Health News

Relief from emotional lows may be more important to addicts than euphoric highs

Date: Nov-10-2013
Cocaine addicts may become trapped in drug binges - not because of the euphoric highs they are chasing but rather the unbearable emotional lows they desperately want to avoid. In a study published online in Psychopharmacology, Rutgers University Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience Professor Mark West, and doctoral student David Barker in the Department of Psychology, in the School of Arts and Sciences, challenge the commonly held view that drug addiction occurs because users are always going after the high...

The influence of food order on healthy food selection at buffets

Date: Nov-10-2013
Every day millions of people stand in line at all-you-can-to-eat buffet lines waiting to satiate their palates with the delicious foods on the line. Most of these people, however, are unaware that food order biases what ends up on their plates: the first food in line is taken the most and biases what else is taken. In fact, this influence is so strong that in a recent study published in Public Library of Science One, Drs. Brian Wansink and Andrew Hanks found that two-thirds of an individual's plate is filled with the first items they encounter...

How torture affects pain perception

Date: Nov-09-2013
Torture survivors are likely to experience chronic pain, even decades later. And now, researchers from Tel Aviv University say the effects of torture may be permanent, particularly in how survivors perceive pain. If you have experienced extreme pain, the memory of it can linger. Studies have shown that the memory of pain may even overshadow the primary experience, and researchers have shown when pain is anticipated, patients report a worsening of pain. Conversely, even the expectation of pain relief can produce a placebo effect, diminishing the experience of pain...

Group of four screening characteristics offers more reliable identification of Pancreatic Cancer

Date: Nov-09-2013
Researchers from the University of Missouri have found a more accurate laboratory method for diagnosing pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The disease causes more than 38,000 deaths each year in the United States, and kills 94 percent of people with the illness within five years, according to the National Cancer Institute...

The greatest allergy myths and misconceptions, debunked

Date: Nov-09-2013
From gluten allergy and hypoallergenic pets, to avoiding the flu shot because of an egg allergy, there are a lot of common myths and misconceptions about allergies. Many might be shocking due to a great deal of false information in the media and on the Internet. And some of the misconceptions can be damaging to your health if vaccinations are skipped and extreme dietary avoidances are taken...

Study suggest parental supervision skills lacking in teenage parents

Date: Nov-09-2013
Although the number of children born to teenage parents has decreased since the 1990s, these children continue to be at an increased risk for injury, both accidental and intentional. This may be because many of these teenage parents are poor, uneducated, and lack parental safety and supervision skills. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers analyzed the types of injuries to children of teenage parents. Brian D...

Common genetic pathway could be conduit to pediatric tumor treatment

Date: Nov-09-2013
Investigators at Johns Hopkins have found a known genetic pathway to be active in many difficult-to-treat pediatric brain tumors called low-grade gliomas, potentially offering a new target for the treatment of these cancers. In laboratory studies, researchers found that the pathway, called mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), was highly active in pediatric low-grade gliomas, and that mTOR activity could be blocked using an experimental drug, leading to decreased growth of these tumors. "We think mTOR could function as an Achilles heel," says study co-author Eric Raabe, M.D., Ph.D...

In-group solidarity heightened by living through war

Date: Nov-09-2013
War experiences have a long-term effect on human psychology, shifting people's motivations toward greater equality for members of their own group, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. According to study co-author Joseph Heinrich of the University of British Columbia, "these effects have the potential to explain both why conflict sometimes leads to cycles of war and sometimes stimulates nation-building in its wake...

Postoperative pain may increase risk of temporary problems with learning, memory

Date: Nov-09-2013
The pain caused by a surgical incision may contribute to the risk of postoperative cognitive dysfunction, a sometimes transient impairment in learning and memory that affects a small but significant number of patients in the days following a surgical procedure. An animal study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers, appearing in the Journal of Neuroscience, also identifies a probable mechanism for pain-induced cognitive impairment, suggesting pathways that may be targeted by potential preventive measures...

Potential for prevention and treatment of heart failure in diabetics

Date: Nov-09-2013
Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered one of the pathogenic components of diabetes in the heart, as published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. While both heart disease and diabetes are widely studied, how diabetic cardiomyopathy develops is not well understood, other than that it seemed to be linked to protein kinase C (PKC) - a family of enzymes that controls the functions of other proteins by using phosphates to turn them on and off. Researchers at UTMB, led by assistant professor of biochemistry Dr...