The Boston-based Christian Science Church is concerned that the Massachusetts law passed earlier this year requiring employers to provide health insurance to workers might not recognize the church's insurance plans that cover faith healing, the [click link for full article]
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A significant number of people world-wide suffer with chronic pain, which affects every aspect of their lives, and often results in depression.Researchers at Kent State University and Case Western University, led by Kent State nursing professor Wendy Lewandowski, tracked the experience of 44 patients being treated for chronic pain. [click link for full article]
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Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the most common and lethal form of lung scarring, has an outcome similar to that of lung cancer, with average survival of less than three years from diagnosis. To date, routinely available therapies have not been shown to improve survival. So, there is an urgent need for new, more effective treatments. [click link for full article]
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Liver cirrhosis is a severe disease that may affect pulmonary circulation. Occasionally, it can lead to high blood pressure in the lung vessels, a condition called portopulmonary hypertension, a serious condition leading to increasing breathlessness, progressive impairment in exercise tolerance, and early death. Liver cirrhosis patients who develop this condition are not eligible to undergo liver transplantation. [click link for full article]
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A bubble bath that improves memory. A kitchen cleaner that wards off nausea and energizes. A scented handkerchief that calms a patient entering the MRI. The benefits of aromatherapy are real. Below, learn the uses, healing properties and how-tos of using aromatherapy to heal and de-stress from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.Scan the shelves of the local bath and body stores and one is sure to find products labeled for aromatherapy. [click link for full article]
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Specialistpharmaceutical company Pharmaxis Ltd (ASX: PXS; Nasdaq: PXSL) is pleased toannounce that the U.S. Aridol Phase III clinical trial in subjects withsuspected asthma has finished recruitment. The trial was conducted in over400 subjects in 30 hospitals throughout the U.S. The trial compared Aridol with acknowledged methods for diagnosingairway responsiveness in subjects suspected of having asthma. Its designwas based on discussions with the U.S. [click link for full article]
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As millions of students with asthma pour back into the nation's classrooms over the next month, the startling results of an American Lung Association poll of parents of children with asthma reveal they are not taking basic steps to manage their child's asthma while at school. [click link for full article]
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Giving asthma patients on regular preventive* drugs the same drugs to relieve the symptoms of their condition, rather than conventional reliever** drugs, could reduce their risk of severe attacks and hospitalisations, according to an Article in this week's issue of The Lancet.In their trial, Klaus Rabe (Leiden University Medical Centre Leiden, Netherlands) and colleagues studied the effect of using of conventional preventive therapies as reliever therapies for asthma. [click link for full article]
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Childhood allergies have become more widespread around the globe since 1991, according to a large study. The most common allergies are hayfever, asthma and eczema. In the UK, a study of 1,700 children found asthma prevalence went up from 18.4% in 1991 to 20.9% in 2003 - for the same period hayfever prevalence went up from 9.8% to 10.1% and eczema rose from 13% to 16%. [click link for full article]
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Asthma is unlikely to be a single disease, so we should abolish the term altogether, states an Editorial in this week's issue of The Lancet.The word asthma originates from a Greek word that means "to breathe with mouth open or to pant." Asthma includes a range of different symptoms, such as wheezing, coughing, and difficulty breathing. The underlying cause of asthma is inflammation of the airways. [click link for full article]
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