Nih

Researchers have some reassuring news for the legions of coffee drinkers who can't get through the day without a latte, cappuccino, iced mocha, double-shot of espresso or a plain old cuppa joe: That coffee habit may help you live longer. A new study that tracked the health and coffee consumption of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14 years found that java drinkers were less likely to die during the study than their counterparts who eschewed the brew. In fact, men and women who averaged four or five cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of death, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

With the president preparing to unveil his final budget proposal before the November election, the Obama administration announced plans Tuesday to dramatically boost funding for research into Alzheimer's disease. Administration officials said the president would propose an additional $80 million in research funding next year, up from about $450 million this year. The president will also call for another $26 million in funding to help support family and others who care for Americans suffering from the disease.

Times are tough enough for Californians; they're even tougher for Californians' teeth. "One-quarter of all adults and 28% of children in California have untreated dental caries [cavities]," says Len Finocchio, a senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, a health advocacy group. "Our research tells us that many people in California have been avoiding routine care that might have cost about $100 for a checkup and cleaning, and then find themselves in the emergency room, where they get only an antibiotic, a bill that can average over $600 and instructions to see a dentist."

The recent series of articles by Trine Tsouderos in the Los Angeles Times misrepresents the scientific contributions and future research agenda of the National Institutes of Health and its National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine ["New Age Cures Put to the Test," Jan. 23]. In its 12 years as an NIH center, NCCAM's more than 3,000 research studies have provided answers to important questions about complementary health approaches to help consumers and medical professionals make informed decisions.

Dr. Francis S. Collins, the geneticist who discovered the causes of half a dozen diseases, oversaw the government's efforts to map the human genome and wrote a now-famous book presenting scientific evidence for a belief in God, will be nominated to head the National Institutes of Health, the White House confirmed Wednesday. "My administration is committed to promoting scientific integrity and pioneering scientific research, and I am confident that Dr.

James Wyngaarden, director of the National Institutes of Health since 1982, has told colleagues that he plans to leave the government by Aug. 1, U.S. health officials said Friday. "He felt he had done what he came to do," said spokesman Campbell Gardett of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, the NIH's parent agency. Wyngaarden himself was not immediately available for comment.

I want to thank you for the enlightening "Stealth Merger: Drug Companies and Government Medical Research" (Dec. 7), on the National Institutes of Health. Though it's common knowledge that many congressmen are in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry, I found it scary that even what is supposed to be straight science is clearly being diverted to the cause of remunerations from the industry. While I also knew that most of the really new and good drugs came from NIH research and then were capitalized on, free, by the drug industry, I had always, like most people, assumed that the research at the NIH was not biased against the lives of American seniors and others who needed medications.

The National Institutes of Health will develop guidelines defining conflict of interest for non-government scientists who receive federal funds for their research, the director of the agency told Congress Tuesday. Dr. James B. Wyngaarden, director of NIH, which awards about $7 billion in grants annually, disclosed the plan to a House subcommittee that is investigating whether government-sponsored research is being compromised by scientists' financial associations with private companies.

President Bush said Wednesday that he will nominate cardiologist Bernadine P. Healy to become the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health. Healy, 46, has been head of research at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio since 1985, and for two years before that was deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology. A former president of the American Heart Assn.

The U.S. government can continue to fund embryonic stem cell research, a U.S. district judge ruled in Washington Wednesday morning. For the Record, 1:14 p.m. July 27: An earlier version of this online article incorrectly said a U.S. district judge ruled on stem cells on Tuesday. The ruling happened Wednesday The decision, from Judge Royce C. Lamberth, threw out a 2009 lawsuit challenging an Obama administration policy expanding funding for the research, which had been limited under President George W. Bush.  The plaintiffs, researchers Dr. James Sherley and Theresa Deishler, argued that funding embryonic stem cell research violated federal law.  At first, Judge Lamberth agreed with them, ordering an injunction in August 2010 to stop the research while the case continued.  Funding for the work was halted, stoking uncertainty for scientists.  Many worried that not knowing what backing would be available would have a chilling effect on research that aimed to find cures for a variety of common conditions, including Alzheimer's and heart disease.

