Health News

TB Meningitis Experimental Vaccine Successful In Animal Model

Date: Jun-13-2013
A team of Johns Hopkins researchers working with animals has developed a vaccine that prevents the virulent TB bacterium from invading the brain and causing the highly lethal condition TB meningitis, a disease that disproportionately occurs in TB-infected children and in adults with compromised immune system. A report on the federally funded research is published online in the journal PLOS ONE. TB brain infections often cause serious brain damage and death even when recognized and treated promptly, researchers say...

In Mouse Model, Females Fend Off Gut Diseases

Date: Jun-13-2013
At least among mice, females have innate protection from certain digestive conditions, according to a new Michigan State University study. While it's tricky to draw conclusions for human health, the findings could eventually help scientists better understand and treat the 1.4 million Americans suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases, or IBD. Crohn's disease and colitis, the two most common forms of IBD, involve abnormal functioning of the immune system that can damage the digestive tract, causing inflammation, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain and other symptoms...

Breast Cancer Survivors Motivated To Exercise By Telephone Counseling Combined With Physician Advice

Date: Jun-13-2013
Telephone-based counseling, when combined with physician advice, can help breast cancer survivors become more physically active, which can improve quality of life and lessen the side effects of cancer treatment, according to new research from The Miriam Hospital. Researchers say women who received exercise advice from their surgeon or oncologist, followed by three months of telephone support, reported 30 more minutes of physical activity per week than patients who received exercise advice and follow-up calls about their general health...

Researchers Warn Of Positive And Negative Effects Of Peer Support Schemes In Chronic Disease

Date: Jun-13-2013
Health organisations need to give careful consideration to schemes which encourage people with chronic diseases to seek support from peers, to avoid the potential negative effects, new research shows. The study was led by the University of Exeter Medical School will be published in the July edition of the journal Patient Education and Counseling, and is now available online...

Studies Demonstrate The Strategy To Kill Melanoma Using Diabetes Drugs To Sensitize Resistant Cells

Date: Jun-13-2013
Advanced metastatic melanoma is a disease that has proven difficult to eradicate. Despite the success of melanoma-targeting drugs, tumors inevitably become drug resistant and return, more aggressive than before. In the current issue of the journal Cancer Cell, however, researchers at The Wistar Institute describe how they increase the effectiveness of anti-melanoma drugs by combining anticancer therapies with diabetes drugs. (Article link*...

Action-Observation In Stroke Rehabilitation

Date: Jun-13-2013
A new study finds that stroke patients' brains show strong cortical motor activity when observing others performing physical tasks - a finding that offers new insight into stroke rehabilitation. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a team of researchers from USC monitored the brains of 24 individuals - 12 who had suffered strokes and 12 age-matched people who had not - as they watched others performing actions made using the arm and hand that would be difficult for a person who can no longer use their arm due to stroke - actions like lifting a pencil or flipping a card...

BPA Linked To Obesity In Girls Aged 9 To 12

Date: Jun-13-2013
Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical used in plastics, including food packaging, is associated with a higher risk of obesity in girls aged between 9 and 12 years, researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California, reported in the journal PLoS ONE. The authors wrote that girls in the beginning and middle of puberty whose BPA urine levels are above average have double the risk of being obese/overweight, compared to their counterparts with lower levels...

Two-Step Mechanism Of 'Inner Ear Tip Link Regrowth' Offers Potential For Interventions That Could Save Hearing

Date: Jun-13-2013
A team of NIH-supported researchers is the first to show, in mice, an unexpected two-step process that happens during the growth and regeneration of inner ear tip links. Tip links are extracellular tethers that link stereocilia, the tiny sensory projections on inner ear hair cells that convert sound into electrical signals, and play a key role in hearing. The discovery offers a possible mechanism for potential interventions that could preserve hearing in people whose hearing loss is caused by genetic disorders related to tip link dysfunction...

Childhood Cancer Survivors At Increased Risk For Chronic Diseases

Date: Jun-13-2013
Childhood cancer survivors are at a significantly increased risk for undiagnosed, chronic diseases through adulthood, emphasizing the importance of life-long clinical health screenings for this high-risk population. The findings, published in JAMA, found that 98% of 1,713 survivors had at least one chronic health problem - many of which were found and diagnosed through clinical screenings given as part of a long-term health study. The health issues found included: heart abnormalities new cancers neurocognitive dysfunction abnormal lung function The research team from St...

Adverse Delivery Outcomes A Greater Risk For Younger Mothers And Older Mothers

Date: Jun-13-2013
Younger mothers are at a higher risk of preterm birth while older mothers are more likely to have a caesarean section, suggests a new study published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study, conducted over a 12-year period (2000-2011) in Ireland, examined the delivery outcomes of 36,916 first-time mothers at varying maternal ages. The pregnant women were subdivided into five age groups, 3.3% at 17 years or younger (17-), 7.2% at 18-19 years, 77.9% at 20-34 years, 9.9% at 35-39 years and 1.7% at 40 years or older (40+)...