Health News

Study finds significantly higher prevalence of glaucoma in people with sleep apnea

Date: Aug-11-2013
Researchers in Taiwan have discovered that people with sleep apnea are far more likely to develop glaucoma compared to those without the sleep condition. The results of this study, which is the first to calculate the risk of the disease among people with the sleep disorder following diagnosis, is published in this month's edition of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology...

Ovarian cancer sniffed out by dogs

Date: Aug-11-2013
Researchers are looking to create a breakthrough method of detecting ovarian cancer - by using dogs to sniff out the disease. A group of researchers collaborated to investigate using canine olfaction and chemical and nanotechnology analysis as a means of detecting early-stage ovarian cancer. The collaboration was between the Working Dog Center of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, the physics and astronomy department of Penn's School of Arts and Science, Penn's Gynecologic Oncology division and the Monell Chemical Senses Center...

Diabetes lifetime costs - as expensive as a house?

Date: Aug-11-2013
A recent report published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine breaks down the costs of living with type 2 diabetes over the course of a lifetime. The dollar amount is eye-opening, and so are the differences in costs between men and women. To calculate the costs of living with type 2 diabetes on an individual basis, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Research Triangle International created a simulation model that could compile the costs of both treating the condition and managing its complications...

A high-fat diet induces preeclampsia-like symptoms in pregnant rats

Date: Aug-11-2013
Preeclampsia is a relatively common pregnancy disorder, characterized by primary hypertension and proteinuria. In patients with severe preeclampsia, eclampsia can develop, causing nervous system symptoms and signs. In the clinic, some patients with preeclampsia suffer from eclampsia even with minimal blood pressure changes. Thus, the pathogenesis of hypertensive encephalopathy cannot fully explain the epilepsy-like attacks in eclampsia patients. We know that changes in neurotransmitter levels in the brain play an important role in epilepsy-like attacks...

Protection against rotavirus infection offered by engineered rice

Date: Aug-11-2013
For children and immune compromised adults in developing countries, diarrheal disease induced by rotavirus can be life threatening. Current rotaviral vaccines are highly effective in the Western world, but are not as effective in developing countries. Additionally, these vaccines are not appropriate for use outside of a very narrow age window or in immune compromised individuals. In the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yoshikazu Yuki and colleagues at the University of Tokyo report the development of a strain of rice that produces a rotavirus-specific antibody...

Cancer cells hide from the immune system in tumor microenvironment

Date: Aug-11-2013
Cancer progression is aided by the ability of tumors to evade recognition by the immune system. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gerard Blobe and colleagues at Duke University identify a mechanism by which tumors evade detection. Using mouse models of breast cancer and melanoma, they show that loss of the Type III TGF-β receptor (TGFBR3) in tumors promotes cancer progression by altering signaling in tumor-associated immune cells...

Sudy reveals key piece of RNA-splicing machinery

Date: Aug-11-2013
A little-studied factor known as the Little Elongation Complex (LEC) plays a critical and previously unknown role in the transcription of small nuclear RNAs (snRNA), according to a new study led by scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and published in the Aug. 22, 2013, issue of the journal Molecular Cell. "We have found that LEC not only has a role in this process - it is like the "Swiss Army knife" of snRNA transcription," says Stowers Investigator Ali Shilatifard, senior author of the study. "LEC does it all...

What are the health benefits of honey?

Date: Aug-10-2013
Honey is a sweet liquid produced by honey bees using nectar from flowers through a process of regurgitation and evaporation. Honey has high levels of monosaccharides, fructose and glucose, containing about 70 to 80 percent sugar, which gives it its sweet taste - minerals and water make up the rest of its composition. The health benefits of consuming honey date back to Greek, Roman, Vedic, and Islamic texts. The healing qualities of honey were referred to by philosophers and scientists all the way back to ancient times, such as Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) and Aristoxenus (320 BC)...

Normal cognitive decline with age may not be inevitable

Date: Aug-10-2013
If you forget where you put your car keys and you can't seem to remember things as well as you used to, the problem may well be with the GluN2B subunits in your NMDA receptors. And don't be surprised if by tomorrow you can't remember the name of those darned subunits. They help you remember things, but you've been losing them almost since the day you were born, and it's only going to get worse. An old adult may have only half as many of them as a younger person...

Anorexia and autism - are they related?

Date: Aug-10-2013
Girls with anorexia nervosa have some of the traits observed in people with autism, researchers at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University reported in the journal Molecular Autism. As background information, the authors explained that anorexia nervosa ('anorexia') is an eating disorder in which the patient refuses to maintain a minimum body weight (15% below expected body weight). There is also an abnormal preoccupation with food and weight...