Girl gets stem cell vein; birth control has heart risks

On: Saturday, June 16, 2012 By: Anonymous 0 comment

Your Thursday morning health roundup:

• Stem cell advance: Swedish doctors have saved the life of a 10-year-old girl with a vein grown from her own stem cells. Similar procedures could be used to make new blood vessels for heart bypass and dialysis patients in the future, Reuters reports. Scientists already are using stem cells to make wind pipes and urethras and hope eventually to grow all sorts of replacement body parts, eliminating the need for patients to take drugs for a lifetime to prevent rejection of foreign tissues.
• Birth control risks: Birth control pills, patches and rings containing estrogen and progestin raise a woman's risk of heart attacks and strokes, but the risks remain low for any one woman -- especially for young women and especially compared to the risks associated with pregnancy, Danish researchers report.
• Sleeping pill promise: An experimental sleeping pill that works by blocking brain chemicals that help keep people awake shows promise in studies. It hasn't yet been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. Also important to know: Sleeping pills are popular, but sleep doctors recommend people with chronic insomnia try behavioral therapies first.

Today's talker: Parents of young football players in the popular Pop Warner program will see some differences at practices later this summer -- changes made in an attempt to reduce head injuries and concussions. The new rules ban head-to-head hits and limit contact drills in practice to 40 minutes a day. Coaches already are arguing about whether the rules go too far or not far enough.