Health News

Reduced Incidence Of Rape For Kenyan Girls Who Received Self-Defense Training

Date: Jun-17-2013
Rape is shockingly common in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, where as many as one in four adolescent girls are raped each year. But a short self-defense course can dramatically reduce the girls' vulnerability to sexual assault, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and an organization called No Means No Worldwide...

Olfactory Decline In Seniors Can Perturb Diet, Presage Disease And Predict Death

Date: Jun-17-2013
The ability to distinguish between odors declines steadily with age, but a new study shows that African-Americans have a much greater decrease in their sense of smell than Caucasians. This can have serious consequences. Olfactory loss often leads to impaired nutrition. It also may be an early warning sign of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, and can predict death. The study, published early online in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, found that as they aged, African-Americans and Hispanics had comparable deficits...

Cocoa Powder Effective In Treating Obesity-Related Inflammation In Mouse Model

Date: Jun-17-2013
A few cups of hot cocoa may not only fight off the chill of a winter's day, but they could also help obese people better control inflammation-related diseases, such as diabetes, according to Penn State researchers. Mice that were fed cocoa with a high-fat diet experienced less obesity-related inflammation than mice fed the same high-fat diet without the supplement, said Joshua Lambert, associate professor of food science. The mice ate the human equivalent of 10 tablespoons of cocoa powder -- about four or five cups of hot cocoa -- during a 10-week period...

Gustatory Sensors Determine Whether Salty Foods Taste Good Or Bad

Date: Jun-17-2013
As anyone who's ever mixed up the sugar and salt while baking knows, too much of a good thing can be inedible. What hasn't been clear, though, is how our tongues and brains can tell when the saltiness of our food has crossed the line from yummy to yucky - or, worse, something dangerous...

Difference Identified Between MERS-CoV And SARS

Date: Jun-17-2013
New research has identified some key differences between the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and SARS. The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, detail the viral load profile of MERS-CoV , giving a complete explanation of how it circulates though the body. MERS-CoV has a 60% death rate. However, according to researchers, there is no evidence of widespread human-to-human MERS-CoV transmission. Update: June 17th, 2013 - Saudi Arabia announced four more deaths from MERS-CoV infection, bringing the death toll in the country to 32...

Focus On Well-Being Could Keep Patients With Arthritis In Workforce

Date: Jun-17-2013
Data presented at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrate that indicators of depression are stronger predictors of work disability in early arthritis than disease activity or response to therapy...

Lung Function Dramatically Decreased By Chronic Drinking Plus Exposure To Particulate Matter

Date: Jun-17-2013
Alveolar macrophage (AM) function plays a critical role in protecting the lungs from particulate matter inhalation by removing particulates from the airway and secreting elements that facilitate airway repair. Chronic drinking causes persistent oxidative stress in the lungs, leading to impaired AM function as well as immune responses. A rodent study has found that chronic drinking, when coupled with particulate matter (PM) exposure, dramatically increases lung dysfunction compared to alcohol intake or PM exposure alone...

Researchers Succeed In Programming Blood Forming Stem Cells

Date: Jun-17-2013
By transferring four genes into mouse fibroblast cells, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have produced cells that resemble hematopoietic stem cells, which produce millions of new blood cells in the human body every day. These findings provide a platform for future development of patient-specific stem/progenitor cells, and more differentiated blood products, for cell-replacement therapy. The study, titled, "Induction of a Hemogenic Program in Mouse Fibroblasts," was published online in CELL STEM CELL...

Drugs Currently Prescribed For Other Indications May Influence The Onset And Progression Of Alzheimer's Disease

Date: Jun-17-2013
Multiple drug classes commonly prescribed for common medical conditions are capable of influencing the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The findings are published online in the journal PLoS One...

Identifying Women Most Likely To Respond To Preventive Breast Cancer Therapy

Date: Jun-17-2013
Newly discovered genetic variations may help predict breast cancer risk in women who receive preventive breast cancer therapy with the selective estrogen receptor modulator drugs tamoxifen and raloxifene, a Mayo Clinic-led study has found. The study is published in the journal Cancer Discovery. "Our findings are important because we identified genetic factors that could eventually be used to select women who should be offered the drugs for prevention," said James Ingle, M.D., an oncologist at Mayo Clinic. Dr...