Health News

Environmentally friendly pest management? Reproductive ability, desire, shut down in pest insects

Date: Aug-28-2013
Kansas State University entomologists have helped identify a neuropeptide named natalisin that regulates the sexual activity and reproductive ability of insects. The team is the first to observe and name the neuropeptide, which is composed of short chains of amino acids in the brain of insects and arthropods. The finding may open new possibilities for environmentally friendly pest management, said Yoonseong Park, professor of entomology at Kansas State University...

Discharging yourself against medical advice increases risk of readmitance, death

Date: Aug-28-2013
People who leave hospital against their doctors' orders are more likely to be readmitted to hospital or die, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "Leaving the hospital against medical advice was associated with increased risks of readmission to hospital and death that persisted for at least 6 months," writes Dr. Allan Garland, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, with coauthors. "Potential mechanisms for these associations directly related to the patients' acute illness include more severe illness or incomplete treatment of the illness...

Compounds already exist to potentially treat both inherited and non-inherited cases of Parkinson's disease

Date: Aug-28-2013
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have brought new clarity to the picture of what goes awry in the brain during Parkinson's disease and identified a compound that eases the disease's symptoms in mice. Their discoveries, described in a paper published online in Nature Neuroscience, also overturn established ideas about the role of a protein considered key to the disease's progress...

Drug dosage of valproate for epilepsy linked to specific birth defects

Date: Aug-28-2013
In a world first, new Australian medical research has given pregnant women with epilepsy new hope of reducing their chance of having a baby with physical birth defects. According to research published in the September 2013 issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, epilepsy experts at The Royal Melbourne Hospital have discovered a link between high doses of common epilepsy drug valproate and the increased risk of having a baby with spina bifida or hypospadias...

Discovery of 105 additional genetic errors that cause cystic fibrosis

Date: Aug-28-2013
Of the over 1,900 errors already reported in the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis (CF), it is unclear how many of them actually contribute to the inherited disease. Now a team of researchers reports significant headway in figuring out which mutations are benign and which are deleterious. In so doing, they have increased the number of known CF-causing mutations from 22 to 127, accounting for 95 percent of the variations found in patients with CF...

What is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)?

Date: Aug-28-2013
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), also known as Polycystic ovarian syndrome or Stein-Leventhal Syndrome, is a condition that affects a woman's ovaries. It is characterized by polycystic ovaries (cysts develop in the ovaries), irregular or no menstrual periods, irregular ovulation and high levels of androgens in the body. Androgens are male hormones. Women with PCOS usually have problems getting pregnant. According to the Office on Women's Health, USA, polycystic ovary syndrome affects about 1 woman in every 10. It can even affect girls as young as 11 years of age...

Men and women with a dementia diagnosis are more likely to receive a diagnosis of urinary or fecal incontinence than those without dementia

Date: Aug-27-2013
Patients with a diagnosis of dementia have approximately three times the rate of diagnosis of urinary incontinence, and more than four times the rate of fecal incontinence, compared with those without a diagnosis of dementia, according to a study in this week's issue of PLOS Medicine by Robert Grant (Kingston University and St. George's, University of London) and colleagues. Furthermore, patients with dementia and incontinence were more likely to receive incontinence medications and indwelling catheters than those with incontinence but without dementia, the authors state...

What causes schizophrenia? Gene discoveries offer clues

Date: Aug-27-2013
Scientists have discovered 13 new locations in our genetic code that could help explain the cause of schizophrenia. The researchers conducted an analysis over 59,000 people, publishing their findings in Nature Genetics. The study included 5,001 schizophrenia patients alongside 6,243 controls. This analysis was followed by a type of review that combines studies, a meta-analysis of studies into genome-wide associations. They also replicated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within 168 genomic regions of independent brain samples...

How earning power affects sleep quality

Date: Aug-27-2013
Occupation and pay has an effect on our quality of sleep, according to The Great British Bedtime Report from the UK's Sleep Council. The research for the report was conducted using an online poll in January of this year. More than 5,000 UK adults completed the survey, which asked them questions about their bedtime habits, occupation and household income. According to the report, couples who have a household income of less than around $54,400 (£35,000) a year are less likely to sleep together...

High coffee intake may help against prostate cancer

Date: Aug-27-2013
Consuming four or more cups of coffee a day could reduce the risk of prostate cancer recurrence and disease progression, according to a study published in the journal Cancer Causes and Control. Researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle analyzed 1,001 prostate cancer survivors from a population-based study, aged between 35 and 74 years of age. All survivors had been diagnosed with the disease between 2002 and 2005...