A group of researchers from the University of Michigan Health System has been awarded a $6 million federal grant to study the serious injuries that afflict millions of women as a result of childbirth. More than 300,000 women require surgery each year for problems such as incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse that arise from injuries sustained during vaginal birth. [click link for full article]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a suite of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) for ginkgo biloba, one of the most popular dietary supplements in the marketplace, with annual worldwide sales estimated at $1 billion. [click link for full article]

Administering a substance found in the cannabis plant can help the body’s natural protective system alleviate an allergic skin disease (allergic contact dermatitis), an international group of researchers from Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland and the U.S. has found.Allergic contact dermatitis is caused by reaction to something that directly contacts the skin. Many different substances (allergens) can cause allergic contact dermatitis. [click link for full article]

Researchers at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, have found that a key gene is often “silenced” in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer, and when they restored that gene in human kidney cancer cells in culture and animal experiments, tumors stopped growing and many disappeared. [click link for full article]

Exercise cannot reduce a sodium-retaining hormone in African Americans known to potentially cause hypertension, found Michael D. Brown, Ph.D., the senior author of a study in the September issue of Experimental Physiology. Brown is an associate professor of kinesiology at Temple University’s College of Health Professions. [click link for full article]

Prescribing ambulatory oxygen in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) improves exercise performance, but not the quality of their daily life unless they have resting hypoxemia, according to researchers in Toronto.”Ambulatory oxygen therapy is routinely prescribed for those who do not meet criteria for mortality reduction,” wrote Roger S. Goldstein, M.B., Ch.B. [click link for full article]

Children who are chronically exposed to higher levels of air pollution show marked deficiencies in lung growth and function, and not just short-term breathing problems, according to researchers in Mexico.”Our study revealed significant deficits in lung function growth in children with long-term exposure to air pollutants,” wrote Isabelle Romieu, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study. [click link for full article]

Researchers in Taiwan have demonstrated for the first time that urban air pollution simultaneously affects key indicators of cardiovascular risk in young adults: inflammation, oxidative stress, coagulation and autonomic dysfunction. [click link for full article]

Diabetes is associated with the development of vascular (blood vessel) disease. As we age, vascular disease becomes more common. It has been thought that females may be more susceptible to the earlier development of vascular disease, as vascular changes are observed in females long before any significant development occurs in males. Now, a team of Georgetown University researchers has determined that the vascular activities in diabetic animals vary according to sex. [click link for full article]

UNICEF expressed deep concern about the continuing threat from hunger, disease and malnutrition for the millions of children and women affected by the flooding in South Asia. The death toll continues to climb in India and Nepal where rainfall over the last few days has caused even more floods and landslides and cut off road links in many districts - bringing further displacement, misery and desperation. [click link for full article]