Health News

Anti-herpesvirus drug treatment may benefit some chronic fatigue syndrome patients

Date: Jul-30-2013
Many experts believe that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has several root causes including some viruses. Now, lead scientists Shara Pantry, Maria Medveczky and Peter Medveczky of the University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine, along with the help of several collaborating scientists and clinicians, have published an article in the Journal of Medical Virology suggesting that a common virus, Human Herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), is the possible cause of some CFS cases...

Children's exercise: Hour a day 'not enough'

Date: Jul-30-2013
Current recommendations for children to exercise an hour every day are "insufficient" to protect them from heart and blood circulation problems later in life. Children under 10 years of age need at least 80 minutes of physical activity a day to keep them healthy, including 20 minutes of vigorous exercise, conclude researchers publishing in the journal BMC Medicine...

Women and heart disease: more deaths, less care

Date: Jul-30-2013
Coronary artery disease (CAD) kills more women than men each year, yet women are still not receiving as many preventive recommendations as men, according to a paper published in Global Heart. Researchers from Ohio State University wanted to analyze the risk for CAD in women, as well as its impact and female-specific strategies for treatment. They found that the disease should be managed differently for women, based on varying risk factors related to pregnancy and autoimmune diseases. According to the authors, 8...

Parkinson's in men may be linked to testosterone decline

Date: Jul-30-2013
Parkinson's disease in men may be linked to a sudden decline in testosterone, a study published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry suggests. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center analyzed a number of male mice who had been castrated, dramatically decreasing their testosterone levels, and they found that the mice showed increased symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Dr...

Treatments for tuberculosis, cancer will likely improve following breakthrough in detecting DNA mutations

Date: Jul-30-2013
The slightest variation in a sequence of DNA can have profound effects. Modern genomics has shown that just one mutation can be the difference between successfully treating a disease and having it spread rampantly throughout the body. Now, researchers have developed a new method that can look at a specific segment of DNA and pinpoint a single mutation, which could help diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis. These small changes can be the root of a disease or the reason some infectious diseases resist certain antibiotics...

New mechanism in the function of a nearly universal biological structure will impact fundamental biology, design of pharmaceuticals

Date: Jul-30-2013
Just 12 molecules of water cause the long post-activation recovery period required by potassium ion channels before they can function again. Using molecular simulations that modeled a potassium channel and its immediate cellular environment, atom for atom, University of Chicago scientists have revealed this new mechanism in the function of a nearly universal biological structure, with implications ranging from fundamental biology to the design of pharmaceuticals. Their findings were published online in Nature...

Technique to create better anti-cancer agents, arthritis drugs, and more

Date: Jul-30-2013
Many drugs such as agents for cancer or autoimmune diseases have nasty side effects because while they kill disease-causing cells, they also affect healthy cells. Now a new study has demonstrated a technique for developing more targeted drugs, by using molecular "robots" to hone in on more specific populations of cells. "This is a proof of concept study using human cells," said Sergei Rudchenko, Ph.D., director of flow cytometry at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City and a senior author of the study. "The next step is to conduct tests in a mouse model of leukemia...

High platelet reactivity on clopidogrel predicts stent thrombosis, heart attack, and bleeding

Date: Jul-30-2013
Patients who receive a drug-eluting stent (DES) and demonstrate high platelet reactivity on clopidogrel are more likely to have blood clots form on the stent and to suffer a heart attack; however, these patients are less likely to develop bleeding complications. One-year results of the ADAPT-DES trial was published online in The Lancet. The findings were first presented at last year's Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) annual scientific symposium...

Novel mechanism uncovered for attention in the brain

Date: Jul-30-2013
The ability to pay attention to relevant information while ignoring distractions is a core brain function. Without the ability to focus and filter out "noise," we could not effectively interact with our environment. Despite much study of attention in the brain, the cellular mechanisms responsible for the effects of attention have remained a mystery... until now...

Children who use gestures tend to perform better on cognitive tasks

Date: Jul-30-2013
In the first study of its kind, SF State researchers have shown that younger children who use gestures outperform their peers in a problem-solving task. The task itself is relatively simple -- sorting cards printed with colored shapes first by color, and then by shape. But the switch from color to shape can be tricky for children younger than 5, says Professor of Psychology Patricia Miller...