Denosumab: Experimental Drug Helps Ward Off Osteoporosis

An experimental drug has successfully reduced hip and spine fractures in the two largest patient populations at risk for osteoporosis — postmenopausal women and men being treated for prostate cancer — according to two major studies published online on Aug. 11 by the New England Journal of Medicine

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Study: A Safe Drug for Morning Sickness?

Morning sickness is such a hallmark of early pregnancy that for some women, it’s the first sign that they’re expecting. But despite the pervasiveness of pregnancy-related nausea, there is still no easy treatment, since most expecting mothers and their doctors aren’t keen on exposing a still developing fetus to medications. Now, researchers from Israel and Canada report in the New England Journal of Medicine that a commonly prescribed heartburn drug, which also has anti-nausea properties, may be used in pregnant women without causing harm to babies.

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Are Medical Residents Worked Too Hard? Or Not Hard Enough?

There has been much hand-wringing over the dangers of medical residents’ grueling schedules. Doctors-in-training often forgo sleep entirely, racking up as many as 30 work hours in a single stretch. The term “resident” is in fact no accident, says Dr.

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Prostate Exams: When Are They Necessary?

Science is not shy about ambiguity, never more so than when it comes to medical advice. So here’s the latest recommendation on prostate-cancer screening: Men should continue to have both a manual prostate exam and a blood test for prostate-specific antigen every year — bearing in mind that neither test may affect your odds of surviving prostate cancer. Those seemingly contradictory conclusions are part of the results of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial , a sweeping, 17-year project conducted by the National Cancer Institute

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