Spot in brain may control smoking urge

Spot in brain may control smoking urge

Damage to a silver dollar-sized spot deep in the brain seems to wipe out the urge to smoke, a surprising discovery that may shed important new light on addiction. The research was inspired by a stroke survivor who claimed he simply forgot his two-pack-a-day addiction _ no cravings, no nicotine patches, not even a conscious desire to quit.

"The quitting is like a light switch that went off," said Dr. Antoine Bechara of the University of Southern California, who scanned the brains of 69 smokers and ex-smokers to pinpoint the region involved. "This is very striking."
Clearly brain damage isn't a treatment option for people struggling to kick the habit.
But the finding, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, does point scientists toward new ways to develop anti-smoking aids by targeting this little-known brain region called the insula. And it sparked excitement among addiction specialists who expect the insula to play a key role in other addictions, too.

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Advisers nix new birth control rules

Advisers nix new birth control rules

Birth control pills sometimes fail, but setting limits on how often that could happen would put newer, low-dose contraceptives off limits to women, federal health advisers said Wednesday.



The lower-dose pills are less effective at preventing pregnancy than the first oral contraceptives approved beginning in 1960. Yet the newer drugs offer other health benefits or cause fewer side effects. That has split federal health officials on the need to define a pregnancy or failure rate that would be unacceptably high for next-generation pills.
Throughout the 1960s, the earliest birth control pills to win Food and Drug Administration approval failed just once per 100 woman-years of use. That is, for every 100 women taking the pills for a year, there was fewer than one pregnancy on average among them.

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UK schools "must tell parents" if children are obese

UK schools "must tell parents" if children are obese
Primary schools should inform parents if their children are overweight or obese, an influential group of MPs said on Thursday.


Failure to do so would result in the parents being kept "in the dark about possible serious health risks to their children," the Committee of Public Accounts warned in a report entitled "Tackling Child Obesity - First Steps."
How the information will be presented to the parents will be up to the Department of Health to decide, the report added.
However, the department, which has been against providing such information in the past because of fears over a child's stigmatization and bullying, has yet to settle on the best method.
Information on four and 11-year-olds has already been gathered as part of the department's weighing and measuring program begun last summer.

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Analysis confirms ED drugs

Analysis confirms ED drugs OK for diabetic men
Viagra and similar drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction, often referred to as ED, work for men with diabetes and appear to be safe, according to a research review being published Wednesday.


Diabetes is one of the most common causes of ED, and experts estimate that diabetic men are about three times more likely than other men to deal with erection problems at some point.
ED is also typically more severe and difficult to treat in men with diabetes, Dr. Moshe Vardi, of Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center in Israel, told Reuters Health.
To assess the safety and effectiveness of ED drugs for diabetic men, Vardi's team reviewed eight clinical trials conducted since 1998. Each compared one of three ED drugs on the market -- Viagra, Levitra or Cialis -- with a placebo, or inactive pill.

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