Health News

Study finds men are more likely to develop physical illness than women

Date: Sep-11-2013
Men were more likely to develop a physical illness than women during a 10-year period studied by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital. Having a mental illness increases the risk of developing a physical illness by 10 times in both men and women, the study found. However, women with mental illness tend to develop a physical illness a year earlier than men, according to the study by Dr. Flora Matheson, a scientist in hospital's Centre for Research on Inner City Health...

Study finds antisocial texting by teens linked to bad behavior

Date: Sep-11-2013
For American teenagers, most text messaging is as harmless as passing notes, but University of Texas at Dallas researchers have discovered that engaging in antisocial texting can actually predict deviant behavior. On Monday, in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, scientists reported a correlation between the frequency with which adolescents text about antisocial behaviors and the likelihood that they will engage in them. "We were interested in how adolescents use electronic communication, particularly text messaging," said Dr...

Therapy slows onset and progression of Lou Gehrig's disease, study finds

Date: Sep-11-2013
Studies of a therapy designed to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suggest that the treatment dramatically slows onset and progression of the deadly disease, one of the most common neuromuscular disorders in the world. The researchers, led by teams from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Ludwig Institute at the University of California, San Diego, found a survival increase of up to 39 percent in animal models with a one-time treatment, a crucial step toward moving the therapy into human clinical trials...

Amino acid with promising anti-diabetic effects

Date: Sep-11-2013
New experiments conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen show that the amino acid arginine - found in a wide variety of foods such as salmon, eggs and nuts - greatly improves the body's ability to metabolise glucose. Arginine stimulates a hormone linked to the treatment of type 2 diabetes, and works just as well as several established drugs on the market. The research findings have just been published in the scientific journal Endocrinology...

Autoimmune disease strategy emerges from immune cell discovery

Date: Sep-11-2013
Scientists from UC San Francisco have identified a new way to manipulate the immune system that may keep it from attacking the body's own molecules in autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The researchers, led by immunologist Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, a professor with the UCSF Diabetes Center, have discovered a distinctive type of immune cell called an eTAC, which puts a damper on immune responses...

What are the benefits of ginger?

Date: Sep-11-2013
Ginger is an herb that is used as a spice and also for its therapeutic qualities. The underground stem (rhizome) can be used fresh, powdered, dried, or as an oil or juice. Ginger is part of the Zingiberaceae family, as are cardamom, turmeric and galangal. According to the National Library of Medicine, part of the NIH (National Institutes of Health), ginger is widely used throughout the world for treating loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting after surgery, nausea resulting from cancer treatment, flatulence, stomach upset, colic, morning sickness and motion sickness...

Genome of elastomeric materials creates novel materials

Date: Sep-11-2013
A wide range of biologically inspired materials may now be possible by combining protein studies, materials science and RNA sequencing, according to an international team of researchers. "Biological methods of synthesizing materials are not new," said Melik C. Demirel, professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State. "What is new is the application of these principles to produce unique materials." The researchers looked at proteins because they are the building blocks of biological materials and also often control sequencing, growth and self-assembly...

What are the health benefits of lavender?

Date: Sep-10-2013
Lavender is an herb native to northern Africa and the mountainous regions of the Mediterranean. The herb is highly regarded for skin and beauty and is commonly used in fragrances and shampoos to help wash and purify the skin. In fact, the word lavender originally stems from from the Latin word lavare which means "to wash". However, there are also many medicinal properties associated with lavender. Lavender is becoming increasingly grown for the production of its essential oil, which comes from the distillation of the flower spikes of certain species of the plant...

What is Biofeedback Therapy?

Date: Sep-10-2013
Biofeedback therapy involves training patients to control physiological processes such as muscle tension, blood pressure, or heart rate. These processes usually occur involuntarily, however, patients who receive help from a biofeedback therapist can learn how to completely manipulate them at will. Biofeedback is typically used to treat chronic pain, urinary incontinence, high blood pressure, tension headache, and migraine headache...

NCI scientists identify targets for melanoma immunotherapy

Date: Sep-10-2013
Using a highly sensitive technology called NanoString, researchers have identified seven targets that could potentially be used to develop new immunotherapies for patients with metastatic melanoma, according to a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "We identified seven potential candidate genes that deserve further consideration as targets for melanoma immunotherapy," said Richard Morgan, Ph.D...