The U.S. government can continue to fund embryonic stem cell research, a U.S. district judge ruled in Washington Wednesday morning. For the Record, 1:14 p.m. July 27: An earlier version of this online article incorrectly said a U.S. district judge ruled on stem cells on Tuesday. The ruling happened Wednesday The decision, from Judge Royce C. Lamberth, threw out a 2009 lawsuit challenging an Obama administration policy expanding funding for the research, which had been limited under President George W. Bush.  The plaintiffs, researchers Dr. James Sherley and Theresa Deishler, argued that funding embryonic stem cell research violated federal law.  At first, Judge Lamberth agreed with them, ordering an injunction in August 2010 to stop the research while the case continued.  Funding for the work was halted, stoking uncertainty for scientists.  Many worried that not knowing what backing would be available would have a chilling effect on research that aimed to find cures for a variety of common conditions, including Alzheimer's and heart disease.

Small studies had hinted that large doses of niacin might help prevent heart attack or stroke, and hopes were high that this might prove to be the case. Now those hopes appear dashed. The NIH has stopped a trial 18 months ahead of schedule after finding that combining extended-release, high-dose niacin with a statin doesn't seem to reduce the risk of such cardiovascular events. Niacin, or vitamin B3, is often taken to help reduce blood levels of triglycerides and LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, and to boost levels of HDL, the so-called good cholesterol.

If you take prescription medications, thank a taxpayer. That’s the take-away from an article being published in Thursday’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine that examined the role of “public-sector research institutions” – think universities, hospitals, nonprofits and federal labs like the National Institutes of Health – in drug development. Historically, government-funded scientists conducted basic research and private companies used that information to create pharmaceutical products.

A controversial plan to resume biomedical testing on semiretired, government-owned research chimpanzees living in Alamogordo, N.M., has been put on hold after the intervention of New Mexico politicians and a trio of U.S. senators. The National Institutes of Health announced this week that it would keep the 186 chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility instead of transferring them to a San Antonio research center while the National Academy of Sciences determines whether chimps are still needed in biomedical research.

The National Institutes of Health may temporarily resume funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells, an appeals court ruled Thursday — though uncertainty over the future of the field remains, scientists said. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a one-page order that blocked a prohibition — set in place last month, to the shock of many scientists — against federal funding for the controversial research. A three-judge panel asked parties in the lawsuit to supply additional information by Sept.

Last month, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., threw the entire field of human embryonic stem cell research into doubt when he ordered the National Institutes of Health to stop funding research projects involving the cells. Since the cell lines are derived from young embryos – which are destroyed in the process – a law called the Dickey-Wicker Amendment prohibits the federal government from funding the research, he explained in a preliminary injunction that took the NIH and scientists across the country by surprise.

A pregnant researcher at the National Institutes of Health contends she was deliberately poisoned last summer with a radioactive isotope placed in food stored in a lunchroom refrigerator at her laboratory. Dr. Maryann Ma, a postdoctoral researcher in a cancer lab at the NIH, said at a news conference in Washington that she was "contaminated on purpose by someone at NIH" and that doctors at the federal health agency then failed to give her proper treatment for internal radiation poisoning.

James B. Wyngaarden, who has been director of the National Institutes of Health since 1982, called an unusual meeting of institute directors and senior officials to tell them that he will resign at the beginning of July, the Washington Post reported. The NIH, the world's largest biomedical research establishment, will dispense more than $6.7 billion in funds during the 1990 fiscal year. The departure of Wyngaarden, 64, has been rumored for months. Wyngaarden came to the NIH from Duke University Medical School, where he was chairman of the department of medicine.

Ever since the first of their number arrived in New Mexico half a century ago as test subjects in the fledgling U.S. space program, nearly 200 government-owned chimpanzees were routinely injected with viruses and used to test everything from experimental vaccines to insecticides. They have enjoyed a decade-long respite from research at an indoor-outdoor habitat on Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, but now the government wants to move the chimpanzees to a Texas laboratory, where they might face renewed testing.

Although tenured faculty usually get the credit and big salaries for scientific discoveries at the University of California, legwork for their breakthroughs is often performed by more anonymous postdoctoral researchers who earn less than $40,000 a year. On Thursday, those 6,500 postdoctoral researchers stepped into the national spotlight with the announcement that they had ratified their first union contract with the UC system. The action came after an organizing and negotiating effort that began four years ago. The pay raises are not huge, but experts say the contract will significantly change the research workplace environment at the 10 UC campuses and potentially across much of American academia.