Health News

Swallowing exercises aid head and neck cancer recovery

Date: Sep-01-2013
Patients with head and neck cancers who receive chemoradiation typically have long-term side effects, like difficulty swallowing or need for a feeding tube. But researchers in California have developed a "swallow therapy," which has been shown to significantly improve post-treatment quality of life. The study, which was recently published in the journal Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, comes from a team at the University of California, Los Angeles' Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC)...

Low adiponectin levels prior to pregnancy linked to high risk of gestational diabetes

Date: Sep-01-2013
Overweight women with low levels of the hormone adiponectin prior to pregnancy are nearly seven times more likely to develop gestational diabetes, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in the journal Diabetes Care. Adiponectin protects against insulin resistance, inflammation and heart disease. Using Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect®, an electronic health records system, the researchers retrospectively identified about 4,000 women who gave voluntary blood samples between 1985 and 1996 during routine care and subsequently delivered an infant...

What is a stress test?

Date: Aug-31-2013
A stress test, also known as an exercise test or treadmill test, is used by doctors to determine how well a patient's heart works during physical activity. When the heart pumps harder during exercise, the stress test can reveal problems, such as poor blood supply through the coronary arteries - these problems might not be apparent at other times. The stress test is also useful when the doctor is advising patients on the best type of physical activity for them...

Management of rheumatoid arthritis just as good with specialist nurses as with doctors

Date: Aug-31-2013
Patients attending clinical nurse specialist clinics do not get inferior treatment to that offered by consultant rheumatologists, the results of a major new clinical trial have revealed. The results of the multi-centre trial at the University of Leeds, funded by Arthritis Research UK, showed that there may be some clinical benefit to people with rheumatoid arthritis, whose condition is managed in clinics run by rheumatology clinical nurse specialists, especially with respect to their disease activity, pain control, physical function and general satisfaction with their care...

Knee osteoarthritis risk unaffected by moderate exercise

Date: Aug-31-2013
A new study suggests that the risk of middle-aged and older adults developing knee arthritis is unaffected by doing up to 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity, the level recommended by the US goverment. Researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), came to this conclusion after studying data on over 1,500 participants aged 45 and over. The study was published online on August 27th in Arthritis Care & Research. Lead author Dr...

Gut bacteria 'too low' in quarter of population

Date: Aug-31-2013
Scientists say that around a quarter of the population, particularly those who are obese, have 40% less intestinal bacteria than needed to maintain good health, according to a study published in the journal Nature. Researchers from Europe conducted a genetic analysis on human gut microbial composition on 292 people from Denmark. Of the subjects, 169 were obese and 123 were at a normal, healthy weight. Results of the analysis revealed that a quarter of the participants had 40% fewer gut bacteria genes and correspondingly less bacteria than average...

Spouse's voice easier to understand or ignore in a crowd

Date: Aug-31-2013
If your spouse ignores your voice from across a crowded room, chances are they have chosen to. According to a recent study, the recognizable voice of a spouse stands out against background noise, sharpening perception and focus for other individual voices. Ingrid Johnsrude from Queen's University in Canada, along with colleagues, recorded married couples between the ages of 44 and 79, who read scripted lines out loud. Then, each pair separately put on headphones and listened to his or her spouse's voice as it played at the same time as a stranger's voice...

New sensor for SERS Raman spectroscopy - almost as sensitive as a dog's nose

Date: Aug-31-2013
Scientists at ETH Zurich and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California have developed an innovative sensor for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Thanks to its unique surface properties at nanoscale, the method can be used to perform analyses that are more reliable, sensitive and cost-effective. In experiments with the new sensor, the researchers were able to detect a certain organic species (1,2bis(4-pyridyl)ethylene, or BPE) in a concentration of a few hundred femtomoles per litre. A 100 femtomolar solution contains around 60 million molecules per litre...

One third of colorectal surgical patients ready for discharge the day after bowel resection with pain relief technique

Date: Aug-31-2013
Surgeons at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, are working to reduce serious complications that have been known to occur with colorectal operations. In addition to using a set of pre-and postoperative standards that speed recovery which they have been publishing on for more than a decade, the researchers have validated yet another step surgeons can take to further reduce patients' hospital stays: adding a procedure called the transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block to patients' surgical care...

Reducing teacher stress and burnout through mindfulness training

Date: Aug-31-2013
Teachers who practice "mindfulness" are better able to reduce their own levels of stress and prevent burnout, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center. The results of the study, led by Assistant Scientist Lisa Flook, were recently published in the journal Mind, Brain and Education...