It appears that in some cases, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the so-called "good" cholesterol, does not protect against heart disease, and may even be harmful. A new study suggests a subclass of HDL that carries a particular protein is bad for the heart. Previous studies have shown that high levels of HDL cholesterol are strongly linked to low risk of heart disease...
Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have shown that zebrafish could be used to study the underlying causes of psychiatric disorders. The study, published online in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, found zebrafish can modify their behaviour in response to varying situations...
Checking the heart of the unborn baby usually involves a stethoscope. However, an inexpensive and accurate Bluetooth fetal heart rate monitoring system has now been developed by researchers in India for long-term home care. Details are reported in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Computers in Healthcare. Vijay Chourasia of the LNM Institute of Information Technology in Jaipur and Anil Kumar Tiwari of the Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan, in Jodhpur, explain how fetal phonocardiography is the modern equivalent of the stethoscope in ante-natal baby care...
Defects in the gene that encodes the XIAP protein result in a serious immune malfunction. Scientists used biochemical analyses to map the protein's ability to activate vital components of the immune system. Their results have recently been published in Molecular Cell, a journal of international scientific repute...
People have more and more chances to participate in genetic testing that can indicate their range of risk for developing a disease. Receiving these results does not appreciably drive up - or diminish - test recipients' demand for potentially costly follow-up health services, according to a new study in the early online issue of Genetics in Medicine...
A change in the formulation of tenofovir gel, an anti-HIV gel developed for vaginal use, may make it safer to use in the rectum, suggests a study published online this week in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. In laboratory tests of rectal tissue, researchers from the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) found that the reformulated gel was less harmful to the lining of the rectum than the original vaginal formulation, and just as effective in protecting cells against HIV...
One-letter switches in the DNA code occur much more frequently in human genomes than anticipated, but are often only found in one or a few individuals. The abundance of rare variations across the human genome is consistent with the population explosion of the past few thousand years, medical geneticists and evolutionary biologists report in the advanced online edition of Science...
Stories of athletes bravely "playing through the pain" are relatively common and support the widespread belief that they experience pain differently than non-athletes. Yet, the scientific data on pain perception in athletes has been inconsistent, and sometimes contradictory. Investigators from the University of Heidelberg have conducted a meta-analysis of available research and find that in fact, athletes can indeed tolerate a higher level of pain than normally active people...
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston have determined that pediatric epilepsy significantly impacts sleep patterns for the child and parents. According to the study available in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), sharing a room or co-sleeping with their child with epilepsy decreases the sleep quality and prevents restful sleep for parents. Over 1% of children in the U.S. are diagnosed with epilepsy - a chronic, neurological disease characterized by recurring seizures...
There are always exceptions to a rule, even one that has prevailed for more than three decades, as demonstrated by a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) study on RNA splicing, a cellular editing process. The rule-flaunting exception uncovered by the study concerns the way in which a newly produced RNA molecule is cut and pasted at precise locations called splice sites before being translated into protein...
A tiny filter could have a big impact around the world in the fight against tuberculosis. Using the traditional microscope-based diagnosis method as a starting point, a University of Florida lung disease specialist and colleagues in Brazil have devised a way to detect more cases of the bacterial infection. "We're hopeful that this more sensitive method, which is both simple and inexpensive, will improve diagnosis in patients," said lead researcher Kevin Fennelly, M.D., M.P.H...
The size of a baby's head is often related to neurological disorders, such as autism - which affects 1 in 88 children. Now, researchers at Duke University Medical Center have identified genes responsible for head size at birth by inserting human genes into zebrafish. The study is published online in the journal Nature. Nicholas Katsanis, Ph.D., Jean and George Brumley Jr. M.D...
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have developed a test that can predict how likely an individual is to develop schizophrenia. The scientists combined data from several different types of studies in order to identify and prioritize a group of genes most associated with the disease. Combined, these genes can generate a score, and determine whether an individual is at lower or higher risk of developing schizophrenia. The study, which was conducted along with a group of national and international collaborators, is published online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry...
