New drug to Speed up TB treatment
An experimental cocktail of three drugs can dramatically shorten the time it takes to treat patients infected with TB strains that are hard to cure with conventional antibiotics. Dubbed the PaMZ regimen, the drugs killed more TB bacteria than standard therapy and at a faster rate in a so-called Phase IIb trial, usually the penultimate step in vetting new treatments for safety and effectiveness, investigators said. If funding is found, PaMZ will move to Phase III tests by the end of the year, their backers, TB Alliance, said. Doctors are deeply worried by the emergence of tuberculosis bacteria that fail to respond to frontline antibiotics.
Swap couch for some gym time
Being a couch potato may have fewer long-term health consequences if you trade some of your couch time for gym time, suggests a new study. The research found that people who were more fit were able to counter some of the ill health effects of a sedentary lifestyle, such as high blood pressure. And, not surprisingly, folks who were fitter also had less body fat, according to the researchers from the American Cancer Society, the Cooper Institute and the University of Texas. Researchers believe there is “a need to encourage achieving higher levels of fitness” to help keep type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and other weight-related conditions away.
Sunscreens may have carcinogens
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles have been used increasingly in sunscreens in the last decade to protect the skin because the tiny particles directly absorb the radiation from sunlight, especially in the UVB range. But because the particles are so tiny — generally about 100 nanometers across, compared with about 3,000 to 9,000 nanometers for a speck of dust — some scientists have raised concerns about whether they might do harm by seeping through the skin and into the bloodstream. Concerns grew when studies in mice showed that when injected under the skin, titanium dioxide caused inflammation. The International Agency on Cancer Research, part of the World Health Organization, decided in 2006 to classify titanium dioxide as a potential human carcinogen, based mostly on inhalation studies in animals.