http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Arsenic, a naturally occurring element and industrial byproduct, poses a significant health risk to millions of people worldwide when it leaches into drinking water. It's highly poisonous at high doses, but chronic exposure to lower levels increases the risk of bladder, lung, and skin cancer, as well as infertility and possibly diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions. Though this is often thought of as a major problem only in developing countries, such as Bangladesh, the U.S. has arsenic problems of its own. In fact, it's estimated that over two million Americans drink water from private wells that have high arsenic concentrations. This past year, arsenic made headlines on several occasions for its presence in rice and other foods, too. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-arsenic-rice.html Health Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:19:47 EST news277456774 New research shows that the addition of the oral anti-cancer agent vorinostat to standard therapy given before, during, and after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) may safely reduce the incidence and severity of a challenging complication called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-histone-deacetylases-strategy-graft-host.html Medical research Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:50:02 EST news274275657 In a sobering study published in the journal Environmental Health, researchers at UC Davis and UCLA measured food-borne toxin exposure in children and adults by pinpointing foods with high levels of toxic compounds and determining how much of these foods were consumed. The researchers found that family members in the study, and preschool children in particular, are at high risk for exposure to arsenic, dieldrin, DDE (a DDT metabolite), dioxins and acrylamide. These compounds have been linked to cancer, developmental disabilities, birth defects and other conditions. However, the study also points to dietary modifications that could mitigate risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-high-exposure-food-borne-toxins.html Health Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:00:10 EST news272037536 (Medical Xpress)—Research carried out at the University of South Carolina has identified novel mechanisms through which dioxin, a well-known environmental contaminant, can alter physiological functions, according to a study published online in the journal PLOS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-prenatal-dioxin-shown-involve-micrornas.html Medical research Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:36:49 EST news267122186 A Penn- and MIT-led team explained how rapamycin, a drug that extends mouse lifespan, also causes insulin resistance. The researchers showed in an animal model that they could, in principle, separate the effects, which depend on inhibiting two protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, respectively. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-duality-longevity-drug-rapamycin.html Medical research Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:00:10 EST news252247900 University of Florida researchers have modified a toxic chemical produced by tiny marine microbes and successfully deployed it against laboratory models of colon cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-medicinal-chemists-sea-bacteria-byproduct.html Cancer Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:31:45 EST news234027090 The first scientific measurements in humans show that potentially harmful haloacetic acids (HAAs) appear in the urine of swimmers within 30 minutes after exposure to chlorinated water where HAAs form as a byproduct of that water disinfection method. Reported in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, the study found that HAAs also appeared in the urine of swimming pool workers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-haas-urine-swimmers-pool-workers.html Health Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:50:03 EST news230982177