A hormone-depleting drug approved last year for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer can help eliminate or nearly eliminate tumors in many patients with aggressive cancers that have yet to spread beyond the prostate, according to a clinical study to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), June 1-5, in Chicago...
Mental distractions make pain easier to take, and those pain-relieving effects aren't just in your head, according to a report published online in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings based on high-resolution spinal fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) as people experienced painful levels of heat show that mental distractions actually inhibit the response to incoming pain signals at the earliest stage of central pain processing...
When it comes to weight gain, when you eat might be at least as important as what you eat. That's the conclusion of a study reported in the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism published early online. When mice on a high-fat diet are restricted to eating for eight hours per day, they eat just as much as those who can eat around the clock, yet they are protected against obesity and other metabolic ills, the new study shows. The discovery suggests that the health consequences of a poor diet might result in part from a mismatch between our body clocks and our eating schedules...
Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases. Now, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have made a discovery that once again forces us to rewrite our textbooks. This time, however, the findings pertain to RNA, which like DNA carries information about our genes and how they are expressed...
Research published in Science sheds light on a hot-button political issue: the role and effectiveness of government regulation. Does it kill jobs or protect the public? The new study, co-authored by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Toffel, Professor David Levine of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and Boston University doctoral student Matthew Johnson, examines workplace safety inspections conducted by California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA)...
Disrupting certain nerves in the kidneys can safely and effectively lower blood pressure in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hypertension, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings indicate that the procedure might improve CKD patients' heart health. Overactivity of neurons in the sympathetic - or fight or flight - nervous system is very common in patients with CKD...
One type of open heart surgery is likely safer than the other for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Open heart, or coronary artery bypass, surgery can be done two ways: on-pump or off-pump, depending on whether the patient is put on a heart-lung machine. Off-pump surgery allows a surgeon to perform a bypass without stopping the heart. This may help cut down on kidney injuries that can arise after heart surgery, which can deprive the kidneys of normal blood flow...
Scientists at The University of Nottingham have opened the way for more accurate research into new ways to fight dangerous bacterial infections by proving a long-held theory about how bacteria communicate with each other. Researchers in the University's School of Molecular Medical Sciences have shown for the first time that the effectiveness of the bacteria's communication method, a process called 'quorum sensing', directly depends on the density of the bacterial population...
By focusing on the identification of common genetic variants, researchers have identified 57 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that predict - with a high degree of certainty - the risk that siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will also develop the condition. The findings were presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research. ASD is among the most common form of severe developmental disability with prevalence rates up to 1 in 88 children...
People with bleeding brain aneurysms have the best chance of survival and full recovery if they receive aggressive emergency treatment from a specialized team at a hospital that treats a large number of patients like them every year, according to new guidelines just published by the American Stroke Association...
A study in BMJ reports that the risk for serious complications, such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes and premature birth can be safely reduced even in overweight and obese pregnant women by following a healthy calorie controlled diet during pregnancy. Over half of the UK's female population of reproductive ages is overweight or obese, and up to 40% of European and American women gain more than the recommended weight in pregnancy, which has been associated with numerous serious health problems...
The number of calories people should eat each day depends on several factors, including their age, size, height, sex, lifestyle, and overall general health. A physically active 6ft 2in male, aged 22 years, requires considerably more calories than a 5ft 2ins sedentary woman in her 70s. Recommended daily calorie intakes also vary across the world. According to the National Health Service (NHS), UK, the average male adult needs approximately 2,500 calories per day to keep his weight constant, while the average adult female needs 2,000...
Researchers at the University of Chicago have found an association between anxiety disorders and the gene that encodes Glyoxylase 1 (GLO1). However, the mechanism underlying this association is unclear. The most prevalent psychiatric diseases in the United States are anxiety disorders, which range from post-traumatic stress disorder to social phobia. Using a mouse model, Margaret Distler and her team set out to determine whether the primary substrate of GlO1, methylglyoxal, might have unproven neurological effects...
