Harvard Health Content API

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine works just as well as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) at reducing fever from H1N1 flu, a new study says. The study appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study included 410 previously healthy patients who were diagnosed with a mild form of the illness. Their average age was 19. They were divided into four groups. One received the herbal formula known as Maxingshigan-yinqiaosan. The second group received Tamiflu. A third group received both the herbs and Tamiflu. And the fourth group received no treatment. Researchers looked at how long it took for the fever to go away. Those who took the herbal medicine got better just as quickly as those who took Tamiflu or those who took a mixture of herbs and Tamiflu. HealthDay News wrote about the study Aug. 16.

U.S. health officials are trying to contact 50 people who were on an airline flight along with a bat. The bat flew around the cabin while the plane was in the air, the Associated Press reported August 13. This occurred on a Delta flight from Wisconsin to Atlanta. A passenger caught the incident on video, but nobody caught the bat. Therefore, officials don’t know if it had rabies. Officials want to find out if any passengers had close contact with the bat. If so, they could be advised to get rabies shots. In an unrelated incident, U.S. officials said last week that a 19-year-old man has died in Louisiana from rabies. He was the first to die of the disease in the United States after being bitten by a vampire bat. The man, a migrant farm worker, had been bitten in Mexico a few weeks earlier, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Women who are depressed — especially those who take medicine for it — have a higher risk of stroke than other women, new research finds. The study was based on information from the long-running Nurses’ Health Study. It included 80,574 women from ages 54 through 79. None of them had a history of stroke when the study began. About 22% of them were depressed or had been depressed in the past. In the next 6 years, 1,033 strokes occurred. The stroke rate was 29% higher in women with a history of depression. The rate was 39% higher among those who took drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for their depression. The journal Stroke published the study. USA Today wrote about it August 12.

A new drug may help relieve long-term constipation in some people, a new study finds. Researchers tested linaclotide in two studies. Each included about 600 people with chronic (long-lasting) constipation. People in each study were randomly divided into 3 groups. Two groups received linaclotide, but in different doses. The third group took placebo (fake) pills. The study lasted 12 weeks. The goal was for people to have at least 3 bowel movements a week. About 20% of those taking linaclotide achieved that goal. About 3% to 6% of those taking the placebo had this result. The drug also helped to reduce symptoms such as bloating in many people, researchers said. About 15% of those taking linaclotide developed diarrhea. Most of them remained in the study. About 4% dropped out. One of the studies included an extra 4 weeks.

Women with sleep apnea may be more likely to develop dementia, a new study suggests. The study included 298 elderly women. Their average age was 82. They did not have dementia or mild cognitive impairment as the study began. All of the women took part in an overnight sleep study. More than one-third were found to have sleep apnea. They stopped breathing briefly or breathed very shallowly at least 15 times per hour during sleep. Five years later, the women were given tests to measure their thinking and memory. Researchers adjusted those results to account for factors that can affect dementia risk. These include age, education, excess weight, diabetes and smoking. About 45% of the women with sleep apnea had developed dementia or mild cognitive impairment. The rate was 31% among those without sleep apnea. That’s an 85% increase in risk for those with sleep apnea.

Soy supplements don’t reduce hot flashes or maintain bone strength in women after menopause, a new study finds. In fact, women in the study who received soy actually ended up having more hot flashes. The study included 248 women between ages 45 and 60. All of them were past menopause. They were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group took supplements containing isoflavones, a component of soy, for 2 years. The other group took placebo (fake) pills. By the end of the study, there was no difference between groups for most menopause symptoms. But nearly half of the soy group had hot flashes, compared with one-third of the placebo group. Bone loss in the spine was similar for both groups. But among women with low vitamin D levels, those who received the soy pills did have less bone loss. The journal Archives of Internal Medicine published the study.