Health News Roundup: Football concussions drop, Yemen cholera outbreak

Football concussions drop after Ivy League kickoff change

Concussion rates plummeted in Ivy League football under new rules moving the kickoff line in an attempt to minimize the risk of high-speed head-on collisions during this part of the game, a new U.S. study suggests. The intention of the 5-yard (4.57 m) move was to have more kickbacks land in the end zone, reducing the likelihood that the receiving players would advance the ball. Ivy League football coaches recommended this change after reviewing 2015 data showing kickoffs accounted for 6 per cent of all plays but 21 per cent of concussions.

Yemen cholera outbreak accelerates to 10,000+ cases per week: WHO

Yemen's cholera outbreak - the worst in the world - is accelerating again, with roughly 10,000 suspected cases now reported per week, the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed on Tuesday. That is double the average rate for the first eight months of the year when 154,527 suspected cases of cholera - which can kill a child within hours if untreated - were recorded across the country, with 196 deaths.

Eli Lilly's diabetes treatment meets the main goal in two late-stage studies

Eli Lilly and Co said on Tuesday its experimental diabetes treatment was shown to be as effective as the drugmaker's Humalog medicine in two late-stage studies. The study also found that the drug, Ultra Rapid Lispro, significantly improved post-meal blood sugar levels in people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and had a similar safety profile as Humalog.

Japan's Kansai to help Zambia paint out malaria

Kansai Plascon, owned by Tokyo-listed Kansai Paint Co Ltd, has launched the world's first mosquito repellant paint in Zambia to help it reach a target to eliminate malaria by 2021, the company and a Japanese government official said. Malaria, spread by mosquitoes, is a treatable disease if caught early, but current anti-malarial drugs are failing in many areas as people develop resistance to them.

GSK resumes some doctor payments, backtracking on a blanket ban

GlaxoSmithKline, which five years ago stopped paying doctors for promoting its drugs, said on Tuesday it would allow such payments once again in limited circumstances. The British group's 2013 no-payment pledge marked a first for an industry battling past scandals over sales practices. But other drugmakers failed to follow suit, leaving it at a competitive disadvantage.

Moroccan widow turns her home into a shelter for cancer patients

A Moroccan widow has turned her home in the capital Rabat into a shelter for cancer patients, after realizing how many people were forced to abandon outpatient treatment because of the expense of reaching the city and finding lodgings. Khadija Ayad al-Qorti, 72, founded the Jannat Association in 2009, a few months after her husband died of cancer. The association provides free accommodation for patients and their families, free transport to Rabat's oncology centre and free meals for the duration of their stay.

FDA seizes documents from Juul in latest e-cigarette crackdown

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it seized more than a thousand pages of documents from Juul Labs related to the company's sales and marketing practices after a surprise inspection, the latest clampdown on e-cigarette companies. The FDA said last month it was considering a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes from Juul and others as the agency grapples with an "epidemic" of youth e-cigarette use that threatens to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.

Yo-yo dieting tied to heart attacks and strokes, even in healthy people

(Reuters Health) - People with fluctuations in their weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar may be more likely to have heart attacks and strokes than those with stable measurements, a Korean study suggests. Obesity and consistently elevated blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar have long been linked to an increased risk of having, and dying from, heart attacks and strokes, senior study author Dr Seung-Hwan Lee of the Catholic University of Korea in Seoul said by email. But less is known about what happens when people have fluctuations in these so-called metabolic risk factors over time, especially if they haven't been diagnosed with conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, Lee said.

Doors open to London's latest vegan venture: fish and chips

Fish and chips, scampi and prawn cocktail are all on the menu at chippie owner Daniel Sutton's newest branch, with one caveat: "There's no fish in our fish," he says. Sutton began serving "vegan fish and chips" at one of his east London chip shops as an experiment earlier this year but did not expect such high demand.

Service employees can be trained to respond to overdoses in public restrooms

After learning about opioid overdose and how to respond with the opioid-reversing drug naloxone, a group of New York City service industry workers felt "confident and equipped" to help during a real-life overdose situation at their workplace, researchers report. Public restrooms are a popular location for injection drug use, so employees of fast-food restaurants, diners and other businesses often find themselves unwitting first-responders to a drug overdose, the study authors write. With training, these employees can both protect themselves and potentially save a life, the authors argue.

(With inputs from Reuters)