The largest ever study of heroin and crack cocaine treatment in England found that the first six months of treatment results in large proportions of addicts of one or the other abstaining, but that the effect is less pronounced for users of both.

Researchers found that curcumin, a compound found in turmeric, the Indian spice that gives curry its orange-yellow colour, may block nicotine from activating cancer causing cells in patients with head and neck cancer who continue to smoke or use nicotine products to help them quit.

A new study by an international team of researchers found that cholesterol is important for the formation of brain cells, and they hope the findings will help scientists cultivate dopamine-producing cells outside the body.

An article published Online First and in the November edition of The Lancet Oncology reviews the treatments for patients with brain tumors. The current method is stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), which is a technique for administering narrowly focused beams of irradiation to the brain in a very precise manner. This is done with or without whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT).

When the skin and surrounding tissues are directly exposed to low temperatures, they can freeze and frostbite occurs. The medical term for frostbite is congelatio. The general term is 'cold injury', but 'frostbite' is commonly used by doctors.

A review published Online First and in the November edition of The Lancet Neurology reports that routine stroke prevention therapies are underused in the very elderly, but could be very effective in this age group. The article is the work of Dr Nerses Sanossian and Dr Bruce Ovbiagele, of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

UroToday.com - Symptoms characteristic of IC have been reported to occur in more than 2% of women. Far more common conditions can result in confounding symptomatology. Dr. Jeffrey Dell and colleagues from Knoxville, Tennessee and New Brunswick, NJ remind us of some of these more common disorders. Urinary tract infections (UTI) are very common among women.

The investigational injectable filler 2.5% polyacrylamide hydrogel (AquamidR) is as effective and well tolerated as hyaluronic acid (HA, RestylaneR), for the correction of nasolabial folds, according to pivotal data released here at the 2009 American Society of Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) meeting.

Prostate cancer should be higher on government health agendas recognising its importance as the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, urges a call to action launched recently by Europa Uomo, a coalition of patients' groups across Europe.

Frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis, is a common condition in which the articular shoulder capsule (a sac of ligaments surrounding the joint) swells and stiffens, restricting its mobility. It typically affects only one shoulder, but one in five cases affect both. The term "frozen shoulder" is often used incorrectly for arthritis, even though the two conditions are unrelated.

UroToday.com - Until the development of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), bilateral orchidectomy was the only way to achieve castration. Nowadays ADT can be considered a benchmark in the treatment of prostate cancer and it has been postulated that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists are able to reduce testosterone to obtain a level as low as bilateral orchidectomy.

Researchers in the UK found that by manipulating the genes of laboratory mice they could mimic the effect of calorie restriction and extend the mammals' lifespan by up to 20 per cent as well as reduce the number of age-related diseases they suffered. It is hoped the finding will help the development of drug treatments for age-related diseases.

The death of 14-yearl-old British schoolgirl Natalie Morton shortly after receiving an HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer was due to a large malignant tumor in her chest and not due to the vaccine.

A review in this week's edition of The Lancet discusses the challenges of an aging population. If current life expectancy trends continue, more than half of babies born in rich nations today will live to 100 years. Not only are we living longer, but those added years are spent with less disability and fewer limitations on daily life than in the past.

A study published on bmj.com today reports that a daily supplement of vitamin D at a dose of 700-1000 IU reduces by 19 percent the risk of falling among older people. However, a dose inferior to 700 IU per day has no effect. IU is an international unit of measurement for vitamins and other biologically active substances.

New research published on bmj.com today reports that addressing the problem of smoking during pregnancy may help to reduce the socioeconomic inequalities in stillbirths and infant deaths by as much as 30 to 40 percent. Without a doubt smoking during pregnancy has been associated with stillbirth.

New research published today on bmj.com suggests there is no strong evidence that the popular smoking cessation drug varenicline increases the risk of self harm or depression compared to other cessation products. The newly introduced Varenicline is a smoking cessation product of proven effectiveness.

A new joint report shows that more than four million people in low and middle income coutries were receiving life-saving treatment for HIV at the end of 2008, representing over one third more than the year before and a ten-fold increase on the number five years earlier.

Despite it being the most common cancer among women, death rates due to breast cancer continue to fall in the US, except for African Americans, where the rate remains steady.

A new UK study suggests that exposure to tobacco while in the womb is linked to an increased risk of a child developing psychotic symptoms during their teens. The study was the work of researchers from Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham and Warwick Universities and was published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.