Health News

2-Week Treatment Found To Prevent Epilepsy In Mice Gives Hope For Drug Development

Date: Jun-25-2013
Temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common form of epilepsy, is characterized by recurrent seizures throughout life and often behavioral abnormalities, with devastating impacts on patients and their families. Unfortunately, the condition is often not responsive to anticonvulsants...

Wellbeing Of Rural Women In India Living With HIV/AIDS Improved By Innovative Intervention Program

Date: Jun-25-2013
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from UCLA and India has found that a new type of intervention program, in which lay women in the rural Indian province of Andra Pradesh were trained as social health activists to assist women who have HIV/AIDS, significantly improved patients' adherence to antiretroviral therapy and boosted their immune-cell counts and nutrition levels. The lay women were trained by the research team to serve as accredited social health activists, or ASHA, and their work was overseen by rural nurses and physicians...

Motivating Patients To Change Lifestyle And Improve Health - Is It Possible?

Date: Jun-25-2013
Can healthcare providers motivate patients to change their lifestyles and improve their health? Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in a presentation at the American Diabetes Association's 73rd Scientific Sessions, Chicago, Illinois, believe it is possible. The researchers explained that previous studies that have shown that lifestyle changes, including becoming more physically active and eating well-balanced meals, do help people lose weight, and reduce their risk of developing diabetes type 2, cardiovascular diseases and other complications...

Minority Children Less Likely To Be Diagnosed With ADHD

Date: Jun-25-2013
Hispanic and African American children are half as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their Caucasian counterparts, new research suggests. The finding, published in the journal Pediatrics, revealed that minority children are less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, and because of this miss out on the correct treatment options that may alter the child's development. Over the last 10 years, rates of ADHD have risen by 24% - it is estimated to affect roughly between 4% and 12% of school-aged kids in the US...

New Low Cost Method Of Measuring Pleasure Response To Tasting Food

Date: Jun-24-2013
Scientists have developed a very simple tool that can measure the brain's pleasure response to tasting food. The new low cost ophthalmological tool could be used for clinical applications in obesity prevention and addiction to foods. The study, published in the journal Obesity, was led by Dr. Jennifer Nasser, an associate professor in the department of Nutrition Sciences in Drexel University's College of Nursing and Health Professions. She used electroretinography (ERG) to observe neurotransmitter dopamine located in the retina...

Helping Tobacco Users Quit, More Commitment Needed Worldwide

Date: Jun-24-2013
Tobacco users worldwide need more concrete and committed help to quit, say researchers in an article in Addiction, which informs that over half of the countries that signed the WHO 2005 Framework on Tobacco Control have not set up any formal plans to help people stop smoking. The WHO FCTC (World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) was developed as a treaty to address the global tobacco addiction epidemic that is responsible for 5 million deaths each year globally. The legally-binding treaty came into force 8 years ago (2005) and was eventually signed by 175 nations...

Hand Washing Averts Petting Farm Illnesses

Date: Jun-24-2013
Following a number of outbreaks of diarrhoea illnesses this year, public health experts in England are warning people about the need for good hand hygiene when visiting petting farms. The authorities are keen to put out this warning ahead of the summer holidays. Visits to petting farms peak during  school and public holidays. According to Public Health England (PHE), between January and May this year, there have been 12 outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis linked to petting farm visits across England. In total around 130 people have been affected...

H7N9 Has Killed A Third Of Hospitalized Patients

Date: Jun-24-2013
The H7N9 influenza virus has killed over a third of patients who were hospitalized with the infection, experts wrote in The Lancet. The study, conducted by researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in Beijing, China, and the University of Hong Kong, provides the first estimates of the severity profile of the virus. Data on hospital admissions associated with H7N9 infection were gathered and examined for the purpose of the study...

40% Of People Get A Sunburn On Purpose To Deepen Tan

Date: Jun-24-2013
Two-fifths of people (40%) have reported they get a sunburn on purpose to "deepen" a tan, despite the fact that getting a painful sunburn just once every two years can increase the likelihood for skin cancer three-fold. The research, conducted by Macmillian Cancer Support, surveyed 1,000 men and women in the UK, and found that a quarter (25%) felt that burning in the sun was the only method of getting a tan - more than 90% knew that getting a sunburn can lead to skin cancer...

Why Does Promising Anti-Cancer Therapy Suddenly Stop Working?

Date: Jun-24-2013
Why does anti-cancer therapy stop working at a specific stage? Scientists in Israel and the USA believe they have made a breakthrough in understanding why a hopeful anti-cancer therapy fails to destroy tumor cells successfully. The researchers, whose study is published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), believe their findings may lead to new approaches in overcoming this cul-de-sac. Suppressing the mTOR (mammalian target Of Rapamycin) protein has been extremely challenging for oncologists...