Health News

Ethnic Inequalities In Mental Health Care Prompt Call For Review In Scotland

Date: Jul-16-2013
Individual ethnic groups use psychiatric and mental health services in Scotland very differently, a study suggests.  Researchers have found that there is a significant difference in the rates of hospitalisations for mental health problems according to ethnic group. The study also revealed that there are widely differing patterns of hospitalisation for mental health problems among non-White groups. It is the first study of its kind to be carried out in Scotland...

How Obesity Gene May Be Driving Overeating

Date: Jul-16-2013
Researchers believe they have uncovered a biological mechanism through which a common version of an obesity gene drives overeating and weight gain. It appears that the flawed gene, which affects 1 in 6 people, influences production of a hormone that is closely linked to feelings of fullness and how the body deals with food. Rachel Batterham and colleagues at the UK's University College London, describe how they found a connection between the FTO gene and the hunger hormone ghrelin in the July 15th issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation...

Drug Shows Dramatic Reduction In Seizures In Patients With Tuberous Sclerosis Complex

Date: Jul-16-2013
Further Studies Could Determine Benefit to Epilepsy Patients Without TSC A drug originally developed to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs has now been shown to dramatically reduce seizures in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) - a genetic disease characterized by benign tumors on multiple organ systems. TSC is estimated to affect more than a million individuals throughout the world. The study is the latest to demonstrate the effectiveness of everolimus for TSC patients...

British Travellers To Saudi Arabia At High Risk - Warn Health Experts

Date: Jul-16-2013
Health experts from the Association of British Hujjaj (UK) ABH, a national charity, express their grave concern about the safety and well being of over 25,000 prospective British Hajj pilgrims who will travel to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj pilgrimage in October. Around 30,000 British nationals are also living and working in Saudi Arabia. Health experts have issued a strong warning to the travellers that they must take the threat of Coronavirus seriously and take all necessary precautionary measures to safeguard their and their loved ones health...

UF Health Helps Equip Officers With Trauma Kits

Date: Jul-16-2013
The latest weapon in the arsenal of area law enforcement officers doesn't fire bullets or spray tear gas. It's a trauma first-aid kit being deployed in a battle of life and limb for those injured in motor vehicle accidents, shootings, stabbings and industrial accidents.  Equipping Gainesville officers with these kits has been the mission of Gainesville Police Department Lt. Dan Stout, who recognized the need for officers to be able to treat themselves, the public and each other in the aftermath of incidents involving high-powered assault weapons...

Researchers Find That Antiviral Enzyme Contributes To Several Forms Of Cancer

Date: Jul-16-2013
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered that a human antiviral enzyme causes DNA mutations that lead to several forms of cancer. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature Genetics, follows the team's earlier finding that the enzyme, called APOBEC3B, is responsible for more than half of breast cancer cases. The previous study was published in Nature in February. APOBEC3B is part of a family of antiviral proteins that Harris has studied for more than a decade...

Exercise Endurance Improved By Drug Candidate Designed At Scripps Research Institute

Date: Jul-16-2013
An international group of scientists has shown that a drug candidate designed by scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) significantly increases exercise endurance in animal models. These findings could lead to new approaches to helping people with conditions that acutely limit exercise tolerance, such as obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure, as well as the decline of muscle capacity associated with aging. The study was published July 14, 2013, by the journal Nature Medicine...

Hippocampal Neurons: An Executor Of Neuroinflammation In Rats

Date: Jul-16-2013
Recent findings suggest that Toll-like receptor 4 expressed in the central nervous system, especially in glial cells, plays a vital role in neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative conditions. Traditional theory suggests that neurons are injured by inflammatory factors released from glial cells, and that neurons are the victims of neuroinflammation. However, it has recently been suggested that Toll-like receptor 4 is expressed by cerebral cortical neurons...

Cancer-Linked Fam190a Gene Found To Regulate Cell Division

Date: Jul-16-2013
Johns Hopkins cancer scientists have discovered that a little-described gene known as FAM190A plays a subtle but critical role in regulating the normal cell division process known as mitosis, and the scientists' research suggests that mutations in the gene may contribute to commonly found chromosomal instability in cancer. In laboratory studies of cells, investigators found that knocking down expression of FAM190A disrupts mitosis...

Researchers Develop Artificial Cells To Study Molecular Crowding And Gene Expression

Date: Jul-16-2013
The interior of a living cell is a crowded place, with proteins and other macromolecules packed tightly together. A team of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University has approximated this molecular crowding in an artificial cellular system and found that tight quarters help the process of gene expression, especially when other conditions are less than ideal. As the researchers report in an advance online publication by the journal Nature Nanotechnology, these findings may help explain how cells have adapted to the phenomenon of molecular crowding, which has been preserved through evolution...