Health and Medicine

In July, hundreds of international scientists from dozens of biomedical fields will meet at the University at Buffalo seeking a common language with which to energize cross-disciplinary research.

Results of a small, observational study conducted at the University at Buffalo suggest that liraglutide, an injectable medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, also helps type 1 diabetics on insulin achieve optimal control of their blood glucose levels. If the findings are confirmed in a larger, prospective, randomized study now being planned by the UB researchers, they could mean the first significant, new treatment for type 1 diabetes since insulin was discovered and made available in the 1920s.

Frequent use of energy drinks is associated with binge drinking, alcohol-related social problems and misuse of prescription drugs among musicians, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions.

If you crave facts about addiction, abjection and the search for love, 60 years of opium smoking in New York City or ancient Roman dinners featuring magic mushrooms, you're in luck. These are just a few of the subjects on the program of "The Pub, the Street and the Medicine Cabinet," the 6th Biennial Meeting of the Alcohol and Drug History Society, which will take place June 23-26.

Every time you are admitted to a hospital, you place your life in the hands of health care professionals. You trust them to provide the best treatment for you during your stay. You have no other choice.

A new computer screening tool developed and patented by a University at Buffalo physician is helping to detect severe obstructive sleep apnea in cardiovascular patients who have not yet been diagnosed with this common and potentially dangerous condition.

Today's major announcement at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting that the drug exemestane significantly reduces the risk of breast cancer in high-risk, postmenopausal women is the result of an international, randomized double-blind phase III clinical trial in which University at Buffalo researchers and hundreds of Western New York women played a critical role.

Tooth decay is the most chronic disease among children. In one year, more than 51 million hours of school is missed because of tooth decay or other dental-related illness. And even when children with dental problems can attend school, research shows that these problems are distracting enough to impair classroom learning and behavior. The children of Chautauqua County, however, have not gone without dental care -- in fact, the care comes to them.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) appears to be associated with loss of bone mineral density, but that loss may not be due to lack of weight-bearing activity, the usual cause of osteoporosis.

As the chase for the 2011 Stanley Cup heads to the finish, several players are off the ice suffering from concussion, an injury all too common in this contact sport. Deciding if a player is ready to return to the ice has been left primarily to each team's physician, with no standardized across-the-sport method to assess when the time is right. Work by specialists at the University at Buffalo Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Department's concussion clinic may change that scenario.