Health Information

Reuters - German drug maker Bayer said on Sunday it had completed enrolling patients into a final-stage clinical study, which will test its drug Xarelto against the established but difficult-to-use treatment warfarin in preventing strokes.

AP - Doctors don’t know yet if it will take one dose or two of vaccine to protect against the new swine flu. Add that to vaccine for the regular winter flu, and it could be a multishot season for a lot of people — or a multisquirt season, for those who choose the FluMist nasal-spray version.

AP - When is swine flu just miserable and when do you need a doctor?

AP - The alarm sounded with two sneezy children in California in April. Just five months later, the never-before-seen swine flu has become the world’s dominant strain of influenza, and it’s putting a shockingly younger face on flu.

AP - Working up a sweat may be even better than angioplasty for some heart patients, experts say.

AP - An experimental drug reduces the stroke risk in patients with irregular heartbeats by more than three times, compared with the popular drug warfarin — but possibly at a cost, according to new research released Sunday.

AP - A new drug to prevent blood clots in heart patients reduced their chances of dying by more than 20 percent compared to the standard treatment, new research says.

AP - Signaling a fading chance for compromise, a leading Republican negotiator on health care legislation on Saturday criticized Democratic legislative proposals as budget-busters that would reroute Medicare spending and restrict medical choices.

HealthDay - THURSDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) — Although there is no cure
for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), starting treatment early
may slow progression of the illness and add years to the lives of
sufferers, new research finds.

HealthDay - FRIDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay News) — When you’re searching for a
friend in a crowd, it appears that your “mind’s eye” acts like a spotlight
to scan the scene in front of you until you find the right person.