http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (HealthDay)—Higher levels of the hormone estrogen are associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death in men and women, a new study suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-estrogen-tied-sudden-cardiac-death.html Cardiology Sat, 11 May 2013 06:20:01 EST news287461172 Pfizer Inc. says its experimental pill for advanced, often deadly breast cancer has been designated as a breakthrough therapy by the Food and Drug Administration. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-pfizer-breast-cancer-drug-breakthrough.html Cancer Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:50:01 EST news284825946 A controversial component of plastic bottles and canned food linings that have helped make the world's food supply safer has recently come under attack: bisphenol A. Widely known as BPA, it has the potential to mimic the sex hormone estrogen if blood and tissue levels are high enough. Now, an analysis of almost 150 BPA exposure studies shows that in the general population, people's exposure may be many times too low for BPA to effectively mimic estrogen in the human body. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-meta-analyses-bisphenol-human-exposure-estrogenic.html Health Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:22:48 EST news280164126 A few years ago, manufacturers of water bottles, food containers, and baby products had a big problem. A key ingredient of the plastics they used to make their merchandise, an organic compound called bisphenol A, had been linked by scientists to diabetes, asthma and cancer and altered prostate and neurological development. The FDA and state legislatures were considering action to restrict BPA's use, and the public was pressuring retailers to remove BPA-containing items from their shelves. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-bpa-substitute-bisphenol-disrupts-hormone.html Health Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:04:03 EST news278096634 (Medical Xpress)—Hot flushes are not "in the head," but new research suggests they may start there. A UA research team has identified a region in the brain that may trigger the uncomfortable surges of heat most women experience in the first few years of menopause. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-hot-flushes-menopause-therapy.html Medical research Tue, 11 Dec 2012 09:12:45 EST news274439553 (HealthDay)—Consuming soy products doesn't prevent hot flashes and night sweats in most women, a large study suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-soy-rich-diets-hot-menopausal-women.html Health Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:20:05 EST news272803294 (Medical Xpress)—The medial preoptic area of the brain has been found over the years to be very closely involved with certain behaviors in mice, such as sexual proclivity, locomotion, aggression and the motivation to care for young. The chemistry involved in such behavioral activity has unfortunately though, remained rather a mystery. Now a team of researchers working at Rockefeller University have found, as they describe in their paper detailing their findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that a gene encoding estrogen receptor protein called ERα which is expressed in neurons in the preoptic part of the mouse brain, appears to impact the degree to which mice care for their young. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-gene-partly-responsible-maternal-mice.html Genetics Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:43:11 EST news267169382 Striking new evidence suggesting that diet and related factors early in life can boost the risk for breast cancer—totally independent of the body's production of the hormone estrogen—has been uncovered by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-breast-cancer-linked-early-life-diet.html Cancer Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:00:04 EST news267097777 (Medical Xpress)—A study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) has discovered how tamoxifen-resistant breast-cancer cells grow and proliferate. It also suggests that an experimental agent might offer a novel targeted therapy for tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-therapy-tamoxifen-resistant-breast-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:24:38 EST news265541068 Scientists are reporting a possible link between the use of sunscreen containing a certain ingredient that mimics the effects of the female sex hormone estrogen and an increased risk of being diagnosed with endometriosis, a painful condition in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus. They describe the report, published in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology, as the first to examine whether such a connection may exist. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-link-sunscreen-ingredient-endometriosis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 09 May 2012 12:18:13 EST news255784672 The hormone estrogen may help promote lung cancer— including compounding the effects of tobacco smoke on the disease—pointing towards potential new therapies that target the hormone metabolism, according to new research presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012 on Tuesday, April 3 by scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scientists-link-estrogen-tobacco.html Cancer Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:10:01 EST news252723118 Researchers exploring why some women who take a common breast cancer drug develop serious joint pain have eliminated two possible causes: inflammatory arthritis and autoimmune disease. Because of these findings, researchers say women should be encouraged to continue taking the medication to gain its full benefit. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-joint-pain-linked-commonly-breast.html Cancer Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:54:39 EST news240234842 The female hormone estrogen is known to offer protection for the heart, but obesity may be taking away that edge in adolescent girls. New research from the University of California at Merced finds that although obesity does not help teens of either gender, it has a greater impact on girls' blood pressure than it does on boys'. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-gender-differences-blood-pressure-early.html Health Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:18:49 EST news237813501 It's no secret that women often gain weight as they get older. The sex hormone estrogen has an important, if underappreciated, role to play in those burgeoning waistlines. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-brain-estrogen.html Medical research Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:13:06 EST news236952768 UCLA researchers have found that the hormone estrogen may help reverse advanced pulmonary hypertension, a rare and serious condition that affects 2 to 3 million individuals in the U.S., mostly women, and can lead to heart failure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-estrogen-treatment-reverse-severe-pulmonary.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:07:13 EST news235310805 Phytoestrogens are plant compounds which, in the human body, can attach to the receptors for the female sexual hormone estrogen and which are taken in with our daily diet. A number of findings have attributed a cancer protective effect to these plant hormones. At DKFZ (Germany), a team headed by Prof. Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude summarized the results of several studies in a meta-analysis last year and showed that a diet rich in phytoestrogens lowers the risk of developing breast cancer after menopause. Now the Heidelberg researchers wanted to find out whether phytoestrogens also have an influence on the course of breast cancer. Prior investigations on this topic had provided contradictory results. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-compound-breast-cancer-mortality.html Cancer Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:27:54 EST news235139226 UCLA researchers demonstrated that loss of a key protein that regulates estrogen and immune activity in the body could lead to aspects of metabolic syndrome, a combination of conditions that can cause Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and cancer. Called estrogen receptor alpha, this protein is critical in regulating immune system activity such as helping cells suppress inflammation and gobble-up debris. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-loss-key-estrogen-metabolic-syndrome.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:32:23 EST news234538333 Using human breast cancer cells and the protein that causes fireflies to glow, a Johns Hopkins team has shed light on why some breast cancer cells become resistant to the anticancer effects of the drug tamoxifen. The key is a discovery of two genetic "dimmer switches" that apparently control how a breast cancer gene responds to the female hormone estrogen. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-breast-cancers-sensitivity-estrogen.html Cancer Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:50:01 EST news230984527 High-dose vitamin D relieves joint and muscle pain for many breast cancer patients taking estrogen-lowering drugs, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-vitamin-d-relieves-joint-muscle.html Cancer Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:24:58 EST news230919870