Health News

As many as 1 in 5 women don't believe their breast cancer risk

Date: Aug-19-2013
Despite taking a tailored risk assessment tool that factors in family history and personal habits, nearly 20 percent of women did not believe their breast cancer risk, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Most of the women who didn't believe their risk numbers said they did not feel it took into account their family history of cancer or their personal health habits. The tool did ask relevant questions about the individual's family and personal history...

Subset of type 1 diabetes patients with strong response to therapy identified

Date: Aug-19-2013
Primary results from a new clinical trial show that patients with type 1 diabetes treated with the monoclonal antibody teplizumab (MacroGenics, Inc.) exhibit greater preservation of C-peptide, a biomarker of islet cell function, compared to controls. Further analyses identified a discrete subset of the treatment group that demonstrated especially robust responses ("responders"), suggesting that these patients could be identified prior to treatment...

Hypnotic relaxation therapy improves sexual health for postmenopausal women with hot flashes

Date: Aug-19-2013
Hypnotic relaxation therapy improves sexual health in postmenopausal women who have moderate to severe hot flashes, according to Baylor University researchers who presented their findings at the American Psychological Association's recent annual meeting. The study, which examined sexual comfort, sexual satisfaction and sexual pleasure, is a first step toward a safe and effective alternative toward hormone replacement therapy, which carries associated risks of cancer and heart disease, said Gary Elkins, Ph.D...

Mathematical model makes defensible estimates of how scenarios might play out if anthrax were released in a terrorist attack

Date: Aug-19-2013
If terrorists targeted the United States with an anthrax attack, health care providers and policy makers would need key information - such as knowing the likelihood of an individual becoming infected, how many cases to expect and in what pattern, and how long to give antibiotics - to protect people from the deadly bacteria. Those questions gained urgency when anthrax-laced letters killed five people and infected 17 others in the wake of the terror attacks of September 2001...

Sympathetic neurons engage in "cross talk" with cells in the pancreas during early development

Date: Aug-19-2013
The human body is a complicated system of blood vessels, nerves, organs, tissue and cells each with a specific job to do. When all are working together, it's a symphony of form and function as each instrument plays its intended roles. Biologist Rejji Kuruvilla and her fellow researchers uncovered what happens when one instrument is not playing its part. Kuruvilla along with graduate students Philip Borden and Jessica Houtz, both from the Biology Department at Johns Hopkins University's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Dr...

Scientists find and assess prostate tumors with the help of sugar

Date: Aug-19-2013
A natural form of sugar could offer a new, noninvasive way to precisely image tumors and potentially see whether cancer medication is effective, by means of a new imaging technology developed at UC San Francisco in collaboration with GE Healthcare. The technology uses a compound called pyruvate, which is created when glucose breaks down in the body and which normally supplies energy to cells. In cancer, however, pyruvate is more frequently converted to a different compound, known as lactate...

African-American women who experience racism at increased risk for adult-onset asthma

Date: Aug-19-2013
According to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, African-American women who reported more frequent experiences of racism had a greater likelihood of adult-onset asthma compared to women who reported less frequent experiences. The study, which currently appears on-line in the journal Chest, was led by Patricia Coogan, DSc, senior epidemiologist at SEC and research professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health...

Knockout mouse grows larger, but weaker, muscles: Finding has implications for age-related muscle loss

Date: Aug-19-2013
Although muscle cells did not reduce in size or number in mice lacking a protective antioxidant protein, they were weaker than normal muscle cells, researchers from the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio found. The scientists, who are faculty in the university's School of Medicine, are studying how oxidative stress in cells impacts sarcopenia - a loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs in all humans as they age. Protein knocked out selectively The antioxidant protein is called SOD1...

Factors influencing medical decisions for a cognitively impaired family member

Date: Aug-19-2013
Decision-making by a surrogate for a family member who is unable to make medical decisions is more complicated than decision-making by patients themselves, according to a study from the Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics of Indiana University Health. The researchers found that family decision-makers considered the cognitively impaired patient's wishes and interests. But they also took into account their own needs and preferences...

Vitamin D-related 'molecular switches' predict childhood bone mass

Date: Aug-19-2013
Researchers at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, have demonstrated that the degree to which a gene related to vitamin D action is switched on or off, when measured at birth, predicts bone density of the child at four years of age. In the study, 230 boys and girls were assessed at 4 years as part of the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS), a large ongoing mother-offspring cohort. The children visited the Osteoporosis Centre at Southampton General Hospital for measurement of their bone size and density using a DXA scanner...