8.3 million (14.85%) seniors in the United States face the threat of hunger, say researchers at the University of Illinois. From 2001 to 2010, the incidence of hunger among seniors has risen by 78%, and by 34% since the onset of the recession in 2007. Craig Gundersen, University of Illinois associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics and executive director of the National Soybean Research Laboratory, said: "In 2005, we reported that one in nine seniors faced the threat of hunger...
Athletes are often seen to put on a 'brave face and carry on' when they sustain an injury, which supports the theory that they have a higher pain threshold than non-athletes, regardless of inconsistent and sometimes even contradictory evidence from previous studies on pain perception in athletes...
Although the drug approval process in the U.S. has been perceived as too slow, the nation approves new drug treatments faster and earlier than Europe and Canada, according to researchers at Yale School of Medicine. The study, conducted by Nicholas Downing, a second-year medical student and Joseph S. Ross, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, found that the median total time to review was: 322 days at The U.S...
In recent years, the popularity of marathons has grown significantly and although the risk of dying during a marathon or soon after is extremely low - about 0.75 per 100,000 - men are two times more likely to die than women, say researchers at John Hopkins University School of Medicine. In addition, the number of individuals to complete grueling 26.2 mile marathons in the United States increased dramatically between 2000 and 2009, from 299,018 to 473,354. The study is published online in The American Journal of Sports Medicine. Julius Cuong Pham, M.D., Ph.D...
According to a new study in the American Journal of Public Health, Australia could yield economic and health benefits by reducing its overall national yearly alcohol consumption. In 2008, researchers estimated the economic benefits Australia could achieve in health, production and leisure, if the annual per capita consumption of alcohol would be reduced to a designated average yearly target of 6.4 liters per capita. They discovered that reducing the annual per capita alcohol consumption by just 3.4 liters would save Australia's health sector $789 million...
By the year 2025, researchers predict that 53.1 million individuals in the United States will have diabetes (mainly type 2 diabetes) - a 64% increase from 2010. The study is published in Population Health Management Diabetes is a life long disease in which there are high levels of glucose in the blood. In type 1 diabetes the body does not produce insulin and in type 2 diabetes the body either produces insufficient amounts of insulin or ignores it. William Rowley, M.D., and Clement Bezold, Ph.D...
A study published in the open access journal PloS ONE reveals that the use of "last resort" antibiotics is on the rise due to the increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. Makoto Jones, of the Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System, and colleagues conducted the study in order to investigate the use of two such antibiotics, tigecycline and polymyxins, in 127 Veterans Affairs Medical centers between 2005 and 2010. The researchers found that 26 centers accounted for 75% of all tigecycline use, and just 8 centers accounted for 75% of all polymyxin use...
As childhood obesity and diabetes rates are skyrocketing in the US, many schools are eliminating physical education classes. A national study in the American Journal of Public Health reports that specific and required state legislation with regard to PE times could be a crucial tool to ensure that children meet the daily recommendations of physical activity...
Plant breeders of the Wisconsin-Madison University have developed a new oat variety called BetaGene, which is 2% higher in beta glucan and therefore even more cardio-friendly than other oat varieties on the market. John Mochon, program manager of the Small Grains Breeding Program in UW-Madison's agronomy department explains: "The biggest thing that stands out about this new variety, BetaGene, is that it's both a high yielding variety and high in beta glucan. Beta glucan is a heart-healthy chemical that is exclusive to oats...
A woman who is both over weight and pregnant faces double challenges, not least because many women who are not overweight struggle not to gain weight over the course of the nine month gestation period. Pregnant women who are overweight or obese can have serious health risks including high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, diabetes and premature birth, but there is good news. A study published today on bmj.com shows that these risks can be mitigated by following a healthy calorie controlled diet over the course of the pregnancy...
