Health News

How neural circuits identify information needed for decisions

Date: Nov-10-2013
While eating lunch you notice an insect buzzing around your plate. Its color and motion could both influence how you respond. If the insect was yellow and black you might decide it was a bee and move away. Conversely, you might simply be annoyed at the buzzing motion and shoo the insect away. You perceive both color and motion, and decide based on the circumstances. Our brains make such contextual decisions in a heartbeat. The mystery is how...

Hormone levels in women using contraception affect nerve activity involved in vessel constriction

Date: Nov-10-2013
After menopause, women's levels of estrogen and progesterone fall. Their formerly lower risk for heart disease equals, even surpasses, men's risk. One possible contributing explanation for the change in risk is that sex hormones affect the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which controls constriction of blood vessels and participates in the fight or flight response. A new study by researchers at Western Ontario University is among the first to look at the hormone/SNS relationship in young women taking hormone contraceptives...

Music training in childhood boosts the brain in adulthood

Date: Nov-10-2013
If you have to endure hours of squeaky tunes while your child practices their music, take heart. A new study has shown that even a little musical training in early childhood has a lasting, positive effect on how the brain processes sound. Researchers from Northwestern University state that playing a musical instrument changes the anatomy and function of the brain. But they questioned whether these changes continue after the music training stops...

Gelatin allergies and the flu shot: caution advised

Date: Nov-10-2013
If putting marshmallows in your hot chocolate or eating gummy bears makes your tongue swell or causes itchiness, experts say you may want to be cautious about getting a flu shot this winter, as certain vaccines contain gelatin. As flu vaccine coverage is on the rise in the US, experts from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) warn that individuals who are allergic to gelatin could have a mild to severe reaction to the flu vaccine...

Nanoparticles filled with chemotherapeutic drugs can kill drug-resistant breast cancer cells

Date: Nov-10-2013
Nanoparticles are just as small, or even smaller, than many blood proteins. They can therefore pass through the walls of healthy and sick cells, which make them interesting carriers of drugs against cancer and other diseases. In the present study, researchers from Karolinska Institutet have shown that nanoparticles made from biodegradable plastics can overcome drug resistance in breast cancer cells. Such resistance is especially common in relapsing cancer patients and depresses, even neutralises the effect of the therapy against the tumour in many instances...

Increased brain activity linked to self-reflection during depression

Date: Nov-10-2013
New research has shown that people who experience depressive episodes demonstrate increases in brain activity when they think about themselves, compared with people who are not depressed. This is according to a study published in the journal PLOS One. Researchers from the University of Liverpool in the UK say their findings "lead the way" for further studies looking at neural and psychological mechanisms linked to depression...

Life-saving clot-busting drugs more likely to be administered in hospitals with neurology residency programs

Date: Nov-10-2013
Stroke patients treated at hospitals with neurology residency programs are significantly more likely to get life-saving clot-busting drugs than those seen at other teaching or non-teaching hospitals, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests. The findings, described online in the journal Neurology, suggest that patients at academic medical centers with neurology residency programs likely benefit from having stroke specialists on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week...

What will it take to achieve an AIDS-free world?

Date: Nov-10-2013
Since the onset of the AIDS pandemic more than three decades ago, researchers from the lab and physicians in the clinic have been working toward one shared goal: an AIDS-free world. A conference hosted by the journals Cell and The Lancet brought leading researchers and clinicians together to discuss recent findings that could bring hope to the estimated 35 million people world-wide who live with HIV...

Mending ruptures in client-therapist relationship during PTSD treatment has positive benefits

Date: Nov-10-2013
In order for prolonged exposure therapy, an evidence-based psychotherapy for PTSD, to reach its full potential, any misperceptions or ruptures in trust and communication between therapist and client need fixing, according to a new Case Western Reserve University study. The study, reported in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology online article, "Patterns of Therapeutic Alliance: Rupture-Repair Episodes in Prolonged Exposure for PTSD," is among the first to examine how ruptures in the relationship between the therapist and client can damage a patient's treatment outcome...

Adolescent children's relationships affected by Moms' relationships

Date: Nov-10-2013
Until now, little research has been conducted on the association between parents' friendships and the emotional well-being of their adolescent children. A new study from researchers at the University of Missouri suggests that mothers' friendships with other adults can impact their adolescent children's relationships with their own friends, particularly the negative aspects of these relationships such as conflict and antagonism. Gary C...