Health News

Researchers On A Path To Lower-Risk Painkillers

Date: Jun-12-2013
For patients managing cancer and other chronic health issues, painkillers such as morphine and Vicodin are often essential for pain relief. The body's natural tendency to develop tolerance to these medications, however, often requires patients to take higher doses - increasing risks of harmful side effects and dependency. Now, new research from the University of Michigan Health System and a major pharmaceutical company has identified a novel approach to severe pain therapy that paves the way for lower dosage painkillers...

Viruses In Gut Confer Antibiotic Resistance To Bacteria, Offer Potential New Target To Thwart Antibiotic Resistance

Date: Jun-12-2013
Bacteria in the gut that are under attack by antibiotics have allies no one had anticipated, a team of Wyss Institute scientists has found. Gut viruses that usually commandeer the bacteria, it turns out, enable them to survive the antibiotic onslaught, most likely by handing them genes that help them withstand the drug. What's more, the gut viruses, called bacteriophage or simply phage, deliver genes that help the bacteria to survive not just the antibiotic they've been exposed to, but other types of antibiotics as well, the scientists reported online in the journal Nature...

JC Polyomavirus - A Killer On The Loose

Date: Jun-12-2013
The JC polyomavirus is clearly opportunistic. It infects half the population but lethally destroys brain tissue only in immunocompromised patients - and it may be outright sneaky, too. Even as a new research paper allays fears that common mutant forms of the virus are the ones directly responsible for the disease's main attack, that same finding raises new questions about what the mutants are doing instead...

A Step Closer To Low-Cost, Implantable Electronics

Date: Jun-12-2013
New technology under development at The Ohio State University is paving the way for low-cost electronic devices that work in direct contact with living tissue inside the body. The first planned use of the technology is a sensor that will detect the very early stages of organ transplant rejection...

Epigenetic Changes May Play A Role In Schizophrenia

Date: Jun-12-2013
Schizophrenia, a chronic and devastating disorder characterized by the breakdown of cognition processes and typical emotional and behavioral responses, has been affecting people throughout history. Scientists believe that several genes are associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia but that no single gene causes the disease by itself. It is likely that interactions between genes and the environment are necessary for schizophrenia to develop and that epigenetic change also plays a role...

Mental Health Services Inadequate For Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence

Date: Jun-12-2013
Although many abused women suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and/or depression, they are not receiving needed mental health services, a University of Missouri researcher found. "More than half of the women participating in our study suffered from depression, PTSD or both illnesses," said Mansoo Yu, an assistant professor of social work in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. "However, most of the survivors had not used mental health services in the past year, even though they reported having access to the services...

Cardiac PET/MR Measures Up To PET/CT

Date: Jun-12-2013
Just a few years ago, integrated positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance (PET/MR) imaging was found only in research institutes, but little by little the technology has expanded into clinical practice. This is especially true for cardiac indications, for which the highly sensitive soft tissue contrast of MR and the functional and metabolic imaging of PET are particularly valuable. New research proves the value of PET/MR compared to PET/computed tomography (CT) in cardiac applications, say researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2013 Annual Meeting...

Heading The Ball Frequently In Soccer May Lead To Brain Injury

Date: Jun-12-2013
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have shown that soccer players who frequently head the ball have brain abnormalities resembling those found in patients with concussion (mild traumatic brain injury). The study, which used advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests that assessed memory, published online in the journal Radiology. "We studied soccer players because soccer is the world's most popular sport," said Michael L. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D...

Sensor Technology That Could Detect And Monitor Diabetes Through Breath Analysis Alone

Date: Jun-12-2013
Diabetes patients often receive their diagnosis after a series of glucose-related blood tests in hospital settings, and then have to monitor their condition daily through expensive, invasive methods. But what if diabetes could be diagnosed and monitored through cheaper, noninvasive methods? Chemists at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated a sensor technology that could significantly simplify the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes through breath analysis alone. Their findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS)...

Antihistamines Taken For Severe Morning Sickness During Pregnancy Increase Risk For Bad Outcomes

Date: Jun-12-2013
Women with a severe form of morning sickness who take antihistamines to help them sleep through their debilitating nausea are significantly more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes, including low birth weight babies and premature births, a UCLA study has found. The findings, the first to link antihistamine use to adverse pregnancy outcomes, are important because babies born before 37 weeks often are hospitalized longer than full term babies, can experience problems breathing and feeding, are more prone to infection and can suffer from developmental problems...