Genes play a greater role in forming character traits - such as self-control, decision making or sociability - than was previously thought, new research suggests. A study of more than 800 sets of twins found that genetics were more influential in shaping key traits than a person's home environment and surroundings. Psychologists at the University of Edinburgh who carried out the study, say that genetically influenced characteristics could well be the key to how successful a person is in life...
Researchers at Warwick Medical School have discovered a way of identifying which women are most at risk of postnatal depression (PND) by checking for specific genetic variants. The findings could lead to the development of a simple, accurate blood test which checks for the likelihood of developing the condition...
Response efforts to outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa can benefit from a standardized sampling strategy that focuses on the carcasses of gorillas, chimpanzees and other species known to succumb to the virus, according to a consortium of wildlife health experts. In a recently published study of 14 previous human Ebola outbreaks and the responses of wildlife teams collecting animal samples, the authors of the new study conclude that most efforts to collect samples from live animals (i.e. rodents, bats, primates, birds) failed to isolate Ebola virus or antibodies...
Using gene transfer techniques pioneered by University of Florida faculty, Taiwanese doctors have restored some movement in four children bedridden with a rare, life-threatening neurological disease. The first-in-humans achievement may also be helpful for more common diseases such as Parkinson's that involve nerve cell damage caused by lack of a crucial molecule in brain tissue. The results are reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine...
For older adults with "C2" fractures of the upper (cervical) spine, surgery and nonsurgical treatment provide similar short- and long-term outcomes, reports a study in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Although the patients were at significant risk of complications and death in the year or two after C2 fracture, these risks are similar with surgical and nonsurgical treatment...
Radiation oncology researchers have revised the system used by doctors since the 1990s to determine the prognosis of people with glioblastoma, which is the most devastating of malignant brain tumors. The outdated system was devised for glioblastoma and related brain tumors that were treated by radiation therapy only, and it relied on clinical signs and symptoms. It divided patients into six prognostic groups...
The experimental drug ibrutinib (PCI-32765) shows great promise for the treatment of elderly patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to interim findings from a clinical trial. The phase I/II trial, co-led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) and MD Anderson Cancer Center, indicates that the oral agent has few side effects and a high one-year survival rate in older patients...
ACE2, a molecule that has been shown to prevent damage in the heart, is now proving to be protective of the major organs that are often damaged in diabetic patients. Gavin Oudit, a researcher with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and his colleagues at the University of Florida, found that lab models that lacked ACE2 had worse cardiovascular complications related to diabetes. "We show that if you take ACE2 away, they [lab models of diabetes] do very poorly," said Oudit. "It worsened their heart function and their vascular function...
Scientists are reporting development and testing of a new series of drugs that could finally stop the fox tapeworm - which causes a rare but life-threatening disease in humans - dead in its tracks. The report, which appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, shows that specific organometallic substances that help combat cancer are also the surprising best new hope for a treatment against tapeworm infection. Carsten Vock, Andrew Hemphill and colleagues explain that alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a parasitic disease caused by the fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis...
With epidemics of Type 2 diabetes looming in rural India, China and other areas of the world where poverty limits the availability of health care, scientists are reporting development of an inexpensive and easy-to-use urine test ideally suited for such areas. The report describing the paper-based device, which also could be adapted for the diagnosis and monitoring of other conditions and the environment, appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry. Jan Lankelma and colleagues point out that monitoring glucose levels is important...
An extract of the Chinese herb kudzu dramatically reduces drinking and may be useful in the treatment of alcoholism and curbing binge drinking, according to a new study by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers. "Our study is further evidence that components found in kudzu root can reduce alcohol consumption and do so without adverse side effects," said David Penetar, PhD, of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, and the lead author of the study...
Screening lung cancer tumor samples for cancer-causing, or "driver," genetic mutations can help physicians tailor patients' treatments to target those specific mutations. While scientists have identified cancer-causing mutations for the majority of lung adenocarcinomas - the most common type of non-small cell lung cancer - and have developed drugs that can successfully address them, scientists have not yet identified targeted therapies for another type of non-small cell lung cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma...
