Radio waves treat asthma
A technique that uses heat from radio waves to open asthma sufferers' airways has had encouraging results after two years of tests. Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, now plan a five-year study of what's called bronchial thermoplasty. The therapy boosted adult asthma patients' lung capacity and airway responsiveness, and increased their number of symptom-free days, according to healthday.com. The treatment entails three, 30-minute sessions during which radio waves are applied directly to the airways through a bronchoscope. The energy heats the tissue just enough to open the airways, without scarring.
Bonanza in 'off-label' drugs
As many as one in five prescriptions for popular drugs written by doctors in the US are for symptoms or diseases the drugs aren't specifically approved to treat. According to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, about 150 million such scripts in 2001 were for so-called off-label uses. About 100 million had 'little or no scientific support', according to medpage.com. The study included the 100 most commonly prescribed drugs and 60 others chosen at random.
Exercise calms the nerves
Being forced to stop exercising for a fortnight won't affect your fitness much - but it may well leave you tired, tense, irritable, moody and even depressed. According to Reuters, researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, say exercise may be calming because it shifts the balance from the sympathetic nervous system, which triggers the 'fight or flight response', towards the parasympathetic nervous system, which quiets the body. The study of 40 people who usually exercise regularly is reported in Psychosomatic Medicine. 'Exercise ... basically lets you calm down more efficiently,' says team leader Ali A. Berlin.