Health News

Mapping Telomerase Is An Important Step Towards Predicting The Risk Of Developing Different Cancers

Date: Apr-01-2013
In collaboration with an international research team, University of Copenhagen researchers have for the first time mapped telomerase, an enzyme which has a kind of rejuvenating effect on normal cell ageing. The findings have just been published in Nature Genetics and are a step forward in the fight against cancer. Mapping the cellular fountain of youth - telomerase. This is one of the results of a major research project involving more than 1,000 researchers worldwide, four years of hard work, DKK 55 million from the EU and blood samples from more than 200,000 people...

Mothers Tell Better, More Emotional Stories About Past Experiences Which Help Children Develop Their Emotional Skills

Date: Apr-01-2013
The act of talking is not an area where ability is usually considered along gender lines. However, a new study published in Springer's journal Sex Roles has found subtle differences between the sexes in their story-relating ability and specifically the act of reminiscing. The research by Widaad Zaman from the University of Central Florida and her colleague Robyn Fivush from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, discusses how these gender differences in parents can affect children's emotional development...

Unusual Bird Flu Virus Kills Two Men In China

Date: Mar-31-2013
Two men have died in Shanghai after being infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus strain, one that has never affected humans before, Chinese health authorities reported. The two patients were aged 87 and 27 years. The Xinhua News Agency reported that the younger man, surnamed Wu, became ill on February 19th, 2013 and died just over three weeks later on March 4th. The older man, surnamed Li, became sick on February 27th and died on March 10th. The older patients' two sons became ill with flu and were hospitalized. The younger son, aged 55, developed severe pneumonia and died...

Most Kids' Meals At Restaurant Chains Are Unhealthy

Date: Mar-31-2013
Most of the kids' meals offered at chain restaurants in the U.S. are unhealthy. The finding came from a new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) which showed that burgers, fried chicken fingers, French fries, and sugar drinks are still dominating kids' menus, with 97% of the almost 3,500 meal options not complying with CSPI's nutrition standards for children aged 4 to 8. According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), 91% of children's meals at large restaurant chains in the U.S...

Bacterial Species On Fresh Produce Vary With Produce Type, Farming Practices

Date: Mar-31-2013
Fresh fruit and vegetables carry an abundance of bacteria on their surfaces, not all of which cause disease. In the first study to assess the variety of these non-pathogenic bacteria, scientists report that these surface bacteria vary depending on the type of produce and cultivation practices. The results are published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Jonathan Leff and Noah Fierer at the University of Colorado, Boulder...

Aggressive Behavior May Be Reined In By Teaching Potential Offenders To See Happiness In Ambiguous Facial Expressions

Date: Mar-31-2013
Encouraging young people at high-risk of criminal offending and delinquency to see happiness rather than anger in facial expressions results in a decrease in their levels of anger and aggression, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science...

Focus On Proteins: The First Steps In Protein Folding

Date: Mar-31-2013
Researchers with the joint program between IRB Barcelona and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) have devised a new strategy to study the shape of proteins. This study has been led by Modesto Orozco, head of the Molecular Modeling and Bioinformatics Group, and Xavier Salvatella, head of the Molecular Biophysics Group, both ICREA scientists at IRB Barcelona...

More Women, More Complications With Minimally Invasive Kidney Stone Surgery

Date: Mar-31-2013
While the number of people - especially women - who have a minimally invasive procedure to remove kidney stones has risen in recent years, so has the rate of complications related to the surgery, according to a published study by Henry Ford Hospital. The research, from Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute, appears in the current issue of Journal of Urology...

Novel Screening Procedure For Accurately Determining The Amount Of Animal, Plant, And Microbial Substances In Foods

Date: Mar-31-2013
Almost all foodstuffs contain the genetic material of those animal and plant species that were used in their preparation. Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, Genetic Security Research and Consulting at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a novel screening procedure that provides for highly sensitive, quantifiable analysis of animal, plant, and microbial substances present in foodstuffs...

Development Of Different Types Of Ovarian Cancer Driven By Novel Gene

Date: Mar-31-2013
Researchers at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center have identified a novel gene that can contribute to a woman's susceptibility for developing ovarian cancer. Researchers identified the gene, called HNF1B, through large-scale analysis of more than 16,000 women with ovarian cancer and more than 26,000 healthy women. Results of the study are published in the current issue of the journal Nature Communications...