Health News

Children of obese mothers at greater risk of early heart death as adults

Date: Aug-14-2013
Children of obese and overweight women have a higher risk of early cardiovascular death as adults, finds a study published on bmj.com. The findings highlight the urgent need for strategies to prevent obesity in women of childbearing age and the need to assess the offspring of obese mothers for their cardiovascular risk, say the authors. Rates of maternal obesity have risen rapidly in the past two decades. In the United States, about 64% of women of reproductive age are overweight and 35% are obese, with a similar pattern in Europe...

Cardiovascular researchers examine habits that can lead to obesity, future heart risk

Date: Aug-14-2013
Among middle-school children, the behaviors most often linked with obesity are school lunch consumption and two hours or more of daily TV viewing, according to a new look at the dramatic increase in childhood obesity. The findings by the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center will be published in the September issue of Pediatrics. While some habits were the same for all overweight and obese children, the study found some gender differences in the habits influencing body weight...

Characterizing stem cells in larval schistosomes may help control the prolific human parasite

Date: Aug-14-2013
Ancient Egyptian mummies revealed that humans have been hosting parasitic flatworms called schistosomes for more than 5,000 years. Today the parasites continue to plague millions of people across the world, causing roughly 250,000 deaths each year. The schistosome reproductive cycle results in exponentially more schistosomes each generation. Not only do the adults lay hundreds to thousands of eggs each day but the larval schistosomes are able to clone themselves thousands of times, with each clone capable of developing into an egg-producing adult...

Diabetes status should be taken into account in population studies that link weight and mortality

Date: Aug-14-2013
The relationship between body mass index (BMI) and mortality appears to be stronger in adults without diabetes than those with existing diabetes. These findings¹ are published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine² in a study by Chandra Jackson of the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues. The researchers suggest that studies on body weight and mortality should take into account the impact of diabetes status in the population...

Tumor suppressor may provide clues for improved treatment for neuroblastoma

Date: Aug-14-2013
Loss of a gene required for stem cells in the brain to turn into neurons may underlie the most severe forms of neuroblastoma, a deadly childhood cancer of the nervous system, according to a Ludwig Cancer Research study. Published in Developmental Cell, the findings also provide clues about how to improve the treatment of this often-incurable tumor. Neuroblastoma can appear in nervous tissue in the abdomen, chest and spine, among other regions of the body, and can spawn body-wracking metastasis...

Drugs that clog 'waste disposal' may treat aggressive breast cancers

Date: Aug-14-2013
In a new paper in Cancer Cell, a team led by Judy Lieberman, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine reports "triple-negative" breast cancers may be vulnerable to drugs that attack the proteasome. This cellular structure acts as the cell's waste disposal, breaking down damaged or unneeded proteins. These cancers, which lack the three major therapeutic markers for breast cancer - the estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptors - are very aggressive and difficult to treat...

'Molecular flashlight' developed that illuminates brain tumors in mice

Date: Aug-14-2013
In a breakthrough that could have wide-ranging applications in molecular medicine, Stanford University researchers have created a bioengineered peptide that enables imaging of medulloblastomas, among the most devastating of malignant childhood brain tumors, in lab mice. The researchers altered the amino acid sequence of a cystine knot peptide - or knottin - derived from the seeds of the squirting cucumber, a plant native to Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia...

Conflicts of interest common among panel members of guidelines that expand disease definitions

Date: Aug-13-2013
An assessment of expert members of panels making decisions about definitions or diagnostic criteria for common conditions in the US, which were published in guidelines used by physicians and other healthcare professionals caring for patients, found that most members had ties to industry. The assessment was made in a study from Ray Moynihan of Bond University, Queensland, Australia, and colleagues published in this week's issue of PLOS Medicine...

Ethical issues are often not addressed in national clinical practice guidelines for dementia

Date: Aug-13-2013
Twelve national dementia clinical practice guidelines included only half of 31 ethical issues the authors had identified as important in patient care, finds a study by Daniel Strech, of Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, and colleagues, published in this week's issue of PLOS Medicine.  The authors identified current national clinical practice guidelines for dementia care published in English or German...

Cervical cancer screening and treatment are neglected in low- and middle-income countries

Date: Aug-13-2013
While there have been substantial improvements in mortality rates and an increase in access to reproductive health interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the global health community is neglecting prevention, screening, and treatment for cervical cancer in LMICs. These are the conclusions of a new article in PLOS Medicine this week by Ruby Singhrao and colleagues from the University of California San Francisco, San Francisco...