Health News

Addictive Behaviour - A Choice Or A Brain Disease?

Date: May-24-2013
New research shows that craving drugs such as nicotine can be visualized in specific regions of the brain that are implicated in determining the value of actions, in planning actions and in motivation. Dr. Alain Dagher, from McGill University, suggests abnormal interactions between these decision-making brain regions could underlie addiction. These results were presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience - Association Canadienne des Neurosciences (CAN-ACN)...

A "Genetic Thermometer" May In The Future Reveal How Healthy You Are You For Your Age

Date: May-24-2013
JoVE has published details of a technique to measure the health of human genetic material in relation to a patient's age. The method is demonstrated by the laboratory of Dr. Gil Atzmon at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Atzmon hopes that the dissemination of this technique will lead to the development of a "genetic thermometer" to assess a patient's health in relation to other individuals of the same age. The JoVE publication features a technique that measures telomere length. Recently, telomeres have gained attention because they serve as "caps" to chromosomes...

Itch And Pain Have Separate Brain Circuits

Date: May-24-2013
US scientists have found a molecule that triggers the sensation of itching in mice. They say the finding solves a mystery about itching: it is not a low level of pain but a separately wired circuit with a direct line into the brain. If studies show the same is true of humans, the discovery could lead to new drugs to relieve symptoms in chronic itching conditions like eczema...

Dietary Exposure To Certain Plastics May Play A Hidden Role In Epidemic Increases In Childhood Hypertension

Date: May-24-2013
Plastic additives known as phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are odorless, colorless and just about everywhere: They turn up in flooring, plastic cups, beach balls, plastic wrap, intravenous tubing and - according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - the bodies of most Americans. Once perceived as harmless, phthalates have come under increasing scrutiny. A growing collection of evidence suggests dietary exposure to phthalates (which can leech from packaging and mix with food) may cause significant metabolic and hormonal abnormalities, especially during early development...

Superiority Of Bivalirudin Over Heparin Questioned

Date: May-24-2013
Results from a large observational study reported at EuroPCR 2013 question whether bivalirudin is superior to heparin in the absence of GPIIb/IIIa blockade, showing similar 30-day mortality in patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). European and US NSTE-ACS guidelines currently recommend bivalirudin alone as an alternative to unfractionated heparin plus GP IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors in patients undergoing an intended urgent or early invasive strategy...

Children With Autism Benefit From Enrichment Therapy

Date: May-24-2013
Children with autism showed significant improvement after six months of simple sensory exercises at home using everyday items such as scents, spoons and sponges, according to UC Irvine neurobiologists. They found that a treatment known as environmental enrichment led to notable gains in male subjects between the ages of 3 and 12. Results appear online in Behavioral Neuroscience. Study co-authors Cynthia Woo and Michael Leon randomly assigned 28 boys to one of two groups, balanced for age and autism severity...

Promising Early Results For Use Of Poliovirus Vaccine In Recurrent Glioblastoma

Date: May-24-2013
An attack on glioblastoma brain tumor cells that uses a modified poliovirus is showing encouraging results in an early study to establish the proper dose level, researchers at Duke Cancer Institute report. The treatment, developed at Duke and tested in an ongoing phase 1 study, capitalizes on the discovery that cancer cells have an abundance of receptors that work like magnets drawing the poliovirus, which then infects and kills the cells. The investigational therapy, known as PVSRIPO, uses an engineered form of the virus that is lethal to cancer cells, while harmless to normal cells...

New Mouse Model Helping To Keep Stem Cells Strong

Date: May-24-2013
When infections occur in the body, stem cells in the blood often jump into action by multiplying and differentiating into mature immune cells that can fight off illness. But repeated infections and inflammation can deplete these cell populations, potentially leading to the development of serious blood conditions such as cancer...

Class Of Drugs Discovered That Could Lead To The Development Of A Silver Bullet For Combatting Alzheimer's Disease

Date: May-24-2013
Researchers at USC have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat Alzheimer's Disease in mice. The drugs, known as "TSPO ligands," are currently used for certain types of neuroimaging. "We looked at the effects of TSPO ligand in young adult mice when pathology was at an early stage, and in aged mice when pathology was quite severe," said lead researcher Christian Pike of the USC Davis School of Gerontology. "TSPO ligand reduced measures of pathology and improved behavior at both ages." The team's findings were published online by the Journal of Neuroscience...

Many Mexican Young Adults Have A Genetic Predisposition To Obesity

Date: May-24-2013
As many as 35 percent of Mexican young adults may have a genetic predisposition for obesity, said a University of Illinois scientist who conducted a study at the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosί. "The students who inherited genetic risk factors from both parents were already 15½ pounds heavier and 2 inches bigger around the waist than those who hadn't. They also had slightly higher fasting glucose levels," said Margarita Teran-Garcia, a U of I professor of food science and human nutrition...