Health News

Inpatient Glycemic Control: American College Of Physicians Issues Recommendations

Date: May-28-2013
High blood glucose is associated with poor outcomes in hospitalized patients, and use of intensive insulin therapy (IIT) to control hyperglycemia is a common practice in hospitals. But the recent evidence does not show a consistent benefit and even shows harms associated with the use of IIT, according to the American College of Physicians' (ACP) Clinical Guidelines Committee in a new evidence-based paper published online in the American Journal of Medical Quality...

Study May Point To New Treatments For Liver Diseases

Date: May-28-2013
By discovering the new mechanism by which estrogen suppresses lipid synthesis in the liver, UC Irvine endocrinologists have revealed a potential new approach toward treating certain liver diseases. With this finding, Dr. Ellis Levin and colleagues believe they are changing long-held views in the field. Study results appear in the journal Science Signaling...

IL-21 Signals Important For Antibody-Producing Cells And T Helper Cells That Support Them

Date: May-28-2013
Scientists at Emory Vaccine Center have shown that an immune regulatory molecule called IL-21 is needed for long-lasting antibody responses in mice against viral infections. The results are published in the Journal of Virology. "Our findings highlight how IL-21 could be important in the development of antiviral vaccines," says research associate Ata Ur Rasheed Mohammed, PhD, the first author of the paper. The senior author is Rafi Ahmed, PhD, director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar...

Transmission Of H7N9 Influenza Virus Studied Through Animal Model

Date: May-28-2013
An international team of scientists has proved that the H7N9 influenza virus is efficiently transmitted when animals are in close contact -- defined in the study as touching, coughing and the exchange of bodily fluids. "This study was designed to give us clues about the transmission of H7N9 which has affected some humans in China," said David Kelvin, PhD, a senior scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute and Professor at the University of Toronto...

Biophysicists Measure Mechanism That Determines Fate Of Living Cells

Date: May-28-2013
Cells in the human body do not function in isolation. Living cells rely on communication with their environment - neighboring cells and the surrounding matrix - to activate a wide range of cellular functions, including reproduction of new cells, differentiation of stem cells into distinct cell types, cell adhesion, and migration of white blood cells to fight bodily infections. This cellular communication occurs on the molecular level and it is reciprocal: a cell receives cues from and also transmits function-activating cues to its neighbors...

Scientists Discover Cinnamon Compounds' Potential Ability To Prevent Alzheimer's

Date: May-28-2013
Cinnamon: Can the red-brown spice with the unmistakable fragrance and variety of uses offer an important benefit? The common baking spice might hold the key to delaying the onset of - or warding off - the effects of Alzheimer's disease. That is, according to Roshni George and Donald Graves, scientists at UC Santa Barbara...

Handheld Biosensor Adapted From Smartphone By Addition Of Cradle

Date: May-28-2013
Researchers and physicians in the field could soon run on-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, medical diagnostics, food safety and more with their smartphones. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed a cradle and app for the iPhone that uses the phone's built-in camera and processing power as a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules...

Vascular Disease In The Brain May Be Predicted By MRI-Based Measurement

Date: May-28-2013
Aortic arch pulse wave velocity, a measure of arterial stiffness, is a strong independent predictor of disease of the vessels that supply blood to the brain, according to a new study published in the June issue the journal Radiology. "Pulse wave velocity from the aortic arch provides functional information about vessel compliance that may help determine a patient's risk for cerebrovascular disease down the road," said Kevin S. King, M.D., assistant professor of radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas...

Food Supplement CoQ10 Cuts Death Rates Among Heart Failure Patients

Date: May-27-2013
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) cuts mortality by half in patients with heart failure, researchers from Denmark reported at the annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology, which took place in Lisbon, Portugal this year. Professor Svend Aage Mortensen and team explained that Coq10 is the first medication to improve heart failure mortality in over ten years and should be included in standard treatment. CoQ10 is an essential enzyme that occurs naturally in the body...

Doubts Regarding Alzheimer's Study

Date: May-27-2013
Anti-cancer drug bexarotene (Tagretin), which had extremely promising results in reversing Alzheimer's disease symptoms in mice last year, was found not to be as promising in later trials, according to articles published in the journal Science. In other words, scientists have not able to fully replicate the original findings. Last year, researchers from Case Western Reserve University claimed that bexarotene cleared amyloid plaques from the brains of transgenic laboratory mice...