Health News

Discovery may lead to new treatments for allergic diseases

Date: Nov-13-2013
A collaboration among researchers in Israel and the United States has resulted in the discovery of a new pathway that has broad implications for treating allergic diseases - particularly eosinophil-associated disorders. The researchers from Tel Aviv University and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have discovered how this pathway kills eosinophils before they can cause havoc. Eosinophils are normal cellular components of the blood, but when the body produces too many eosinophils they can cause a variety of eosinophilic disorders...

Discovery of most common cause of muscle-weakening disease myasthenia gravis

Date: Nov-13-2013
An antibody to a protein critical to enabling the brain to talk to muscles has been identified as a cause of myasthenia gravis, researchers report. The finding that an antibody to LRP4 is a cause of the most common disease affecting brain-muscle interaction helps explain why as many as 10 percent of patients have classic symptoms, like drooping eyelids and generalized muscle weakness, yet their blood provides no clue of the cause, said Dr. Lin Mei, Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University...

Why young adults return to the parental home

Date: Nov-13-2013
Researchers from the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) at the University of Southampton have identified key 'turning-points' in young adults' lives which influence whether or not they return to the parental home. Dr Juliet Stone, Professor Ann Berrington and Professor Jane Falkingham have found that factors such as leaving full-time education, unemployment, or a relationship break-up, are highly significant in whether young people go back to living with their parents...

Biosensor developed to detect brain injuries during heart surgery

Date: Nov-13-2013
Johns Hopkins engineers and cardiology experts have teamed up to develop a fingernail-sized biosensor that could alert doctors when serious brain injury occurs during heart surgery. By doing so, the device could help doctors devise new ways to minimize brain damage or begin treatment more quickly. In the journal Chemical Science, the team reported on lab tests demonstrating that the prototype sensor had successfully detected a protein associated with brain injuries...

Promoting resilience and protecting child development in military families

Date: Nov-13-2013
Since 9/11, the United States has seen the largest sustained deployment of military service men and women in the history of the all-volunteer force, and our knowledge of military children and their families - one of the largest American subcultures, affecting 2 million children - has become outdated...

Genetic mutation and evolution of bitter taste sensitivity

Date: Nov-13-2013
It's no coincidence that the expression "to leave a bitter taste in one's mouth" has a double meaning; people often have strong negative reactions to bitter substances, which, though found in healthful foods like vegetables, can also signify toxicity. For this reason, the ability to sense bitterness likely played an important role in human evolution. A new study by University of Pennsylvania scientists provides new evidence underlining the significance of bitter taste perception...

Youth who are night owls are at greater risk for adverse outcomes

Date: Nov-13-2013
Teenagers who go to bed late during the school year are more prone to academic and emotional difficulties in the long run, compared to their earlier-to-bed counterparts, according to a new study from UC Berkeley. Berkeley researchers analyzed longitudinal data from a nationally representative cohort of 2,700 U.S. adolescents of whom 30 percent reported bedtimes later than 11:30 p.m. on school days and 1:30 a.m. in the summer in their middle and high school years...

Livers from donors with pre-hospital cardiac arrest considered for transplant

Date: Nov-13-2013
Researchers from the U.K. suggest that using organs from donors after circulatory death (DCD) who also suffered a previous cardiac arrest out of the hospital environment could expand the pool of available livers for transplant...

Critical mechanism identified for keeping new brain cells alive

Date: Nov-13-2013
A specialized type of brain cell that tamps down stem cell activity ironically, perhaps, encourages the survival of the stem cells' progeny, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Understanding how these new brain cells "decide" whether to live or die and how to behave is of special interest because changes in their activity are linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, mental illness and aging. "We've identified a critical mechanism for keeping newborn neurons, or new brain cells, alive," says Hongjun Song, Ph.D...

Hurdles faced by the uninsured when choosing health insurance

Date: Nov-13-2013
The new federal health-care law gives millions of Americans access to medical insurance. However, choosing the right coverage - a daunting task for most people - could be even more difficult for those who have never had health insurance, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Although the research took place before enrollment under the federal Affordable Care Act began last month, the study's authors identified hurdles that appear to be common among the uninsured...