Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Chicken Molecule May Improve Understanding of Allergic Reactions in Humans
Chickens may help scientists better understand severe allergic reactions in people and develop new ways to prevent or treat these potentially deadly attacks.
Researchers at King's College London in the U.K. found that chickens have a "fossilized" version of the main molecule responsible for severe allergic reactions in people, BBC News reported.
The IgY molecule in chickens may be an ancient predecessor of a similar human molecule called IgE, which plays a major role in asthma attacks and anaphylactic shock.
By studying IgY, it's possible to track the evolution of allergic reactions back at least 160 million years, said researcher Dr. Alex Taylor, BBC News reported.
The study appears in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
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NSAID Creams May Top Pills For Knee Pain
Anti-inflammatory creams are better than pills for treating chronic knee pain, say British researchers.
The team at the Queen Mary University of London studied 585 people over age 50 and found the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) topical treatments worked as well as NSAID pills and caused fewer side effects such as indigestion, increasing blood pressure, or worsening asthma, BBC News reported.
The study appears on the U.K. National Institute for Health Research Web site.
In the past, doctors have likely under-prescribed topical creams because they didn't believe they were as effective as pills, an Arthritis Research Campaign spokeswoman told BBC News.
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Turmeric May Help Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk
The curry spice turmeric may help reverse obesity-related inflammation and reduce type 2 diabetes risk, according to Columbia University Medical Center researchers.
In obese mice, turmeric significantly reduced inflammation in fat tissue and the liver and reduced the rodents' susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. The researchers believe curcumin -- an ingredient in turmeric -- may be responsible, United Press International reported.
The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society and will be published in the journal Endocrinology.
"It's too early to tell whether increasing dietary curcumin -- via turmeric -- intake in obese people with diabetes will show a similar benefit," researcher Dr. Drew Tortoriello said in a prepared statement, UPI reported.
"Although the daily intake of curcumin one might have to consume as a primary diabetes treatment is likely impractical, it is entirely possible that lower dosages of curcumin could nicely complement our traditional therapies as a natural and safe treatment," Tortoriello said.
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Sleep Problems in Elderly May Be Helped by Tai Chi Chih
For the more than half of all Americans over age 59 who complain about not being able to fall asleep easily, the answer may rest with a 2,000 year old Chinese series of movements.
Researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles found that the 19 moves and one pose found in tai chi chih -- the Western version of the ancient philosophy that combines movements and poses to relieve stress and find spiritual fulfillment -- actually allowed study subjects to improve their sleep patterns.
The 112 older adults in the study who ranged in age from 59 to 86 were divided into two groups, one taking tai chi chih instruction and the other group taking classes that included stress management, diet and advice on improving sleep patterns.
According to a UCLA news release, the tai chi chih group "showed improved sleep quality and a remission of clinical impairments, such as drowsiness during the day and inability to concentrate, compared with those receiving health education."
"It's [tai chi chih] a form of exercise virtually every elderly person can do, and this study provides more across-the-board evidence of its health benefits," said lead study author Dr. Michael Irwin, the Norman Cousins Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, in the news release.
The study is available in the online edition of the journal Sleep.
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New Threat From Bird Flu: Food Shortages
A new warning has come about the deadly strain of avian flu that has caused the destruction of hundreds of millions of poultry around the world, especially in Asia.
But this time, the Associated Press reports, the threat is not so much whether the H5N1 strain will mutate into a virus that could infect millions of humans, but whether the destruction it has already caused will create a food shortage.
Communicable disease experts meeting at an infectious disease conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia acknowledged that H5N1 keeps erupting, even after local health officials believe they've brought an outbreak under control. "It's like a boiling pot, and we need to keep the lid on that before it gets worse," UN representative Juan Lubroth told the AP
Lubroth said more than 240 million birds have been destroyed because of H5N1, and for poor people who raise their own food, the scarcity of poultry as a cheep protein source could cause hardship and hunger.
Insofar as the H5N1 strain mutating so that it can be spread from human to human, officials warned that possibility still remains, the wire service reported.
The disease is indeed deadly when humans become infected, the AP said, with 241 out of 385 who contracted it since 2003 dying. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Julie Gerberding warned against complacency.
"People have very short attention spans, and when something is in the news for a while, it becomes old news and then it's no news," the AP quotes her as saying.
