Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s experimental diabetes drug lowered blood sugar as much as an older generic medicine with fewer side effects, a company- sponsored study found.
In a trial of 426 patients with Type 2 diabetes, TAK-875 reduced blood sugar below a pre-determined level in as much as 48 percent of those receiving it after 12 weeks, compared with 40 percent of those who got glimepiride, the older drug, according to findings published online by The Lancet medical journal today. The research was presented in June at the American Diabetes Association’s annual …

An experiment that produced human eggs from stem cells could one day be a boon for women who are desperate to have a baby, according to a new study.
The work sweeps away the belief that a woman has only a limited stock of eggs and replaces it with the theory that the supply is continuously replenished from precursor cells in the ovary, its authors say.
“The prevailing dogma in our field for the better part of the last 50 or 60 years was that young girls at birth were given a …

More Americans died in 2007 of hepatitis C infection, which causes incurable liver disease, than from the virus that causes AIDS, US health authorities said this week.
More than 15,000 people died of hepatitis C infection in 2007, compared to 12,734 who died from HIV-related causes, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Prior to 2007, human immunodeficiency virus was more deadly than hepatitis C, which often causes no symptoms and can be passed between injected drug users, or people who have unprotected …

Feb 23, 2012
Increased consumption of flavonoid-rich foods such as certain citrus fruits may help reduce the risk of stroke in women, suggests a study by European and U.S. scientists.
For the study, published Thursday in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association, researchers analyzed the flavonoid intake of 69,622 women from the U.S.-based Nurses’ Health Study, which has followed nurses since 1976 to assess risk factors for cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The total flavonoid intake of the 69,622 women was calculated after they completed food intake questionnaires collected every four years …

Scientists have found evidence that prescribing a “chemical cosh” drugs to dementia patients can double their risk of early death.
Antipsychotics are widely used in care homes and hospitals, but critics argue they are often given to sedate patients to make them easier to look after rather than for any medical benefit.
Guidelines say they should only be used as a last resort and over a short period of time, but in some cases patients have been prescribed them for years.
Now American researchers have found one in particular, called haloperidol, seems particularly …