Health News

Controlling the formation of wrinkles, creases, folds

Date: Jul-21-2013
New research into the origins of - and structural differences between - wrinkles, creases, and folds could have applications in many fields, from flexible electronic devices to dermatology to flexible sheets that become sticky when stretched. Findings from a Brown University research group appear in Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Engineers from Brown University have mapped out the amounts of compression required to cause wrinkles, creases, and folds to form in rubbery materials...

Improvements in gluten-free products offered by new technologies and ingredients

Date: Jul-21-2013
New technologies and ingredients are improving the taste, appearance and nutritional content of gluten-free food products, a market that is expected to grow to $6 billion by 2017, according to a presentation at the 2013 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo® in Chicago. An estimated one in 133 Americans has celiac disease, an immune disorder triggered by the ingestion of gluten peptides found in wheat, barley and rye, said Joseph Baumert, Ph.D...

Vegetarian athletes can stay competitive by monitoring nutrient intake

Date: Jul-21-2013
A balanced plant-based diet provides the same quality of fuel for athletes as a meat-based diet, provided vegetarians seek out other sources of certain nutrients that are more commonly found in animal products, according to a presentation at the 2013 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Expo®. The research was compiled by Dilip Ghosh, Ph.D., director of Nutriconnect in Sydney, Australia. He was unable to attend the meeting, so his presentation was given by Debasis Bagchi, Ph.D., director of innovation and clinical affairs at Iovate Health Sciences International Inc...

Potential potent killer of anthrax discovered in the ocean

Date: Jul-21-2013
A team led by William Fenical at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered a new chemical compound from an ocean microbe in a preliminary research finding that could one day set the stage for new treatments for anthrax and other ailments such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). As reported in the international edition of the German journal Angewandte Chemie, Scripps researcher Chris Kauffman in Fenical's group first collected the microorganism that produces the compound in 2012 from sediments close to shore off Santa Barbara, Calif...

Saving 2 lives with a single donated liver

Date: Jul-21-2013
Split liver transplantation carries no increased risk of failure in either recipient, allowing surgeons to safely save two lives from a single donated organ (graft), according to new research from Boston Children's Hospital published online in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Due to their regenerative nature, livers donated by a deceased adult or adolescent can be surgically split into two unequally sized portions; the smaller segment is allocated to a young child awaiting transplant and the larger portion to an adult...

Brain tumor cells and blood vessels targeted by nano drug that can cross the blood-brain barrier

Date: Jul-21-2013
An experimental drug in early development for aggressive brain tumors can cross the blood-brain tumor barrier, kill tumor cells and block the growth of tumor blood vessels, according to a study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James).  The laboratory and animal study also shows how the agent, called SapC-DOPS, targets tumor cells and blood vessels. The findings support further development of the drug as a novel treatment for brain tumors...

Machine turns human sweat into drinking water

Date: Jul-21-2013
Soccer players and fans were able to get a sip of their own sweat at this year's Gothia Cup in Gothenburg - an international children's soccer tournament. A newly developed device called the "Sweat Machine" extracts and purifies sweat from clothes, transforming it into clean drinkable water. The machine was exhibited at the tournament as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the global lack of clean water. UNICEF partnered up with Gothia cup to run the campaign, titled "United for children", and raise money for water purification tablets for children...

Rare amnesia made American man speak Swedish

Date: Jul-20-2013
Imagine waking up one day and speaking a completely different language, with no idea who you are. It sounds far-fetched, but this is exactly what happened to Michael Thomas Boatwright on February 28th this year. According to a newspaper report in the The Desert Sun, Boatwright was found unconscious in a motel in Palm Springs, California. He was taken to the emergency room at the Desert Regional Medical Center. When he awoke, it became apparent that the man was suffering from amnesia...

Cell phone game joins fight against cancer

Date: Jul-20-2013
Anyone fancy a game of cancer hunting? The charity Cancer Research UK has announced a partnership with an England-based software agency to develop a game in which the general public can analyze cancer data while playing. Scientists hope the game will help them recognize new causes of cancer. Scientists from the charity are using cancer patients' genetic fingerprints to find ways to treat the disease in a much more focused way, but they have encountered a snag: their research is producing "terabytes upon petabytes of data requiring analysis...

Rat model reveals that information in brain cells' electrical activity combines memory, environment, and state of mind

Date: Jul-20-2013
The information carried by the electrical activity of neurons is a mixture of stored memories, environmental circumstances, and current state of mind, scientists have found in a study of laboratory rats. The findings, which appear in the journal PLoS Biology, offer new insights into the neurobiological processes that give rise to knowledge and memory recall...