Health News

Study finds medicinal herb Gymnema slyvestre compounds block the fungal transition of Candida albicans

Date: Sep-16-2013
A Kansas State University microbiologist has found a breakthrough herbal medicine treatment for a common human fungal pathogen that lives in almost 80 percent of people. Govindsamy Vediyappan, assistant professor of biology, noticed that diabetic people in developing countries use a medicinal herb called Gymnema slyvestre to help control sugar levels. He decided to study the microbiological use of Gymnema slyvestre - a tropical vine plant found in India, China and Australia - to see if it could treat a common human fungal pathogen called Candida albicans...

Bacteria responsible for gum disease facilitates development and progression of rheumatoid arthritis

Date: Sep-16-2013
Does gum disease indicate future joint problems? Although researchers and clinicians have long known about an association between two prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases - periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) - the microbiological mechanisms have remained unclear...

Simple steps may identify patients that hold onto excess sodium

Date: Sep-16-2013
Getting a second urine sample and blood pressure measure as patients head out of the doctor's office appears an efficient way to identify those whose health may be in jeopardy because their bodies hold onto too much sodium, researchers report. "We want to prove that you can easily and efficiently identify these patients," said Evan A. Mulloy, a second-year medical student at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University. "We want this to become a part of our routine standard of care...

Revised Medicaid sterilization policy could reduce unintended pregnancies, save $215 million in annual public health costs, Pitt study finds

Date: Sep-16-2013
A revised Medicaid sterilization policy that removes logistical barriers, including a mandatory 30-day waiting period, could potentially honor women's reproductive decisions, reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and save $215 million in public health costs each year, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Their findings, published in the journal Contraception, support growing evidence for the need to revisit a national policy that disproportionally affects low-income and minority women at high risk for unintended pregnancies...

Rates of physical and sexual child abuse appear to have declined over the last 20 years; child neglect shows no decline

Date: Sep-16-2013
Rates of physical and sexual abuse of children have declined over the last 20 years, but for reasons not fully understood, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Yet, reports of psychological and emotional child abuse have risen in the same period, and data vary significantly as to whether child neglect is increasing, decreasing, or remaining constant. However, determining the incidence of child abuse and neglect presents a number of challenges, because cases could be underreported and definitions vary among entities that collect such information...

Are women less corrupt?

Date: Sep-16-2013
Women are more likely than men to disapprove of - and less likely to participate in - political corruption, but only in countries where corruption is stigmatized, according to new political science research from Rice University. "'Fairer Sex' or Purity Myth? Corruption, Gender and Institutional Context" finds that women are less tolerant of corrupt behavior, but only in democratic governments, where appropriating public policy for private gain is typically punished by voters and courts...

Researchers develop model to correct tornado historical data and improve risk prediction

Date: Sep-16-2013
In the wake of deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma this past spring, Florida State University researchers have developed a new statistical model that will help determine whether the risk of tornadoes is increasing and whether they are getting stronger. Climatologists have been hampered in determining actual risks by what they call a population bias: That is, the fact that tornadoes have traditionally been underreported in rural areas compared to cities. Now, FSU geography Professor James B. Elsner and graduate student Laura E...

Scripps Florida scientists pinpoint proteins vital to long-term memory

Date: Sep-16-2013
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a group of proteins essential to the formation of long-term memories. The study, published online ahead of print on September 12, 2013 by the journal Cell Reports, focuses on a family of proteins called Wnts. These proteins send signals from the outside to the inside of a cell, inducing a cellular response crucial for many aspects of embryonic development, including stem cell differentiation, as well as for normal functioning of the adult brain...

Toxic methylmercury-producing microbes more widespread than realized

Date: Sep-16-2013
Microbes that live in rice paddies, northern peat bogs and other previously unexpected environments are among the bacteria that can generate highly toxic methylmercury, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have learned. This finding, published in Environmental Science and Technology, explains why deadly methylated mercury is produced in areas where the neurotoxin's presence has puzzled researchers for decades...

Esteem issues determine how people put their best Facebook forward

Date: Sep-16-2013
How social media users create and monitor their online personas may hint at their feelings of self-esteem and self-determination, according to an international team of researchers. "The types of actions users take and the kinds of information they are adding to their Facebook walls and profiles are a refection of their identities," said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, Penn State. "You are your Facebook, basically, and despite all its socialness, Facebook is a deeply personal medium...