Health News

Why Halloween candy can spook an aging digestive system

Date: Oct-17-2013
Have you ever wondered why young children can eat bags of Halloween candy and feel fine the next day - compared to adults who experience all sorts of agony following the same junk food binge? Evolution and a gene called Foxo may be to blame. Working in fruit flies, scientists at the Buck Institute have identified a mechanism that helps the flies adapt to changes in diet when they're young; they've discovered that same mechanism gets misregulated as the flies age, disrupting metabolic homeostasis, or balance...

Among mothers of low-income families, support structures do little to ease depressive symptoms

Date: Oct-17-2013
Being married or having the support of neighbors to rely on does little to alleviate the symptoms of depression associated with economic hardship often experienced by poor mothers. With these findings, published in Springer's American Journal of Community Psychology, Sharon Kingston of Dickinson College in the US challenges the growing perception that marriage and other forms of interpersonal support can buffer the negative effects of poverty...

Researchers take first step toward a macular dystrophy gene therapy

Date: Oct-17-2013
Vitelliform macular dystrophy, also known as Best disease, is one of a group of vision-robbing conditions called bestrophinopathies that affect children and young adults. Caused by inherited mutations in the BEST1 gene, these diseases cause severe declines in central vision as patients age. With a new study, University of Pennsylvania researchers report "encouraging" findings that mark the first clear step in developing a gene therapy that could prevent vision loss or event restore vision in individuals suffering from these conditions...

Laser hair removal lawsuits on the rise

Date: Oct-17-2013
Laser hair removal has ballooned in popularity since becoming commercially available in the mid-1990s. But this rise in popularity has a downside - a dramatic rise in litigation, particularly against non-medically trained practitioners. Laser hair removal is now one of the most common cosmetic procedures carried out in the US. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, state that in 2011, dermatologic surgeons carried out 1.6 million treatments...

Osteoporosis patients may benefit from treatments targeting NOX4 activity

Date: Oct-17-2013
Bone is constantly being broken down and remodeled. Osteoporosis results when bone resorption outpaces bone regeneration. Production of reactive oxygen species, a form of oxidative stress, has been predicted to promote bone loss, but a source of reactive oxygen is unknown. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Katrin Schröder and colleagues at Goethe-University identify a relationship between NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4), an enzyme that promotes reactive oxygen species formation, and bone resorption...

Antidepressants during pregnancy: what's best for mom and baby?

Date: Oct-17-2013
Do the benefits of treating depressed pregnant women with antidepressants outweigh the risks of the drug exposure to their babies in terms of neonatal health and long-term development? That hotly debated question from scientific and ethical perspectives will be at the center of Northwestern Medicine®'s 2013 Perinatal Mental Health Meeting Nov. 6 to 8 in Chicago. National experts from various fields will present new research findings on perinatal depression as well as offer workshops in how to best treat it with psychotherapy...

HIV protective drugs 'do not increase sexual risk-taking'

Date: Oct-17-2013
A new study suggests that people who are HIV negative in a heterosexual relationship with an HIV-positive partner do not demonstrate a significant increase in sexual risk-taking, even when they are protected against HIV transmission with prophylactic drugs. A team of international researchers, led by Dr. Jared Baeten of the University of Washington, Seattle, analyzed the data of more than 3,000 participants from the Partners PrEP study...

Hardened arteries in elderly linked to brain plaques

Date: Oct-17-2013
Elderly people suffering from hardening of the arteries are more likely to have beta-amyloid plaques in the brain - an indication of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the journal Neurology. According to the National Institute on Aging, plaques form in the spaces between the brain's nerve cells when pieces of protein called beta-amyloid clump together. This process is more common when a person ages, but those with Alzheimer's disease have more of the plaques within particular brain regions, compared with those who do not have the disease...

Food scientist creates citrus meatball recipe, improving nutritional quality without affecting taste

Date: Oct-17-2013
Many American diets fall short of meeting nutritional guidelines resulting in burgeoning obesity rates and health problems across the nation. Statistics show that most Americans consume only half of the daily recommended amount of dietary fiber. Now, a research team at the University of Missouri is addressing the fiber deficit by including citrus fiber in ground beef while retaining the quality and taste of the meat...

Discovery of new mechanism underlying translation-dependent synaptic plasticity

Date: Oct-17-2013
The brain is plastic - adapting to the hundreds of experiences in our daily lives by reorganizing pathways and making new connections between nerve cells. This plasticity requires that memories of new information and experiences are formed fast. So fast that the body has a special mechanism, unique to nerve cells, that enables memories to be made rapidly...