Health News

Bilingual education has spillover effect

Date: Sep-13-2013
Bilingual education programs have a substantial spillover effect on the students they're not designed for, according to a groundbreaking study co-authored by a Michigan State University scholar. Texas elementary students who speak English as their home language and were enrolled in schools with bilingual education programs performed much better on state math and reading tests than native English-speaking students at schools without bilingual education programs...

Migration capacity of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells towards glioma in vivo

Date: Sep-13-2013
Glioblastoma is the most common ma-lignant primary brain tumor in adults. The aggressive growth manner, characterized by marked angiogenesis and extensive tumor cell invasion into normal brain parenchyma with frequent formation of tumor microsatellites at distal sites, makes eradication impossible even after extensive microsurgical resection combined with current standard chemoradiation and adjuvant temozolomide. Thus, novel therapeutic strategies must to be investigated for the development of a more effective treatment strategy...

Why does a fancy purse say 'stay away from my man'?

Date: Sep-13-2013
Women are unconsciously deterring romantic rivals by buying certain luxury items, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Spending on luxury goods in the US amounts to as much as $525 billion per year, with women's products accounting for over half of this consumption. Why do women desire luxury goods?" write authors Yajin Wang and Vladas Griskevicius (both University of Minnesota). Sometimes it's because they want other women to know their mates are spoken for...

5-fold increase in ADHD medication use in children and adolescents

Date: Sep-13-2013
Use of stimulant medications to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents has increased significantly over the past several years. This trend toward increased use of prescription stimulants extends beyond ADHD to other types of neuropsychiatric disorders in children and teens as well, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to a study published in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology (JCAP), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the JCAP website...

Redefining the criteria for ALK positive lung cancer

Date: Sep-13-2013
A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal Cancer shows that the current criteria used to match lung cancers with the drug crizotinib may miss some patients who could benefit from the drug. The findings suggest that doctors should look closer at borderline or atypical ALK-negative cases, and could widen the population of lung cancer patients offered treatment with crizotinib or other ALK-inhibitor drugs...

Statins being overprescribed for growing number of kidney disease patients

Date: Sep-13-2013
A new analysis concludes that large numbers of patients in advanced stages of kidney disease are inappropriately being prescribed statins to lower their cholesterol - drugs that offer them no benefit and may increase other health risks such as diabetes, dementia or muscle pain. The findings, which were published in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs as a review of multiple studies, raise serious questions about the value of cholesterol-lowering therapies in kidney disease...

Adolescents appreciate mental benefits of exercise as much as physical, Concordia study shows

Date: Sep-13-2013
Dreams of washboard abs and toned arms may seem to be the main motivation for the average teen to lace up their running shoes. But over 1,000 Montreal high school students disagree. Teens, it seems, are smarter than their parents when it comes to approaching exercise as something that affects one's whole body...

African-American study identifies four common genetic variants associated with blood pressure

Date: Sep-13-2013
Case Western Reserve University is part of a landmark study that has discovered four novel gene variations which are associated with blood pressure. The 19-site meta-analysis, involving nearly 30,000 African-Americans, also found that the set of genetic mutations are also associated with blood pressure across other populations. Epidemiology and biostatistics professor Xiaofeng Zhu, PhD, is co-senior author of the paper, which appears in The American Journal of Human Genetics...

What is endometrial cancer? What is uterine cancer?

Date: Sep-13-2013
Endometrial cancer, also known as womb cancer or uterine cancer, is a type of cancer that begins in the uterus (womb), specifically in the layer of cells that form the lining of the uterus, called the endometrium. Endometrial cancer can also be called cancer of the womb or cancer of the uterus. Nearly all uterine cancers are endometrial cancer. However, there is another much rarer type called uterine sarcoma, in which the malignancy starts in the muscles surrounding the womb. Endometrial cancer and uterine sarcoma are usually treated differently...

Study shows why risk warnings are ineffective for kids

Date: Sep-13-2013
A recent study suggests that focusing on positive results, such as having better skin and more money by not smoking, rather than negative consequences (lung cancer and mortality risks) may be more effective when trying to send warnings to young people. In light of recent studies suggesting that graphic cigarette pack warnings have little impact on teens, the new findings help explain why kids are not able to learn from bad news in order to apply it to future events. The results were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...