Health News

Avoid Using Cell Phones While Walking In Public

Date: Jun-20-2013
Using your cell phone while walking may not be the best idea, according to a new report published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention. The study revealed that in 2010, over 1,500 pedestrians were treated in emergency rooms across the U.S. because of cell phone use while walking. Despite the recent drop in the number of injured pedestrians, total injuries related to walking while using a cell phone have more than doubled over the past decade...

MERS-CoV Easily Spreads In Hospitals

Date: Jun-20-2013
A team of experts who traveled to Saudi Arabia have reported that the new Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is easily transmitted in healthcare settings, posing a serious public health threat. The researchers from Johns Hopkins University studied how the virus spread in four different Saudi hospitals. They published their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine. MERS-CoV is much deadlier than the coronavirus responsible for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the authors wrote...

Vaccine Lowers HPV Infection Rates In Teen Girls

Date: Jun-20-2013
The prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in girls and women has significantly reduced since the introduction of the HPV vaccine, according to a new study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The research showed that since 2006, when the vaccine was introduced, vaccine-type HPV prevalence dropped 56% among teen girls between the ages of 14 and 19. Approximately 79 million people in the U.S. are infected with HPV, and the majority are in their late teens and early 20s. About 14 million people become newly infected with the virus every year...

Using Patient-Specific Stem Cells Researchers Analyze Causes, Treatment Of Diabetes

Date: Jun-20-2013
A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY). The researchers used skin cells of MODY patients to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, from which they then made beta cells. Transplanted into a mouse, the stem cell-derived beta cells secreted insulin in a manner similar to that of the beta cells of MODY patients...

Persistent And Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Effectively Destroyed By New Compound

Date: Jun-20-2013
An international team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has identified a highly promising new anti-tuberculosis compound that attacks the tuberculosis (TB) bacterium in two different ways. "These findings represent an effort to help solve one of the major global health crises of our time - the resurgence of TB and its dangerous drug-resistant strains," said Peter G...

Ease Of Falling Asleep Determined By Quality Of Waking Hours

Date: Jun-20-2013
The quality of wakefulness affects how quickly a mammal falls asleep, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in a study that identifies two proteins never before linked to alertness and sleep-wake balance. "This study supports the idea that subjective sleepiness is influenced by the quality of experiences right before bedtime. Are you reluctantly awake or excited to be awake?" said Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa, professor of molecular genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UT Southwestern...

Airway Infection Reduced In Pediatric Intensive Care Patients By Multidisciplinary Initiative

Date: Jun-20-2013
An initiative that combines a multidisciplinary health care approach with a range of preventive measures could cut the rate of a common airway infection among children in intensive care by more than half, a new study suggests. The research, led by a team at Nationwide Children's Hospital, appears in the June issue of the journal Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Ventilator-associated tracheobronchitis - VAT for short - is a lower respiratory infection caused by a buildup of bacteria in the airway...

Helping Prevent Obesity Among Children Via Community-Based Programs

Date: Jun-20-2013
When it comes to confronting childhood obesity, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health conclude that community-based approaches are important. A systematic review of childhood obesity prevention programs found that community-based intervention programs that incorporate schools and focus on both diet and physical activity are more effective at preventing obesity in children. The results of the study appear online in Pediatrics...

Prenatal Exposure To Maternal Cigarette Smoking Associated With Altered Reward Processing And Anticipation

Date: Jun-19-2013
JAMA Psychiatry Study Highlights Whether adolescents with prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking differ from their nonexposed peers in the response part of their brain to the anticipation or the receipt of a reward was examined in a study by Kathrin U. Müller, Dipl-Psych, of Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, and colleagues. The researchers assessed 177 adolescents with prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking and 177 nonexposued peers (age range, 13-15 years) matched by sex, maternal educational level, and imaging site...

Group-Based Child Care Appears To Be Associated With Reduced Risk For Emotional Problems In Children

Date: Jun-19-2013
Regulated group-based child care appears to be associated with reduced risk for emotional problems among children of mothers with maternal depressive symptoms, according to a study published Online First by JAMA Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication. Children of depressed mothers are at increased risk of mental health problems. Researchers want to better understand how maternal depressive symptoms (MDSs) are associated with child outcome over time, the authors write in the study background. Catherine M. Herba, Ph.D...