Health News

Identification of genes associated with unhealthy liver function

Date: Oct-04-2013
A groundbreaking study of nearly 2,300 extremely obese diabetes patients, led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), has identified genes associated with unhealthy liver function. This is believed to be the nation's first large-scale genome-wide association study in overweight patients with diabetes. Results of the study, done in conjunction with the Geisinger Health System, will be presented at the 64th annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Nov. 1-5 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C...

A person wielding a gun focuses on the face

Date: Oct-04-2013
A person wielding a gun focuses more intently on the face of an opponent with a gun, presumably to try to determine that person's likelihood of pulling the trigger, according to a new study that builds on gun-in-hand research from the University of Notre Dame...

Reducing the guesswork in drug dosing

Date: Oct-04-2013
The discovery of genetic differences affecting up to a third of the population could take the guesswork out of prescribing the correct dose of 25 percent of drugs currently on the market, researchers say. The scientists found two genetic variants that alter the activity level of an enzyme responsible for processing, or metabolizing, drugs ranging from the painkiller codeine to the breast cancer drug tamoxifen...

Rituals, superstition and bad luck

Date: Oct-04-2013
Knocking on wood is the most common superstition in Western culture used to reverse bad fortune or undo a "jinx." Other cultures maintain similar practices, like spitting or throwing salt, after someone has tempted fate. Even people who aren't particularly superstitious often participate in these practices. A new study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that these superstitions actually do "reverse" perceived bad fortune. People believe that negative outcomes are especially likely after a jinx...

Study makes important step-forward in mission to tackle parasitic worm infections

Date: Oct-03-2013
Researchers from The Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR), University of Manchester have made an important step forward in finding a potential treatment for an infection that affects over a billion people worldwide. Gastrointestinal parasitic infections, which are worm infections in the intestine, affect nearly one quarter of the world population and have been heavily linked with poverty in poorer regions. They normally result in a chronic, long-lived infection associated with poor quality of life and health problems...

Study examines family connections for thyroid cancer using Utah population database

Date: Oct-03-2013
People that have a first- through third -degree relative diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) have an increased risk of developing it themselves, according to a study by Gretchen M. Oakley M.D., of the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, and colleagues.  To define the family risk, researchers examined 4,460 patients diagnosed with PTC between 1966 and 2011 at a tertiary care facility in Utah, using the Utah Population Database to access medical records and the Utah Cancer registry...

Study finds no change in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for sore throat

Date: Oct-03-2013
Visits to primary care physicians by adults with sore throats decreased between 1997 and 2010 but there was no change in the overall national antibiotic prescribing rate, according to a research letter by Michael L. Barnett, M.D., and Jeffrey A. Linder, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston.  The prevalence of group A Streptococcus (GAS) - a common cause of sore throat requiring antibiotics - is about 10 percent among adults seeking care from their physicians...

Direct link between obesity and pancreatic cancer

Date: Oct-03-2013
Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) have found the first direct link between obesity and cancer of the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms in humans. Like other cancers, early diagnosis improves long-term survival rates, but this particularly aggressive form does not usually display any early warning signs. According to the National Cancer Institute, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the most common type of pancreatic malignancy, is the fourth leading cancer killer in the US...

Making eye contact can be 'counterproductive'

Date: Oct-03-2013
A new study finds the widely held idea that making eye contact is an effective way of persuading others to come to your point of view does not always hold up. It may even make those who disagree with you less likely to change their minds. The new findings, published in a recent online issue of Psychological Science, suggest making eye contact may actually increase resistance to persuasion...

Cats may be key to HIV vaccine

Date: Oct-03-2013
There have been numerous studies showing how dogs can benefit human health, by sniffing out cancer, for example. Now it is time for cats to shine, as researchers say they may hold the key to a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine. Researchers from the University of Florida and the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered that blood from patients infected with HIV shows an immune response against a feline AIDS virus protein...