Health News

Early Identification Of Cognitive Decline Via Brain-Imaging And Stroke Risk Test

Date: Apr-05-2013
UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool and stroke risk assessment to identify signs of cognitive decline early on in individuals who don't yet show symptoms of dementia. The connection between stroke risk and cognitive decline has been well established by previous research. Individuals with higher stroke risk, as measured by factors like high blood pressure, have traditionally performed worse on tests of memory, attention and abstract reasoning...

When The Healing Element Is Also The Enemy: Medical Enigma Probed By Hebrew University Researchers

Date: Apr-05-2013
The same factor in our immune system that is instrumental in enabling us to fight off severe and dangerous inflammatory ailments is also a player in doing the opposite at a later stage, causing the suppression of our immune response. Why and how this happens and what can be done to mediate this process for the benefit of mankind is the subject of an article published online in the journal Immunity by Ph.D. student Moshe Sade-Feldman and Prof...

Women With High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy At Greater Risk For Hot Flashes Later

Date: Apr-05-2013
Women who have hypertensive diseases during pregnancy seem to be at higher risk of having troublesome hot flashes and night sweats at menopause, report researchers from the Netherlands in an article published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society. This is the first study to look at this association. The investigators examined the relationship between hypertensive diseases in pregnancy, such as preeclampsia, and vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) among 853 women who visited a cardiology clinic in Kampen, the Netherlands...

Quality Relationships Are Not Always Beneficial To One's Health

Date: Apr-05-2013
On average, young newlyweds who are satisfied with their marriage gain weight in the early years after they exchange vows, putting them at increased risk for various health problems related to being overweight. That is the finding of a new study on marital satisfaction and weight gain, according to psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, lead researcher and an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas...

Scientists Develop, Optimize Stem Cell Derivation Technique For Clinical Application

Date: Apr-05-2013
A team of New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute scientists led by David Kahler, PhD, NYSCF Director of Laboratory Automation, have developed a new way to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines from human skin cells, from both healthy and diseased donors. Reported in PLOS ONE, this cell-sorting method consistently selects the highest quality, standardized iPS cells, representing a major step forward for drug discovery and the development of cell therapies...

The Squid Beak Inspires Safer, More Comfortable Implants

Date: Apr-05-2013
Researchers led by scientists at Case Western Reserve University have turned to an unlikely model to make medical devices safer and more comfortable - a squid's beak. Many medical implants require hard materials that have to connect to or pass through soft body tissue. This mechanical mismatch leads to problems such as skin breakdown at abdominal feeding tubes in stroke patients and where wires pass through the chest to power assistive heart pumps. Enter the squid. The tip of a squid's beak is harder than human teeth, but the base is as soft as the animal's Jello-like body...

Brain Stimulation In Rats Cures Cocaine Addiction

Date: Apr-05-2013
By stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shown that they can wipe away addictive behavior in rats - or conversely turn non-addicted rats into compulsive cocaine seekers...

Stable Breathprints From Exhaled Breath May Have Diagnostic Applications

Date: Apr-05-2013
Stable, specific 'breathprints' unique to an individual exist and may have applications as diagnostic tools in personalized medicine, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Renato Zenobi and colleagues from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and the University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland. The researchers studied the chemicals present in exhaled breath from eleven participants, collected at different times of the day over an 11-day period...

Development Of Wisdom Teeth In Children May Be Affected By Dental Anesthesia

Date: Apr-05-2013
Researchers from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine have discovered a statistical association between the injection of local dental anesthesia given to children ages two to six and evidence of missing lower wisdom teeth. The results of this epidemiological study, published in the April issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association, suggest that injecting anesthesia into the gums of young children may interrupt the development of the lower wisdom tooth. "It is intriguing to think that something as routine as local anesthesia could stop wisdom teeth from developing...

New Approach To Determining Origins Of Eye Diseases

Date: Apr-05-2013
Using new technology and new approaches, researchers at Lund University in Sweden hope to be able to explain why people suffer vision loss in eye diseases such as retinal detachment and glaucoma. Research on diseases of the eye such as retinal detachment and glaucoma has until now focused on the biochemical process that takes place in the eye in connection with the diseases. Fredrik Ghosh and Linnéa Taylor have concentrated instead on attempting to understand what happens on a biomechanical level in the diseases and have produced results that have drawn a lot of interest from experts...