Needles eyed as treatment for headaches

Needling can cause headaches, and it apparently can cure them, too.

A study of 270 people found acupuncture cut the rates of tension headaches in half.

The subjects were put into three groups: one treated with traditional Chinese acupuncture, another with minimal acupuncture and a third with neither. Over two months, the traditional acupuncture group saw headache rates drop by almost half, suffering seven fewer days of headaches over the four weeks following the treatment.

Those with minimal acupuncture had 6.6 fewer days of headaches. The control group experienced 1.5 fewer days of headaches. The most common side effects were dizziness, bruising and other headaches.

Carbon monoxide may aid transplant patients

Carbon monoxide can kill, but it might also save lives of people recovering from organ transplants, strokes or heart attacks.

A study from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center found that inhaling small amounts of carbon monoxide for several weeks after transplant surgery prevented the development of a lethal inflammatory reaction in mice.

Researchers say if it works as well in humans, it could prevent a deadly response called obliterative bronchiolitis, which develops in nearly 50 percent of people who receive lung transplants from unrelated donors.

Though carbon monoxide is poisonous, the mice could tolerate a level equivalent to a person sitting in a traffic jam in Mexico City.

The study appeared in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Drug therapy effective against AIDS progress

Hitting HIV hard can keep infected individuals alive longer.

A new study shows that highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which combines three drugs, appears to reduce the rate of progression to AIDS or death by 86 percent.

British researchers looked at 3,200 HIV-infected patients and compared HAART with no treatment or with dual drug therapy. They found that HAART's effectiveness compared with no treatment increased with time, and that HAART was less beneficial for patients who contracted HIV through needle-sharing.

The study appears in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Stroke risk, recovery rates higher for blacks

Black people are more likely to have strokes, but they're also more likely to survive them.

That's the conclusion of a study of 2,000 patients in London who suffered strokes between 1995 and 2002.

Despite an increased stroke risk, 57 percent of black patients survived for five years after their strokes compared with 37 percent of whites. The pattern persisted even after researchers adjusted for several factors, including age and socioeconomic status.

The new research appeared on the online version of the British Medical Journal.

Sugar at root of some erectile dysfunction

Too much blood sugar might be the underlying reason for erectile dysfunction common to diabetics.

Johns Hopkins researchers have found that a simple blood sugar known as O-GlcNAc breaks the sequence of events necessary to achieve and keep an erection. It can also lead to permanent impairment.

An estimated 50 to 75 percent of diabetic men suffer from some degree of ED, and drugs such as Viagra are less effective for them.

Results of the study are published in the Aug. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Blacks surveyed cite birth-control conspiracy

Conspiracy theories about birth control abound in the black community, a study shows.

A recent phone survey of 500 black Americans ages 15 to 44 found that half believe the government lies about the safety and side effects of new birth-control methods, and one-third believe the government tests new methods on poor and minority people.

Some 78 percent of those surveyed used some form of birth control, but its use was less likely by black men who strongly believed that the government lies about birth control safety.

Researchers also found 22 percent agreed that "the government's family-planning policies are intended to control the number of black people," and nearly 25 percent agreed that poor and minority women are sometimes forced to undergo sterilization.

The study appears in the journal Health Education and Behavior.

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