Health News

The Key To Controlling Global Epidemic - HIV Self-Testing

Date: Apr-04-2013
A new international study has confirmed that self-testing for HIV is effective and could be the answer to controlling the global epidemic. This major systematic review, led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), shows HIV self-testing removes much of the fear and stigma associated with being tested for the disease. This study, which is published in PLoS Medicine is the first of its kind and could pave the way for early detection and treatment around the world, thereby reducing transmission...

Low Testosterone Levels In Men May Indicate Rheumatoid Arthritis

Date: Apr-04-2013
Levels of testosterone that are low in men may predict a future development of rheumatoid arthritis. The finding was published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and was based on research from the Swedish Malmo Preventive Medicine Program (MPMP), which started in 1974 and followed over 33,000 people born between 1921 and 1949. Sex hormones have an influence in the development of rheumatoid arthritis. Historically, men and women who suffer from this health condition are liable to have low levels of testosterone in their blood...

Risk Factors For Blood Clots In Pregnant And Postnatal Women

Date: Apr-04-2013
Women who have suffered a still birth or have medical conditions including varicose veins, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or heart disease are at greater risk of developing dangerous blood clots after giving birth, a study has revealed. The research, led by academics at The University of Nottingham, found that being obese, suffering bleeding during pregnancy or labour and having a premature birth or delivery via caesarean section also increased the risk of a venous thromboembolism (VTE)...

Particle-Payload Delivery Systems Sneak Drugs Past Cancer's Defenses

Date: Apr-04-2013
DNA, siRNA and miRNA can reprogram cancer cells - that is, if these nucleic acids could cross through the cell membrane. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Therapeutic Delivery shows that cholesterol "rafts" can shepherd genetic payloads into cancer cells. "There are many promising therapeutic applications for nucleic acids, but because they can't diffuse across cell membranes on their own, delivery to cancer cells has been a major challenge...

Potential Approach For The Treatment Of Damaged Motor Neurons

Date: Apr-04-2013
RUB biologists clarify effect and mode of action Biologists from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have explored how to protect neurons that control movements from dying off. In the journal Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience they report that the molecule 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone, also known as vitamin P, ensures the survival of motor neurons in culture. It sends the survival signal on another path than the molecule Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which was previously considered a candidate for the treatment of motoneuron diseases or after spinal cord damage...

Surprising Findings In Mitochondrial Biology Change Long-standing Ideas On The Protein MTERF1

Date: Apr-04-2013
New findings in mitochondrial biology thoroughly change the idea scientists had for 20 years on the role and importance of the protein MTERF1. For the first time, Max Planck researcher Mugen Terzioglu and her colleagues in Germany and Sweden investigated in vivo what was up to now only explored in cell culture. Using the mouse as a model organism, she made a surprising discovery: MTERF1 does after all not play the key role in mitochondrial transcription and translation that was hitherto ascribed to it...

Charity Warns 6,500 Bowel Cancer Patients Will Lose Out On Vital Medicines

Date: Apr-04-2013
As many as 6,500 (6,427(1)) new patients a year in England could be denied access to life-extending medicines when the Government's special Cancer Drugs Fund comes to an end at the beginning of next year, according to new research by the charity Beating Bowel Cancer. It is warning that time is running out for the Department of Health to come up with a workable alternative to how expensive cancer drugs will be funded beyond January 2014. The charity has written to the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, to demand intervention and clear guidance on how a new system of funding will work...

Major Health And Cost Impact For Surgeons Suffering 'Sharps' Injuries

Date: Apr-04-2013
Injuries caused by needles and other sharp instruments are a major occupational hazard for surgeons - with high costs related to the risk of contracting serious infectious diseases, according to a special article in the April issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). ASPS Member Surgeon Dr. Kevin C. Chung and colleagues at The University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, review the risks, health impact and costs of "sharps" injuries for surgeons and other operating room personnel...

More Realistic Tumor Growth And Response To Anti-Cancer Drugs Using Polymer Scaffolds

Date: Apr-04-2013
Porous polymer scaffolds fabricated to support the growth of biological tissue for implantation may hold the potential to greatly accelerate the development of cancer therapeutics. Researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York reported this week that three-dimensional scaffolds used to culture Ewing's sarcoma cells were effective at mimicking the environment in which such tumors develop. Their research appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

First Strong Evidence Of Bi-Directional Relationship Between Music And Language

Date: Apr-04-2013
Non-musicians who speak tonal languages may have a better ear for learning musical notes, according to Canadian researchers. Tonal languages, found mainly in Asia, Africa and South America, have an abundance of high and low pitch patterns as part of speech. In these languages, differences in pitch can alter the meaning of a word. Vietnamese, for example, has eleven different vowel sounds and six different tones. Cantonese also has an intricate six-tone system, while English has no tones...