A compound extracted from broccoli sprouts may improve some social and behavioral problems that affect people with autism. The study was short-term and small, including just over 40 teenage boys and young men with autism. And experts stressed that no one is saying broccoli or its extracts is a magic bullet. It's also important to note that not everyone responded to the treatment. About one-third of those treated with the compound didn't have a positive response.
Federal and local health officials said Monday that they were re-examining infection-control efforts at the Dallas hospital where a nurse contracted Ebola while caring for America's first diagnosed victim of the deadly disease. The goal: To see if further refinements are needed on the so-called "infection-control protocols" designed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for treating Ebola patients. However, CDC officials insisted that their infection-control guidelines have proven effective when treating Ebola patients in the past. CDC officials in Texas also are conducting an extensive investigation to determine how many other health care workers might have been exposed to Ebola.
Cigarette smoking accounts for approximately 14 million major medical conditions that plague the lives of U.S. adults. For each annual death, there are 15 to 20 people living with major disease caused by smoking. Smoking not only will kill you, it will damage your health and make your life worse. Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, often causing multiple serious illnesses such as emphysema, diabetes and colon cancer. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is the illness most tightly linked to smoking. About 7.5 million U.S. adults suffer from smoking-related COPD, which makes it harder and harder to draw breath as time passes.
Extra pounds cause the liver to age faster, potentially explaining why obesity is linked to diseases like liver cancer and insulin resistance. It's not clear if this aging directly translates to higher risks of certain diseases. Still, it's possible that "people whose liver is much older than expected need to be screened more carefully for various diseases even if they managed to lose a lot of weight.  The goal of the new study was to "understand why we age.