Health News

Mediterranean diet 'reduces genetic stroke risk'

Date: Aug-15-2013
Scientists say they have discovered that the Mediterranean diet may prevent a genetic risk of stroke since it appears to interact with a particular gene variant usually associated with type 2 diabetes. Researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University, and the CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutricion in Spain, conducted the study, which was published in the journal Diabetes Care. The research team analyzed 7,018 men and women involved in the Prevencion con Dieta Mediterranea (PREDIMED) trial...

Hypnotic suggestions can prompt conscious hallucinations

Date: Aug-15-2013
Researchers have discovered that "hypnotic suggestions" - instructions that encourage a response from those under hypnosis - may trigger automatic cues, such as for how we perceive color. Researchers from Finland and Sweden conducted two studies revealing the brain's oscillatory (repetitive variation) activity using EEGs in two participants under hypnosis. In the first study published in the journal PLOS One, researchers measured the response of two female patients as they were briefly shown a series of three shapes - squares, triangles or circles - in either red or blue...

Brain injuries: measuring consciousness by 'perturbing the brain'

Date: Aug-15-2013
Assessing consciousness in patients with severe brain trauma is a difficult challenge for doctors, as the injury effectively takes away any ability to blink, squeeze a hand or otherwise respond. But scientists have found a way to measure the brain's response to a magnetic pulse, helping them determine a person's level of awareness. The researchers in Italy, led by Marcello Massimini, set out to find a reliable, objective way to distinguish an unconscious brain from a conscious one...

Colorectal cancer trigger may lie in mouth bacteria

Date: Aug-15-2013
Two new studies published this week suggest that a type of gut bacteria found in the mouth may trigger colorectal cancer by influencing the immune response and switching on cancer genes. The researchers believe their findings may lead to more timely and improved ways of diagnosing, preventing, and treating colorectal cancer. Our gut contains trillions of bacteria, vastly outnumbering our own cells. These microbe communities maintain our health by training our immune system and helping us digest food. But they can also trigger disease...

DNA scientists map origins of cancer

Date: Aug-15-2013
Scientists have produced a comprehensive catalogue of DNA signatures of mutations that cause the most common cancers in humans, and identified some of the biological processes involved. They believe their findings will greatly increase understanding of cancer and make a major contribution to preventing and treating the disease. Cancer happens when mutations in the DNA of cells disrupt normal growth and functioning causing them to form tumors...

Leap in survival rates for childhood leukaemia patients with rare genetic abnormality

Date: Aug-15-2013
A pioneering genetic study means that children with a rare subtype of leukaemia have 75% less chance of their leukaemia recurring.  A study by Newcastle University scientists, published online on August 12th in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, has shown that lives have already been saved as a result of identifying children carrying a chromosomal abnormality known as iAMP21 and giving these patients a very intensive treatment regimen...

"Bring your own device" to work tech trend helps nurses provide improved patient care

Date: Aug-15-2013
Not long ago, hospital IT departments supplied and maintained the hardware and software that nurses used to perform work-related tasks. Then came the mobile revolution, when consumers increasingly began carrying smartphones and tablets to assist them in their personal lives as well as in business. As a direct result, many nurses today are following the trend known as BYOD - bring your own device...

International research team identifies top risk factors for children during influenza pandemic

Date: Aug-15-2013
An international team of pediatric specialists, representing the world's five major pediatric emergency medicine research networks, has identified several crucial risk factors for alerting clinicians to children most susceptible to life-threatening infections from the H1N1 influenza (flu). It is the first study to detail which clinical factors at hospital arrival in children with influenza-like illness and H1N1 infection are associated with the progressive risk to either severe infection or death...

Age-related variations observed in treatment of melanoma

Date: Aug-15-2013
Age-related variations in the treatment of melanoma were observed in a study of melanoma and its management in the elderly compared to younger patients, according to a study by Dragos Ciocan, M.D., of the Unité d'Aide Méthodologique, Hopital Robert Debré, Reims, France, and colleagues.  Elderly people have the highest incidence of melanoma and life expectancy is increasing in most developed countries, according to the study background.  The study included 1,621 patients with stage I or stage II melanoma in 2004 and 2008...

Survey estimates extent of nontreatment and undertreatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in U.S. patients

Date: Aug-15-2013
Nontreatment and undertreatment of patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis appears to still be a significant problem in the United States, according to a study by April W. Armstrong, M.D., M.P.H., of University of California-Davis, Sacramento, and colleagues.  A total of 5,604 patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis completed surveys collected by the National Psoriasis Foundation from January 2003 through December 2011.  From 2003 through 2011, patients who were untreated ranged from 36.6 percent to 49.2 percent of patients with mild psoriasis, 23.6 percent to 35...