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Patients given ice packs for the first 24 hours after major abdominal surgeries reported less pain and needed fewer narcotic painkillers, according to a new U.S. study. “We aren’t talking about saying to a patient, here is some ice and then cut off all their pain medication. The ice was only meant to increase the patient care,” Dr. Viraj Master told Reuters Health. Master, a urologist and professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, led the study. He said post-operative pain is an unavoidable consequence of major surgery. Although you can make it better with pain medication, those drugs are not without side effects like constipation, drowsiness and even dependence. “The idea was to keep patients out of pain but not have them suffer from using too many narcotics,” he said. “The physician could give the patient any medication he wanted, we just added the ice.” Using ice as a treatment for surgical wounds, known as cryotherapy, is not new, Master said. The cold reduces pai

While the portion of U.S. working adults smoking class="mandelbrot_refrag"> tobacco shrank appreciably between 2005 and 2010, the use of smokeless tobacco remained steady, according to a new study. In 2005, 2.7 percent of working adults represented in the annual National Health Interview Survey used smokeless class="mandelbrot_refrag"> tobacco and in 2010, it was 3 percent. That’s still about 10 times higher than national public health policy goals, researchers said. “These findings highlight opportunities for reducing the health and economic burdens of tobacco use among U.S. workers, especially those in certain industries (e.g., mining) and occupations (e.g., class="mandelbrot_refrag"> construction and extraction) where use of smokeless tobacco is especially common,” the report’s authors write. Dr. Jacek Mazurek, of the Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at the Centers for

Sierra Leone shut its borders to trade with Guinea and Liberia on Wednesday and closed schools, cinemas and nightclubs in a frontier region in a bid to halt the spread of the Ebola virus. _0"> Sixteen people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, a figure that has doubled in the last week, Ministry of Health figures showed. Authorities will also mount health checkpoints in the eastern Kailahun district and mandated that all deaths there be reported before burial. Anyone who dies of the virus must be buried under the supervision of health personnel, the Information Ministry said. The decision to close district schools came after a nine-year-old whose parents died of Ebola tested positive for the virus, Deputy Minister of Information Theo Nicol told Reuters.   true       "There is more contacts between school-going kids than adults hence the closure of schools in the most affected district," he said. The ban exempted churches and mosques but religious leaders should

The number of moles a woman has may be tied to her risk of developing breast cancer, according to two new studies. The studies don’t prove that moles cause breast cancer or that women with a lot of moles will definitely get breast cancer. Instead, they suggest there may be a small genetic or hormonal link between the two. “This shouldn’t be a concern for women with moles, because we don’t think the relationship is causal,” said Marina Kvaskoff, the lead author of one of the new studies. Kvaskoff is affiliated with INSERM - the French National Institute of Health and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Medical Research - and the University of Paris 11. Researchers suspected that moles, also known as nevi, and breast cancer might share links to certain hormones and genes. That would mean moles could be used to help predict a woman’s breast cancer risk. “We always need to discover more causes of cancer and breast cancer in particular,” Kvaskoff said. “If more studies wer

Under pressure to improve mental health treatment for inmates in California's massive prison system, officials plan to build a new psychiatric ward to provide inpatient mental health care for prisoners on death row, according to a court-ordered report. The new ward, set to open on Oct. 1, will serve severely mentally ill prisoners on death row at the San Quentin prison near San Francisco, said the report filed late Tuesday. Matthew Lopes, a special master overseeing mental health care in California's prisons, found that 37 severely mentally ill death row inmates at San Quentin prison near San Francisco were entitled to 24-hour inpatient care in a hospital but were not getting it. Lopes, assigned to develop the report by federal Judge Lawrence K. Karlton last December, said he had worked with state officials and lawyers representing inmates to draft plans for a new ward. "They were refusing to transfer them (to a mental hospital) because they said it was too dangerous

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working to develop strong product standards for electronic cigarettes and other nicotine delivery devices that will protect public health and enable the agency to withstand legal challenges, its class="mandelbrot_refrag"> tobacco chief said on Wednesday. Mitchell Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Tobacco Products, said the agency is exploring potential product standards in the areas of addiction, toxicity and product appeal as it prepares to gain regulatory authority over electronic cigarettes and other nicotine-delivery devices. The establishment of product standards is one of five priorities for the division over the next few years, Zeller said, outlining them publicly in the most comprehensive manner to date. They include putting in place regulations for approving new products and monitoring them after they reach the market, ensuring that the agency has in place a strong

When class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Saudi Arabia announced last week it had found 113 more cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), it didn't just force a rethink of the threat the virus poses, it exposed institutional failings.     Saudi health sources and international virologists said poor communication and a lack of accountability in government departments, inadequate state oversight and a failure to learn from past mistakes have all hindered Saudi Arabia's battle against the SARS-like virus.     They say it is too soon to tell if reforms introduced by a new acting health minister can overcome what they see as underlying problems.     Some top Saudi health officials say they accept that delays in reporting MERS cases were caused by poor communication between hospitals, laboratories and government departments, but they stress things have improved significantly since the appointment of the new minister in late April.     The health ministr