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Are Pain Medications Good for Heart Attack Patients?

Pain meds hinder heart attack recovery, British scientists say. Heart attack patients are routinely given morphine to ease the stabbing pain in the chest, which can be severe. But a new study from British researchers finds that giving pain medication to heart attack patients actually gets in the way of their recovery.

It turns out that the pain works as a signal to stem cells to begin repair on damaged heart cells, the scientists say in their new report, published in April issue of the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation. And when morphine is used to relieve pain, it blocks the healing work of stem cells — slashing the chances of survival for heart attack victims.

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How to Prevent Breast Cancer Recurrence? Cruciferous Vegetables!

Eating cruciferous vegetables lowers death risk from breast cancer and recurrence, study shows. Higher consumption of cruciferous vegetables — broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale and cabbage — reduced breast cancer death rates, a large Chinese study found, suggesting that women diagnosed with breast cancer are more likely to survive if they ate more of these vegetables.

Researchers from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention adjusted for other factors that might influence women’s outcomes — including demographics, exercise, clinical characteristics and additional dietary behaviors. They still found that women who ate cruciferous vegetables during the first 36 months after they were diagnosed with breast cancer gained a reduced risk for death — either from breast cancer or from other causes. They also had a reduced risk for cancer recurrence.

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Global Warming, Ticks, and Lyme Disease

Global Warming, Ticks, and Lyme Disease. Is climate change causing an infestation of ticks? Yes, scientists say. So if you’re thinking of hunting, trekking, hiking, camping or going on some other outdoor activity this summer, take extra precautions. The United States Centers for Disease Control warns that the tick population is expected to pose a far greater threat of Lyme disease transmission this spring.

Researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York also warn that people heading into the woods this spring in the Northeastern states will be at higher risk than usual of coming down with Lyme disease as insect populations are expected to swell after the warm, mild winter.

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Obese Mothers More Likely to Have Children With Autism?

A new provocative study shows that compared to healthy-weight mothers, obese women are 67 percent more likely to have a child with autism. They were also about twice as likely to have a child with another developmental disorder.

Can autism be preventable? Scientists say, yes. And autism research points to early diagnosis and intervention — as early as when the child is eight months old — as the best way to stop this disabling brain disorder in its tracks.

But really being able to prevent autism requires a complete understanding of its causes — and scientists are still putting together that picture, despite intensive research for many decades.

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Health Risks of Child or Teenage Pregnancy

Health Risks of Child or Teenage Pregnancy. A 10-year-old tribal girl from Colombia gave birth on April 6 to her five-pound daughter by Cesarean section, sparking global outrage for becoming one of the youngest mothers in recorded history.

The unnamed girl, a member of the indigenous Wayuu tribe whose homeland is in northern Columbia’s La Guajira Peninsula, arrived at the hospital crying and in pain. She was 39 weeks pregnant when she underwent a C-section, Univision’s Primer Impacto reported. Most pregnancies are 38 weeks.

The baby was otherwise healthy, despite the fact that the new mom reportedly refused to breastfeed her newborn. The child-mom was also doing fine — even if the first time she saw a doctor during her pregnancy was on the day she gave birth. The pair had to be confined for a few days at the neo-natal unit of an undisclosed Columbia hospital.

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How to Stop Leukemia from Returning? Block β-catenin Pathway

Target stem cells to prevent leukemia’s return, Harvard scientists say. Usually, stem cells are seen as the “good guys,” and today, research into their regenerative properties is at an all time high. As the “building blocks” of the body that can go on to develop into blood, bone, brain and body organ tissues — they are seen as a potential renewable source of replacement tissues to treat many ailments for which there is no cure, or for which few treatments exist.

But where leukemia is concerned, stem cells are both the “good” and the “bad” guys. As the “good guys,” they are used in the bone marrow transplantation to treat this blood cancer.

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