Health News

'Weighed down by guilt' is more than metaphor, studies show

Date: Oct-13-2013
Researchers have shown, through a series of experiments, that the heaviness of guilt is a very real thing. They found evidence that the emotions attached to guilt can be "grounded in subjective bodily sensation." Martin Day from Princeton University, NJ, and Ramona Bobocel from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, published the results of their four studies in the journal PLOS ONE. "People often say guilt is like a 'weight on one's conscience,' and we examined whether guilt is actually embodied as a sensation of weight," they say...

Barriers to implementing complimentary medicine curricula into residency identified

Date: Oct-13-2013
Investigators at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified that lack of time and a paucity of trained faculty are perceived as the most significant barriers to incorporating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and integrative medicine (IM) training into family medicine residency curricula and training programs. The study results, which are published online in Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, were collected using data from an online survey completed by 212 national residency program directors...

Uterine fibroids have greater impact in African American women

Date: Oct-13-2013
A national survey has found that uterine fibroids have a disproportionate impact on African American women, causing more severe symptoms, interfering with their daily life, and causing them to miss work. These new findings are reported in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Journal of Women's Health website. African American women have a 3-fold higher incidence of uterine fibroids and tend to have them at an earlier age...

Possible solution to liver problems linked to intravenous feeding

Date: Oct-13-2013
Researchers know that feeding some patients intravenously can save their lives - but also can cause liver damage. Now scientists at the University of Colorado and Children's Hospital Colorado have figured out the likely culprit, one of the ingredients in intravenous food, behind the liver problems. The discovery, published in Science Translational Medicine, could point the way to better treatments for patients who are medically vulnerable and, often, very young...

Standard, RHDVRT for bladder cancer has comparable tumor control, decreased toxicity

Date: Oct-13-2013
Standard and reduced high-dose volume radiation therapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer provide comparable tumor control and decreased late toxicity when compared to surgery, according to a study published in the print edition of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology - Biology - Physics, the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). The research is part of the United Kingdom's BC2001 clinical trial, one of the largest randomized trials conducted involving radiation therapy (RT) in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer...

Think you can accurately judge your friends' behavior? Think again

Date: Oct-13-2013
There is no such thing as objectivity when it comes to your friends: According to a new study, people evaluate their friends' behavior more positively than do strangers, regardless of actual performance on a series of tasks. Researchers say that we should then think twice before allowing people who know each other to be in positions to judge each other - from job interviews to legal settings. "In judging people we already know, we are more or less unable to ignore our previously established images of those people," says Daniel Leising of Technische Universität Dresden...

Best predictor of PTSD diagnosis is trauma-related psychophysiologic reactivity

Date: Oct-13-2013
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and several other institutions including the National Center for PSTD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Suffolk University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, have determined that psychophysiologic reactivity to trauma-related, script-driven imagery procedures is a promising biological predictor of a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. These findings appear online in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Approximately seven to 12 percent of the general adult population in the U.S. suffers with PTSD...

Boost for self-tracking wristwatch market

Date: Oct-13-2013
The market for wearable health-tracking devices has received a boost with multi-million dollar funding secured by a leader in the field of wristwatch-type products to continue its development of the "Basis" band. The Basis tracker can keep a close check on heart rate, motion, sweating and skin temperature, day and night, and develop personalized feedback toward the formation of healthy habits from the data it collects. The wristwatch-type device, already on the market, should see increased production and become more advanced now that its maker has raised a further $11...

Good cholesterol and breast cancer risk

Date: Oct-13-2013
High levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), also known as the "good cholesterol," are thought to protect against heart disease. However, what's good for one disease may not be good for another. High levels of HDL have also been linked to increased breast cancer risks and to enhanced cancer aggressiveness in animal experiments. Now, a team of researchers led by Philippe Frank, Ph.D...

Loving touch may be key to healthy sense of self

Date: Oct-13-2013
A new study suggests that a gentle caress may be the key to feeling comfortable with one's self. Researchers say a loving touch may increase the brain's ability to construct a sense of body ownership and, in turn, play a part in creating and sustaining a healthy sense of self. These findings come from a new study published online in Frontiers in Psychology, led by Dr. Aikaterini Fotopoulou from University College London and Dr. Paul Mark Jenkinson from the University of Hertfordshire, both in the UK...