Health News

How A Text Message A Day Can Keep The Asthma Attack Away

Date: May-02-2013
Simply sending children with asthma a text message each day asking about their symptoms and providing knowledge about their condition can lead to improved health outcomes. In a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology, pediatric patients who were asked questions about their symptoms and provided information about asthma via SMS text messages showed improved pulmonary function and a better understanding of their condition within four months, compared to other groups...

Making Sacrifices For Your Partner After A Stressful Day May Not Be Beneficial

Date: May-02-2013
A pile of dirty dishes looms in the kitchen. It's your spouse's night to wash, but you know he or she has had a long day so you grab a sponge and step up to the plate. It's just one of the minor daily sacrifices you make in the name of love. But what if you had a long, stressful day, too? A new study from the University of Arizona, forthcoming in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, published by SAGE, suggests that while making sacrifices in a romantic relationship is generally a positive thing, doing so on days when you are feeling especially stressed may not be beneficial...

Link Between Low Vitamin D Levels And Pneumonia Risk

Date: May-02-2013
A University of Eastern Finland study showed that low serum vitamin D levels are a risk factor for pneumonia. The risk of contracting pneumonia was more than 2.5 times greater in subjects with the lowest vitamin D levels than in subjects with high vitamin D levels. The results were published in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The follow-up study carried out by the UEF Institute of Public Health investigated the link between serum vitamin D3 and the risk of contracting pneumonia. The study involved 1,421 subjects living in the Kuopio region in Eastern Finland...

Mystery Behind Sex Disparities In Drug-Induced Hepatitis Unravelled In Mouse Model

Date: May-02-2013
A life-threatening condition that often requires transplantation and accounts for half of all acute liver failures, autoimmune hepatitis is often precipitated by certain anesthetics and antibiotics. Researchers say these drugs contain tiny molecules called haptens that ever so slightly change normal liver proteins, causing the body to mistake its own liver cells for foreign invaders and to attack them. The phenomenon disproportionately occurs in women, even when they take the same drugs at the same doses as men...

"Slippery Slope" Fears For Legal Euthanasia Of Very Sick Newborns Unfounded

Date: May-02-2013
Dutch experience shows opposite is true; and parents involved in decisions Fears that legalising euthanasia for very sick newborns would prompt the start of a "slippery slope" and lead to abuse of the option have proved groundless, says the architect of a dedicated protocol used by doctors in The Netherlands, in a special issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics. The Groningen Protocol, which was devised to help doctors curb the suffering of very sick newborns and identify the situations in which euthanasia might be appropriate, was introduced in 2005 in The Netherlands...

Reducing Stress In The Workplace Through Cost-Effective Online Tools

Date: May-02-2013
The use of Internet-based stress management programs (ISM) effectively reduce stress for a sustainable period, according to a Cleveland Clinic study published recently in Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Online stress management programs aim to increase accessibility for individuals affected by chronic stress at a lesser cost than traditional methods. Data suggests that stress reduction using ISM is comparable to face-to-face stress management...

Intervention Program For Teenage Girls Prevents Bullying And Violence

Date: May-02-2013
New research from experts within the University of Minnesota School of Nursing has found teen girls at high risk for pregnancy reported being significantly less likely to participate in social bullying after participating in an 18-month preventive intervention program. This research, in combination with University of Minnesota School of Nursing research findings from March 2013, demonstrate the preventative intervention program can reduce social bullying among all girls, including those who did and did not have strong family ties...

Hidden Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Cells Revealed By Fluorescence

Date: May-02-2013
A small group of elusive neurons in the brain's cortex play a big role in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a swift and fatal neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes its victims. But the neurons have always been difficult to study because there are so few of them and they look so similar to other neurons in the cortex. In a new preclinical study, a Northwestern Medicine® scientist has isolated the motor neurons in the brain that die in ALS and, for the first time, dressed them in a green fluorescent jacket. Now they're impossible to miss and easy to study...

Experimental Drug Inhibits Growth In All Stages Of Common Kidney Cancer

Date: May-02-2013
Researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida have discovered a protein that is overly active in every human sample of kidney cancer they examined. They also found that an experimental drug designed to block the protein's activity significantly reduced tumor growth in animals when used alone. Combining it with another drug already used to treat the cancer improved the effectiveness of both...

Muscle Function Improved By HRT

Date: May-02-2013
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) significantly improves muscle function - down to the muscle fibre level - in postmenopausal women, a new study published in The Journal of Physiology shows. Some studies published over the last decade have led to negative publicity around HRT, a treatment used to relieve symptoms of menopause, resulting in many women being reluctant to use it. However this new study offers a positive outcome from the treatment...