Health News

Cannabinoid Receptors Linked To Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Findings Bring First Pharmaceutical Treatment For PTSD Within Reach

Date: May-15-2013
In a first-of-its-kind effort to illuminate the biochemical impact of trauma, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered a connection between the quantity of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain, known as CB1 receptors, and post-traumatic stress disorder, the chronic, disabling condition that can plague trauma victims with flashbacks, nightmares and emotional instability. Their findings, which appear online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, will also be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry in San Francisco...

All Adults Should Be Screened For Alcohol Misuse, Panel Recommends

Date: May-15-2013
Regular checkups at the doctor's generally concentrate on physical symptoms like pain or illness - now experts are recommending that annual visits to the doctor should also serve as a routine check on mental health and risky behaviors such as alcohol misuse. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force examined whether alcohol screening would be advantageous to a person's overall health. The Task Force found that doctors usually just screen adolescents and not adults, because teens are more at risk of alcohol abuse...

Kava Successfully Treats Anxiety In World First Clinical Trial

Date: May-15-2013
A world-first completed clinical study by an Australian team has found Kava, a medicinal South Pacific plant, significantly reduced the symptoms of people suffering anxiety...

Advanced Imaging Studies May Enhance Diabetes Management

Date: May-15-2013
New approaches to applying noninvasive imaging tests such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), and positron emission tomography (PET) may play a bigger role in evaluating and managing patients with diabetes. Advances in noninvasive imaging technology can assess important changes in fat composition and distribution in the body that may affect the metabolic complications and diseases associated with diabetes, including cardiovascular disease and cancer...

Slim Women Have Higher Endometriosis Risk Than Obese Women

Date: May-15-2013
Slim women have a higher risk of developing endometriosis than women who are morbidly obese, according to a new major study. The research was published in the journal Human Reproduction and showed that morbidly obese females (BMI greater than 40 kg/m2) have a 39% lower risk of endometriosis than females with a current BMI in the low normal range (8.5 to 22.4 kg/m2). When the investigators looked back at the subjects' BMIs when they were 18 years old, they found that those who were morbidly obese at that age had a 41% reduced risk of endometriosis than those with low normal BMI...

Level Of Dengue Virus Needed For Transmission

Date: May-15-2013
Researchers have identified the dose of dengue virus in human blood that is required to infect mosquitoes when they bite. Mosquitoes are essential for transmitting the virus between people so the findings have important implications for understanding how to slow the spread of the disease. By defining the threshold of the amount of virus needed for transmission, the research also provides a target that experimental dengue vaccines and drugs must prevent the virus from reaching in order to be successful at preventing the spread of disease during natural infection...

Novel Coronavirus Might Spread Between Humans, Says World Health Organization

Date: May-15-2013
The Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) is emerging as a major challenge for countries across the world and experts from the various governments that have been affected are desperately looking for some form of guidance. A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that the virus may be able to spread by human-to-human contact. In fact, WHO has just been invited by the The Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to try and help them fully assess nCoV and come up with recommendations and ways to try and tackle it...

Gut Bug May Prevent Obesity And Type 2 Diabetes

Date: May-15-2013
A Belgian-led study published in PNAS this week suggests Akkermansia muciniphila, an intestinal microbe that is important for maintaining the gut lining and how food is absorbed, could be used to prevent obesity and associated metabolic disorders, such as those that lead to type 2 diabetes. Our digestive tract is home to a vast and varied population of microbes. In fact scientists have discovered that at 3.3 million, the genes of our gut flora vastly outnumber the 23,000 or so genes in the human genome...

Measures Necessary To Prevent Possible Bird Flu Pandemic

Date: May-15-2013
On 31 March 2013, the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission announced human cases of novel H7N9 influenza virus infections. A group of scientists, led by Professor Chen Hualan of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has investigated the origins of this novel H7N9 influenza virus and published their results in Springer's open access journal Chinese Science Bulletin (SpringerOpen)...

Exercise-Induced Generation Of New Neurons Mediated By Serotonin

Date: May-15-2013
Mice that exercise in running wheels exhibit increased neurogenesis in the brain. Crucial to this process is serotonin signaling. These are the findings of a study by researchers at the Max Delbruck Center Berlin-Buch. Surprisingly, mice lacking brain serotonin due to a genetic mutation exhibited normal baseline neurogenesis. However, in these serotonin-deficient mice, activity-induced proliferation was impaired, and wheel running did not induce increased generation of new neurons...