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Richard Peto, professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at Oxford University, phrases the nature of the conflict this way: “Epidemiology is so beautiful and provides such an important perspective on human life and death, but an incredible amount of rubbish is published,” by which he means the results of observational studies that appear daily in the news media and often become the basis of public-health recommendations about what we should or should not do to promote our continued good health.

In January 2001, the British epidemiologists George Davey Smith and Shah Ebrahim, co-editors of The International Journal of Epidemiology, discussed this issue in an editorial titled “Epidemiology — Is It Time to Call It a Day?” They noted that those few times that a randomized trial had been financed to test a hypothesis supported by results from these large observational studies, the hypothesis either failed the test or, at the very least, the test failed to confirm the hypothesis: antioxidants like vitamins E and C and beta carotene did not prevent heart disease, nor did eating copious fiber protect against colon cancer.

The Nurses’ Health Study is the most influential of these cohort studies, and in the six years since the Davey Smith and Ebrahim editorial, a series of new trials have chipped away at its credibility. The Women’s Health Initiative hormone-therapy trial failed to confirm the proposition that H.R.T. prevented heart disease; a W.H.I. diet trial with 49,000 women failed to confirm the notion that fruits and vegetables protected against heart disease; a 40,000-woman trial failed to confirm that a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin prevented colorectal cancer and heart attacks in women under 65. And this June, yet another clinical trial — this one of 1,000 men and women with a high risk of colon cancer — contradicted the inference from the Nurses’s study that folic acid supplements reduced the risk of colon cancer. Rather, if anything, they appear to increase risk.

Tiger Mosquito, picture by Sean McCann

Tomonori Nochi von der Universität Tokio und seine Mitarbeiter hatten Reispflanzen genetisch so verändert, dass sie in ihren Samen ein Teilstück des krankmachenden Eiweißes der Cholera-Bakterien produzierten. Die Forscher zeigten zunächst, dass dieses Impfeiweiß von aggressiver Magensäure nicht zerstört wird. Mäuse, denen die Wissenschaftler anschließend den Reis verabreichten, bildeten Antikörper gegen das Eiweiß und waren daraufhin vor der Durchfallerkrankung geschützt.

Die Forscher wiesen die Antikörper vor allem auch direkt in den Schleimhäuten nach, über die Krankheitserreger wie das Cholera-Bakterium oft in den menschlichen Körper gelangen. - Quelle: stern.de

Eine Untersuchung belegt: Physiotherapie hilft bei Bandscheiben-Vorfall ähnlich gut wie eine OP. Die Entfernung von Bandscheiben zählt indes zu den häufigsten chirurgischen Eingriffen bei Menschen mit Rückenschmerzen. -- Quelle WELT

Ist immer eine Operation notwendig?
Nein. Die Literatur geht von etwa 70% aller Bandscheibenvorfälle aus, die konservativ, d.h. ohne Operation, durch zeitweise Schonung, Medikamentengabe, Physiotherapie und Physikalische Therapie erfolgreich behandelt werden kann. Unter günstigen Umständen kann ein Bandscheibenvorfall nach etwa 4 Wochen schrumpfen. Er macht dadurch weniger Beschwerden und ist besser therapierbar. - Quelle: www.bandscheibe.de

Nearly 600 cases of dengue have been reported so far in the country, of which a majority of cases are from the national capital, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramdoss said today. Thirty deaths have been reported in the country, including 12 in Delhi.
"There have been 589 dengue cases in the country. In Delhi 352 cases were reported while 237 are from other states," he told reporters here after releasing a national report on street food survey.
Nearly 131 dengue cases have been reported from Uttar Pradesh, 52 cases from Haryana and nine in Rajasthan.

Medical officials in Tugela Ferry have warned that the Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) outbreak, which has killed 60 people in the area since January last year, could get worse. This included eight people admitted to hospital with XDR-TB between March and August this year who have also died.

Dr Tony Moll, Principal Medical Officer at the Church of Scotland Hospital in Tugela Ferry, said three patients remained at the hospital with XDR-TB. He had hope that "at least one of them will survive".

XDR-TB is a virulent form of TB which is resistant to the two drugs used to treat multi-drug resistant TB, and to which people with HIV and Aids are particularly susceptible.