Health News

Nearly 60 per cent of herbal products studied omitted ingredients, contained fillers

Date: Oct-15-2013
Consumers of natural health products beware. The majority of herbal products on the market contain ingredients not listed on the label, with most companies substituting cheaper alternatives and using fillers, according to new research from the University of Guelph. The study, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, used DNA barcoding technology to test 44 herbal products sold by 12 companies. Only two of the companies provided authentic products without substitutions, contaminants or fillers...

Orthopaedic surgeons play crucial role in diagnosing mTBI among trauma care patients

Date: Oct-15-2013
In the United States, approximately 1.4 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year. Of those injuries, three out of four are minor TBI (mTBI) - a head injury that causes a temporary change in mental status including confusion, an altered level of consciousness, or perceptual or behavioral impairments.  According to a literature review appearing in the October 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), falls and motor vehicle accidents are responsible for most cases of mTBI and also are a common cause of bone and joint injuries...

More secrets of glioblastoma multiforme exposed by the Cancer Genome Atlas

Date: Oct-15-2013
When The Cancer Genome Atlas launched its massively collaborative approach to organ-by-organ genomic analysis of cancers, the brain had both the benefit, and the challenge, of going first. TCGA ganged up on glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and lethal of brain tumors, with more than 100 scientists from 14 institutions tracking down the genomic abnormalities that drive GBM. Five years later, older and wiser, TCGA revisited glioblastoma, producing a broader, deeper picture of the drivers - and potential therapeutic targets - of the disease published in the journal Cell...

For childhood cancer survivors, preventable risk factors pose serious threat to heart health

Date: Oct-15-2013
For childhood cancer survivors, risk factors associated with lifestyle, particularly hypertension, dramatically increase the likelihood of developing serious heart problems as adults, according to a national study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) is one of the first to focus on how hypertension, diabetes, obesity and elevated blood lipids contribute to cardiovascular disease in childhood cancer survivors...

Link between 'pouchitis' after ulcerative colitis surgery and changes in gene expression

Date: Oct-15-2013
"Pouchitis" developing after surgery for ulcerative colitis (UC) is associated with changes in gene expression, which increase along with disease severity, reports a study in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, official journal of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. "Gene alterations in pouch inflammation and Crohn's disease overlap, suggesting that inflammatory bowel disease is a spectrum, rather than distinct diseases," according to the new research by Dr S...

Region of brain develops abnormally in children who stutter

Date: Oct-15-2013
A new study by a University of Alberta researcher shows that children who stutter have less grey matter in key regions of the brain responsible for speech production than children who do not stutter. The findings not only improve our understanding of how the brain is built for speech production and why people stutter, but also affirm the importance of seeking treatment early, using approaches such as those pioneered by the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the U of A, said Deryk Beal, ISTAR's executive director...

Opioid system activated during social rejection

Date: Oct-15-2013
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," goes the playground rhyme that's supposed to help children endure taunts from classmates. But a new study suggests that there's more going on inside our brains when someone snubs us - and that the brain may have its own way of easing social pain. The findings, recently published in Molecular Psychiatry by a University of Michigan Medical School team, show that the brain's natural painkiller system responds to social rejection - not just physical injury...

Delay in treatment for heart attack leads to later return to work and earlier retirement

Date: Oct-15-2013
System delay in treating patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) postpones their return to work and increases early retirement, according to research presented at the Acute Cardiac Care Congress 2013 by Kristina Laut, PhD student from Aarhus, Denmark. The Acute Cardiac Care Congress 2013 is the annual meeting of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACCA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and was held 12-14 October in Madrid, Spain...

New breast cancer imaging 'detects subtypes and early treatment repsonse'

Date: Oct-15-2013
Researchers say that a new imaging technique tested on mice is able to identify breast cancer subtypes accurately, as well as detecting early treatment response. This is according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Research. The research team from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee says the imaging technique - optical metabolic imaging (OMI) - could eventually be used in endoscopes for live imaging of human cancers. When human cells experience metabolic activity in order to produce energy, this activity is altered in cancer cells, the researchers explain...

Cell growth discovery has implications for targeting cancer

Date: Oct-15-2013
The way cells divide to form new cells - to support growth, to repair damaged tissues, or simply to maintain our healthy adult functioning - is controlled in previously unsuspected ways UC San Francisco researchers have discovered. The findings, they said, may lead to new ways to fight cancer. The steps leading a quiet cell to make and divvy up new parts to form daughter cells rely on some of the cell's most complex molecular machines. Different machines play key roles at different stages of this cell cycle...