Health News

World's Oldest Human Tumor Discovered - Over 120,000 Years Old

Date: Jun-07-2013
Researchers have just discovered the world´s oldest tumor, in the rib of a 120,000 year old Neanderthal in Croatia. It is a very rare discovery considering that tumors were uncommon in prehistoric populations. Tumors in fleshy tissue decay quickly - making them difficult to identify. Spelling: both "Neandertals" and "Neandertals" are correct. The bone was originally excavated a hundred years ago and scientists have just found out that the it has a cavity, where a tumor, known as fibrous dysplasia, replaced what should have been inner bone structure...

A Model Program For Surgical Residents

Date: Jun-07-2013
Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, have developed a novel graduate medical education initiative that enables surgical residents to hone their skills in quality improvement (QI). Surgical trainees who completed the year-long educational program found the QI training to be beneficial, and more importantly, believe it put them in a position to lead QI initiatives in the future. The report appears in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons...

Mapping The Wiring Of The Biological Clock

Date: Jun-07-2013
The World Health Organization lists shift work as a potential carcinogen, says Erik Herzog, PhD, Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. And that's just one example among many of the troubles we cause ourselves when we override the biological clocks in our brains and pay attention instead to the mechanical clocks on our wrists. In the journal Neuron, Herzog and his colleagues report the discovery of a crucial part of the biological clock: the wiring that sets its accuracy to within a few minutes out of the 1440 minutes per day...

Phase 1 Multiple Sclerosis Trial Safely Resets Patients' Immune Systems And Reduces Attack On Myelin Protein

Date: Jun-07-2013
A phase 1 clinical trial for the first treatment to reset the immune system of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients showed the therapy was safe and dramatically reduced patients' immune systems' reactivity to myelin by 50 to 75 percent, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. In MS, the immune system attacks and destroys myelin, the insulating layer that forms around nerves in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve. When the insulation is destroyed, electrical signals can't be effectively conducted, resulting in symptoms that range from mild limb numbness to paralysis or blindness...

Poor Sleep May Be Most Harmful To Women With Heart Disease

Date: Jun-07-2013
Many women get too little sleep, despite considerable evidence showing the importance of sleep to overall health. Now a new UC San Francisco study has discovered another reason why inadequate sleep may be harmful, especially to women and their hearts. The study found that poor sleep, particularly waking too early, appears to play a significant role in raising unhealthy levels of inflammation among women with coronary heart disease. The elevated inflammation affected only women, not men, even when adjusted for medical, lifestyle and socio-demographic differences, the authors said...

Sex After Menopause

Date: Jun-07-2013
A satisfying sex life is an important contributor to older adults' quality of life, but the sexual pain that can come after menopause can rob women and their partners of that satisfaction. Treatment can help restore it, shows a global survey including some 1,000 middle-aged North American men and women, published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)...

Influenza Virus Mutations Could Result In Pandemic Flu

Date: Jun-07-2013
If two recently emerged avian influenza virus strains mutate and acquire the ability to become easily human transmissible, they could create a pandemic flu, researchers from MIT reported in the journal Cell. The two bird (avian) flu strains - H5N1 and H7N9 - do not currently transmit easily from human-to-human. However, it would only take one or just a few genetic mutations to change all that. In these two studies, scientists from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) focused on the H7N9 and H5N1 flu strains...

Width Of Blood Vessels Linked To IQ Score

Date: Jun-07-2013
New research, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that the width of blood vessels in the retina may be a good indicator of brain health and IQ. Researchers, led by psychological scientist Idan Shalev of Duke University, set out to determine how IQ is related to overall brain health. In particular, whether it is in any way associated with the health system of blood vessels that provide the brain with essential nutrients and oxygen...

Prepare For Extreme Summer Heat, CDC Warns

Date: Jun-07-2013
Now is the time to prepare for the high temperatures that kill hundreds of people every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns. The CDC is urging Americans to take measures to stay cool, remain hydrated and to keep informed. Robin Ikeda, MD, MPH, acting director of the National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said "No one should die from a heat wave, but every year on average, extreme heat causes 658 deaths in the United States - more than tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and lightning combined...

Obesity Susceptibility May Skip A Generation

Date: Jun-06-2013
People may inherit conditions linked to obesity from their grandmother, researchers from the University of Edinburgh reported in the journal Endocrinology. The authors explained, as background information, that maternal obesity during pregnancy has been associated with a higher risk of obesity and cardiometabolic disease in offspring, what they describe as "a phenomenon attributed to developmental programming (epigenetics)". They added that programming effects may be passed on across generations through both paternal and maternal inheritance. Nobody is sure what the mechanism for this is...