For some patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, treatment may begin before they undergo cystectomy, or surgical removal of the bladder. They may be advised by oncologists to receive chemotherapy before surgery. A large randomized clinical trial published in 2003 demonstrated a survival benefit for neoadjuvant, or pre-surgical, MVAC (methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin and cisplatin) using a standard dose and schedule. However, in an effort to improve toxicity, standard MVAC has been essentially abandoned in favor of other regimens...
Poor Phineas Gage. In 1848, the supervisor for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont was using a 13-pound, 3-foot-7-inch rod to pack blasting powder into a rock when he triggered an explosion that drove the rod through his left cheek and out of the top of his head. As reported at the time, the rod was later found, "smeared with blood and brains...
Returning extra medicine to the pharmacy for disposal might not be worth the extra time, money or greenhouse gas emissions, according to a University of Michigan study that is the first to look at the net effects of so-called take-back programs. The new evidence suggests that discarding unused drugs in the trash is a better option to limit the risk of poisoning and at the same time curb pollution of both water and air. To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers compared the total emissions created by take-back, trash and toilet disposal methods...
iPhones and other smartphones can be a huge help to the visually impaired, but few vision doctors are recommending them to patients, according to a study co-authored by a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine ophthalmologist. Researchers surveyed 46 low-vision adults from The Chicago Lighthouse and the Spectrios Institute for Low Vision in Wheaton, Ill. Participants' best-corrected vision ranged from 20/70 to complete blindness...
A new prospective study of six-month-old infants at high genetic risk for autism identified weak head and neck control as a red flag for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and language and/or social developmental delays. Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute concluded that a simple "pull-to-sit" task could be added to existing developmental screenings at pediatric well visits to improve early detection of developmental delays. "Research aimed at improving early detection of autism has largely focused on measurement of social and communication development," said Dr...
On April 12, 2011, nearly fifteen years after she became paralyzed and unable to speak, a woman controlled a robotic arm by thinking about moving her arm and hand to lift a bottle of coffee to her mouth and take a drink. That achievement is one of the advances in brain-computer interfaces restorative neurotechnology and assistive robot technology described in the journal Nature by the BrainGate2 collaboration of researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School., and the German Aerospace Center (DLR)...
Investigators from Boston University (BU) and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System have shown evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in brain tissue from blast-exposed military service personnel. Laboratory experiments conducted by the investigators demonstrated that exposure to a single blast equivalent to a typical improvised explosive device (IED) results in CTE and long-term brain impairments that accompany the disease...
Even though hundreds of thousands more people finished grueling 26.2 mile marathons in the United States in 2009 compared to a decade earlier, a runner's risk of dying during or soon after the race has remained very low - about .75 per 100,000, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. Men, however, were twice as likely to die as women. "It's very dramatic when someone dies on the course, but it's not common," says Julius Cuong Pham, M.D., Ph.D...
The constant health education that dialysis patients receive can lead to boredom and noncompliance. But a Loyola University Medical Center study has found that brief, casual chats can be a significant benefit to patients. The technique is called "talking control support therapy." As patients were undergoing dialysis, researchers stopped by for informal chats. A typical conversation began with small talk, before moving on to general conversation about healthy dialysis lifestyles. Unlike conventional dialysis education, no specific education goals were set...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) generally approves drug therapies faster and earlier than its counterparts in Canada and Europe, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers. The study counters perceptions that the drug approval process in the United States is especially slow. Led by second-year medical student Nicholas Downing and senior author Joseph S. Ross, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, the study was published online by the New England Journal of Medicine...
Suicides by psychiatric in-patients have fallen to a new low, research just published has found. The study by the University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness, one of very few to look at trends over time, shows the rate of suicide among psychiatric in-patients fell by between 29% and 31% between 1997 and 2008 with nearly 100 fewer deaths per year. The falls were seen across most groups of patients with the biggest falls in young patients and those with schizophrenia. On wards, deaths by hanging fell by nearly 60%...
