Health News

Neuroscientists Attempting To Crack The Neural Code

Date: Mar-14-2013
Despite many remarkable discoveries in the field of neuroscience during the past several decades, researchers have not been able to fully crack the brain's "neural code." The neural code details how the brain's roughly 100 billion neurons turn raw sensory inputs into information we can use to see, hear and feel things in our environment. In a perspective article published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, biomedical engineering professor Garrett Stanley detailed research progress toward "reading and writing the neural code...

Expressing Anger On Online Rant-Sites May Not Be Good For Your Health

Date: Mar-14-2013
Little is known about the value and emotional consequences of expressing anger on the Internet. Rant-sites provide an outlet for anonymous, angry outbursts. How people feel after reading and writing rants and the effects of this behavior is explored in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available online on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website...

Detecting Foodborne Pathogen That Causes Listeriosis Using Low-Cost Nano-Biosensor

Date: Mar-14-2013
The foodborne bacteria Listeria monocytogenes sickens about 2,500 people in the U.S. each year and many more worldwide, killing about 25-30% of those infected. Listeriosis is caused by eating food contaminated with L. monocytogenes, and current methods for detecting the bacteria are costly and time consuming. An innovative nanotechnology-based method for developing an inexpensive biosensor to detect the pathogen in food is described in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert Inc., publishers...

A Guidance Cue That Helps Kidneys Form May Also Be A Red Flag That They Are In Danger

Date: Mar-14-2013
Acute kidney injury, a common and serious complication of hospitalization, is on the increase worldwide, affecting an estimated 6 percent of all hospitalized patients and 30-40 percent of adults and children having cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. About 10-15 percent of acute injuries translate to chronic kidney damage or failure that may require dialysis or a kidney transplant, said Dr. Ganesan Ramesh, kidney pathologist in the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University...

Radiotherapy-Associated Oral Mucositis: Promising New Drug Offers Treatment And Protection

Date: Mar-14-2013
Mouse model studies show that administered genetically or topically, protein Smad7 protects against or heals mouth sores commonly associated with cancer treatment. In some cancer patients treated with radiation, the mouth sores known as oral mucositis become so severe that feeding tubes are required for nutrition and narcotics are needed for pain. In fact, 40-70 percent of patients treated with upper-body radiation develop the condition to some degree. Currently, there is no FDA approved treatment...

Finding May Lead To New Universal Influenza Vaccine For Seasonal And Pandemic Outbreaks

Date: Mar-14-2013
Researchers have determined a way to predict and protect against new strains of the flu virus, in the hope of improving immunity against the disease. Influenza is a rapidly spreading acute respiratory disease. Worldwide, annual seasonal epidemics of the flu result in 3-5 million cases of severe illness, and up to 500 000 deaths. A newly emerged virus can spread across 74 countries in 2 months...

Eplerenone Has The Potential To Reduce Clinical And Subclinical Heart Failure In STEMI Patients

Date: Mar-14-2013
The prescription drug eplerenone appears to reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality and heart failure after a heart attack by more than one-third, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The REMINDER (Reduction of heart failure morbidity in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction) trial was a randomized, double-blind trial of 1,012 patients who had a heart attack caused by a complete blockage of one of the heart's arteries. Patients had no signs or history of heart failure...

10 Years After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Survivors Have Persistent Problems In Key Areas

Date: Mar-14-2013
Ten years after stroke caused by a ruptured aneurysm of the brain, surviving patients have persistent difficulties in several areas affecting quality of life, reports a study in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health...

Therapeutic Targets Found To Alter Inflammation, Type 2 Diabetes

Date: Mar-14-2013
New research from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) reveals that B cells regulate obesity-associated inflammation and type 2 diabetes through two specific mechanisms. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, indicates the importance of continuing to explore B cells as a therapeutic target to treat these diseases. Barbara Nikolajczyk, PhD, associate professor of microbiology at BUSM, is the study's senior author. The incidence of diabetes continues to rise at alarming rates...

Recurrent Cardiac Events In Heart Attack Patients Not Reduced By High-Dose Oral Vitamins, Minerals

Date: Mar-14-2013
Heart attack patients given a combination of high-dose oral vitamins and minerals do not exhibit a significant reduction in recurrent cardiac events, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. However, the results of one component of the NIH-funded Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) study, shows that when combined with active chelation therapy, high-dose vitamins and minerals may provide some additional benefit...