Daily digest August 19 2015

E-cigarettes could be prescribed by the NHS to help smokers quit

E-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than tobacco and could be prescribed on the NHS to help smokers quit, a review of their use has concluded.

Experts who have compiled a report for Public Health England say 'vaping' could be a 'game changer' for persuading people to quit cigarettes.

They also say there is no evidence they give children a 'gateway' into smoking.

Some health campaigners have welcomed the findings, but the British Medical Association has expressed caution.

Read more on BBC Online

Viagra for women approved by the FDA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first prescription drug designed to boost sexual desire in women.

The move is a milestone long sought by a pharmaceutical industry eager to replicate the blockbuster success of impotence drugs for men.

But stringent safety measures on the daily pill called Addyi mean it will probably never achieve the sales of Viagra, which has generated billions of dollars since the late 1990s.

The drug's label will bear a boxed warning - the most serious type - alerting doctors and patients that combining the pill with alcohol can cause dangerously low blood pressure and fainting.

Read more on Mail Online

MRI scanners can rid body of cancerous tumours, scientists claim

Scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered MRI scanners, often used to diagnose cancer, can actually help combat the disease and with less side effects than some current treatments.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, normally used to produce images of within the body, can steer cell-based, tumour-busting therapies to specific target sites in the body and are '800% more effective than current methods', say the researchers.

The scanners have been used since the 1980s to take detailed images inside the body, helping doctors to make a medical diagnosis of major problems such as cancer, and investigate the staging of a disease.

An international team of researchers, led by Dr Munitta Muthana from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Oncology, have now found MRI scanners can non-invasively steer cells, which have been injected with tiny superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs), to both primary and secondary tumour sites within the body.

Read more on the Express website