eyespy

Researchers in the United Kingdom have found that type A botulin toxin (Botox) can help treat drug resistant urinary incontinence after traumatic spinal cord injury. The team studied 37 patients, by injecting the toxin into their detrusor muscle, which controls the tone of the bladder. Overall, incontinence was abolished in 82% of patients and detrusor overactivity was stopped in 76%. The mean duration of symptomatic improvement was 9 months, which although short is quite impressive (http://reuters.co.uk).

The World Health Organization warns that as many as 60 000 people a year die from “too much sun,” mostly from malignant skin cancers. Radiation from the sun can cause sunburn, skin ageing, eye cataracts, and cold sores. So people should stay in the shade when they can, use lots of sun- screen, and avoid tanning salons. Snow, sea, and land reflect ultraviolet rays too, and the thinning ozone layer does not help either. What exactly is “too much sun,” of course, still escapes Eyespy's grasp. She blames the record heatwave this summer (www.who.int/uv).

Hundreds of smokers throughout the United States are being vaccinated with nicotine injections to help them quit smoking. The vaccine “immunises” them against the nicotine rush that fuels …