Health News

Contact-sport brain trauma may affect personality and cognition

Date: Aug-23-2013
Scientists have discovered that repeated brain trauma, which commonly occurs in athletes, may affect behavior, mood and thinking abilities, according to a study published in the journal Neurology. Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine examined the brains of 36 deceased male athletes aged between 17 and 98 years. All athletes had been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) following death. CTE is a brain disease linked to repeated brain trauma - most commonly found in athletes...

Disappointed sports fans more likely to eat junk food

Date: Aug-23-2013
It is always disappointing when your favorite sports team loses a game. But according to researchers, sports fans of losing teams can become so miserable that they reach for junk food. Researchers from INSEAD Business School analyzed the food consumption of NFL (National Football League) fans over two seasons of games every Monday, in more than two dozen cities. Yann Cornil, researcher at INSEAD, says that although prior studies had shown that sport outcomes influence reckless driving, heart attacks and even domestic violence, no one had examined how they influence eating habits...

Clot-dissolving drug administered to greater variety of patients, still not fully utilized

Date: Aug-23-2013
Use of the "clot-busting" drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to treat patients with strokes caused by a blockage of blood flow nearly doubled between 2003 and 2011. In their paper receiving online release in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a team of researchers reports both an overall increase in the use of tPA to dissolve clots blocking arteries supplying the brain and administration of the potentially life-saving drug to a more diverse group of patients...

Testing drugs for elemental impurities - First update in a century

Date: Aug-23-2013
For the first time in more than 100 years, drug and dietary supplement manufacturers are updating the tests used to ensure that their products contain safe levels of metal impurities, and the stringent new requirements, instruments and costs are the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. Ann Thayer, C&EN senior correspondent, explains that in 1905, the nonprofit standards-setting U.S...

Nanomaterial Safety Assessment: Alternative Test Strategies

Date: Aug-23-2013
A group of international experts from government, industry and academia have concluded that alternative testing strategies (ATSs) that don't rely on animals will be needed to cope with the wave of new nanomaterials emerging from the boom in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Their consensus statement from a workshop on the topic appears in the journal ACS Nano. Andre Nel and colleagues explain that many new engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are appearing in laboratories, factories and consumer products as a result of advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology...

Why is psychotherapy going out of favor?

Date: Aug-23-2013
In a special issue of Clinical Psychology Review edited by two Brown University professors of psychiatry and human behavior, psychologists analyze why the use of psychotherapy has declined despite a strong evidence base for the efficacy of some psychosocial treatments. The problems, they find, lie within the profession as well as outside. Psychotherapy has issues. Evidence shows that some psychosocial treatments work well for common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and that consumers often prefer them to medication...

Boosting brain power through video games

Date: Aug-23-2013
Certain types of video games can help to train the brain to become more agile and improve strategic thinking, according to scientists from Queen Mary University of London and University College London (UCL). The researchers recruited 72 volunteers and measured their 'cognitive flexibility' described as a person's ability to adapt and switch between tasks, and think about multiple ideas at a given time to solve problems...

In domestic violence cases, studies explore weapons/arrests

Date: Aug-23-2013
Weapons were involved in 40 percent of domestic violence cases in Houston, and researchers discovered distinct patterns on when and where each type of weapon was used, according to a recent study at Sam Houston State University. The study, "Profiling Weapon Use in Domestic Violence: Multilevel Analysis of Situational and Neighborhood Factors," was based on 9,450 detailed reports of domestic violence cases that occurred in 2005 throughout Houston, the nation's fourth largest city...

Flu vaccine could 'halve' chance of heart attack for people at cardiac risk

Date: Aug-23-2013
Scientists say that the flu vaccination may "halve the risk of heart attack in middle-aged people with narrowed arteries." The researchers from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Australia publish their study in the journal Heart. They set out to discover whether flu could be a contributing factor of increased heart attack risk. The study analyzed 559 patients over the age of 40. Of these patients, 275 had suffered a heart attack, while 284 had not. All patients were referred to a tertiary hospital over consecutive flu seasons between 2008 and 2010...

Early temporary ART for HIV-infected infants prevents damage to immune system and delays need for life-long treatment

Date: Aug-23-2013
Giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) immediately after diagnosis for a limited period of time is more beneficial than postponing treatment in young infants infected with HIV, slowing progression of the disease and delaying the time to starting long-term ART, according to new research published in The Lancet...