Having prominent front teeth is a potentially harmful problem. If it occurs at a young age (7 to 11 years old) then the orthodontist has to decide whether to treat immediately and then again when the child is older (12 to 16 years old), or wait until the child is a teenager and perform the treatment in one phase. [click link for full article]

With the Senate Finance Committee expected to begin marking up SCHIP reauthorization legislation on Tuesday, some health care experts are saying that a “brewing battle” over the scale of reauthorization “does not bode well for broader efforts to stem escalating medical costs and help those without health insurance” in the U.S., [click link for full article]

The North Carolina House on Thursday voted 111-2 to approve a bill that would require insurers in the state to provide the same level of coverage for treatment of nine mental illnesses as they do for physical illnesses, CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily, 7/16). The illnesses include bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, anorexia nervosa and post-traumatic stress disorder. [click link for full article]

If a cervical smear test reveals abnormal cells the woman will be offered colposcopy, a technique that involves a doctor studying the cervix with a special microscope. Many women find the whole procedure highly stressful and have particularly high levels of anxiety before and during colposcopy.Researchers working for The Cochrane Collaboration studied data from eleven trials that involved a total of 1441 women and assessed four different methods of attempting to reduce anxiety. [click link for full article]

Up to 30% of the population suffers from allergic rhinitis, and this number seems to be growing. The majority of these people are treated by their primary care physician for…

New studies are needed to assess the trade-offs between potential benefits and potential harms when rosiglitazone is used by people with type 2 diabetes.This Cochrane Systematic Review analysed data from 18 trials that involved a total of 8432 people and found no evidence that rosiglitazone led to better patient outcomes when compared with other therapies. [click link for full article]

Scientists have shown for the first time that a protein involved in the transfer of fat in the blood may also influence how fat cells store fat. Richard E. Morton and Lahoucine Izem, research scientists at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, have shown that the protein, called cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), is involved in the cellular storage and regulation of cholesterol and other fats and, as a result, probably has unexpected contributions to obesity and diabetes. [click link for full article]

You have a greater possibility of losing weight if you eat a diet that is high in foods like lentils that release energy slowly once they have been consumed, rather than one that is high in foods that rapidly release sugar into the blood stream such as white bread, a Cochrane Systematic Review has concluded.When foods are eaten the body breaks them down into their components, and one component will be sugar. Different foods break down at different rates. [click link for full article]

There are no high quality data to assess how well dietary treatments for type 2 diabetes work in people who have just been told they have the disease, but there is evidence that taking on exercise seems to be one way of improving blood sugar levels, according to the findings of a Cochrane Systematic Review.Type 2 diabetes leaves a person at danger of having elevated levels of sugar (glucose) in their blood. [click link for full article]

“Controversy” surrounding a television commercial for Trojan condoms has “trickled down to the local level,” with stations in Pittsburgh “roundly refusing” to air the commercial and stations in Seattle “giving it the green light,” the New York Times reports (Newman, New York Times, 7/16). [click link for full article]