Proton Pump Inhibitors Raise Fracture Risk In Older Women
According to an investigation published on bmj.com, hip fractures are 35% more likely to occur in post-menopausal women if they take indigestion medications, known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). This figure rises to 50% if the women are former or current smokers. Globally, PPIs are one of the most prevalent drugs used, and are often used to treat acid reflex and heartburn...

The Leading Cause Of Infection Outbreaks In US Hospitals Is Norovirus
Norovirus, a pathogen that often causes food poisoning and gastroenteritis, was responsible for 18.2 percent of all infection outbreaks and 65 percent of ward closures in U.S...

Obesity-Related Diseases In Adolescents Improves With Bariatric Surgery Within First Two Years
Today, about one in five children in the United States are obese. That means that in just one generation alone the number of obese kids in this country has quadrupled...

Indigestion Medications Raise Hip Fracture Risk In Post-menopausal Females
PPIs (proton pump inhibitors), medications taken for indigestion, can raise the risk of hip fractures by 35% in post-menopausal women, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital reported in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). The authors added that women who smoke or used to smoke have a 50% higher risk of hip fractures when taking PPIs...

Barrett's Patients Who Smoke Are Twice As Likely To Develop Esophageal Cancer
Barrett's esophagus (BE) patients who smoke tobacco are at a two-fold increased risk of developing esophageal cancer, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. BE patients who smoke also double their risk for developing advanced precancerous cells...

How Cholera Bacterium Gains A Foothold In The Gut
A team of biologists at the University of York has made an important advance in our understanding of the way cholera attacks the body. The discovery could help scientists target treatments for the globally significant intestinal disease which kills more than 100,000 people every year...

Research Shows Bedwetting Can Be Due To Undiagnosed Constipation
Bedwetting isn't always due to problems with the bladder, according to new research by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Constipation is often the culprit; and if it isn't diagnosed, children and their parents must endure an unnecessarily long, costly and difficult quest to cure nighttime wetting...

Live Liver Donations Confirmed As Safe
According to Johns Hopkins researchers, individuals who donate a portion of their liver for live transplantation usually recover safely from the procedure and can expect to live long, healthy lives. The study is published in the February issue of the journal Gastroenterology. Dorry L. Segev, M.D., Ph.D...

Researchers Challenge Commonly-Held Beliefs About The Causes Of Diverticulosis
For more than 40 years, scientists and physicians have thought eating a high-fiber diet lowered a person's risk of diverticulosis, a disease of the large intestine in which pouches develop in the colon wall. A new study of more than 2,000 people reveals the opposite may be true...

Discovery Of High Risk Oesophageal Cancer Gene
New research from Queen Mary, University of London has uncovered a gene which plays a key role in the development of oesophageal cancer (cancer of the gullet). The researchers studied families who suffer a rare inherited condition making them highly susceptible to the disease and found that a fault in a single gene was responsible...

Novel Gene Mutations Associated With Bile Duct Cancer Could Lead To Targeted Treatment
Investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center have identified a new genetic signature associated with bile duct cancer, a usually deadly tumor for which effective treatment currently is limited...

Kidney Failure, Gastrointestinal Bleeding And Dialysis
Bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract causes serious health problems - and even early deaths - for many patients with kidney failure, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The findings indicate that greater efforts are needed to prevent and treat upper GI bleeding in these patients...

Regorafenib Does Well In Metastatic Colorectal Trial
The latest results on Bayer HealthCare's investigational compound regorafenib (BAY 73-4506) from the international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III CORRECT (Colorectal cancer treated with regorafenib or place after failure of standard therapy) trial have been announced by Bayer HealthCare...

Oesophageal Cancer Gene Found
UK researchers have found a gene that plays an important part in the development of oesophageal cancer or cancer of the gullet. They announced their news to the press on Thursday. Every year, more than 8,000 people in the UK discover they have oesophageal cancer, and the rates are going up. The disease is more common in the UK than other European countries...

New Advances Aimed At Improving Treatment, Prognosis And Detection Of GI Cancers: 2012 Gastroinstestinal Cancers Symposium
New research into the treatment, prognosis and early detection of gastrointestinal cancers was released in advance of the ninth annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium being held January 19-21, 2012, at The Moscone West Building in San Francisco, Calif...