jumped from humans to chickens. It is believed to be the first clear evidence of bacterial pathogens crossing over from humans to animals and then spreading since animals were firs...