Health News

Older Adults Learn More From Taking A Test Than Just Restudying, New Research Finds

Date: Mar-09-2013
Older adults who haven't been in school for a while are as capable of learning from tests as younger adults and college students, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. No matter their age or if they work or go to college full time, people appear to learn more when tested on material, rather than simply rereading or restudying information, according to research published online in the APA journal Psychology and Aging®. "The use of testing as a way to learn new information has been thoroughly examined in young students...

Improving Mood Symptoms In Children And Adolescents At Risk For Bipolar Disorder Through Family Intervention

Date: Mar-09-2013
A study published in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that children and adolescents with major depression or subthreshold forms of bipolar disorder - and who had at least one first-degree relative with bipolar disorder - responded better to a 12-session family-focused treatment than to a briefer educational treatment. A study led by David J. Miklowitz, Ph.D., of the UCLA School of Medicine, and Kiki D. Chang, M.D...

How Climate Plays A Part In Influenza Transmission

Date: Mar-09-2013
Two types of environmental conditions - cold-dry and humid-rainy - are associated with seasonal influenza epidemics, according to an epidemiological study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health's Fogarty International Center. The paper, published in PLOS Pathogens, presents a simple climate-based model that maps influenza activity globally and accounts for the diverse range of seasonal patterns observed across temperate, subtropical and tropical regions...

Lung Tumors Eradicated In A Pre-Clinical Mouse Model

Date: Mar-09-2013
The study, led by the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, has managed to eliminate mouse lung tumors by inhibiting Myc, a protein that plays a key role in the development of many different tumors    Previous studies had already shown that Myc was a key protein in tumour development and had established how to inhibit Myc through gene therapy    This protein is involved in the development of diverse tumours and so Myc-targeted therapy could make a positive contribution to the therapeutic options for different types of cancer The results, to be published in the...

Acupuncture Improves Memory, Test Performance, And Reduces Anxiety

Date: Mar-09-2013
A new study shows that acupuncture improves memory, test performance, and reduces anxiety.� The study will appear in an upcoming edition of The Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies. Dr. Jason Bussell, PhD, conducted an experiment with 90 undergraduate students.�Half the students received acupuncture and half did not; and the placebo effect was controlled. Then all the students took a computerized test of Working Memory- the Automated Operation Span Task...

Even Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries Can Kill Brain Tissue

Date: Mar-09-2013
Scientists have watched a mild traumatic brain injury play out in the living brain, prompting swelling that reduces blood flow and connections between neurons to die. "Even with a mild trauma, we found we still have these ischemic blood vessels and, if blood flow is not returned to normal, synapses start to die," said Dr. Sergei Kirov, neuroscientist and Director of the Human Brain Lab at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University...

Cancer Immune Therapy AV0113 Receives Orphan Drug Designation

Date: Mar-09-2013
The European Medicines Agency recently awarded the Austrian biotech company Activartis an Orphan Drug Designation for its innovative Cancer Immune Therapy AV0113. The Orphan Drug Designation applies specifically to the use of AV0113 for the treatment of glioma, a type of brain tumour, which afflicts around one in 10.000 people in the EU. The term Orphan Disease refers to rare diseases which do not attract much interest in the way of research and development and thus for which there are no appropriate treatments available...

New Wrigley Gum Offers Caffeine Boost

Date: Mar-09-2013
Wrigley is launching a new chewing gum called Alert Energy Caffeine Gum which offers a boost of caffeine. The new product is aimed at consumers between the ages of 25 and 49 who may have quit their habit of chewing gum when they were younger, while tapping into the market of energy products - a rapid-growth market. The caffeinated gum is intended for adults who "want a portable product that lets them control their caffeine intake", the company said. "Alert" contains 40 milligrams of caffeine - the same amount of caffeine as about a half a cup of coffee or a 16-ounce soda...

Red Wine Pill Could Lead The Way For Anti-Aging Process

Date: Mar-09-2013
A group of scientists aiming to imitate the life-extending qualities created by a chemical found in dark chocolate and red wine say they have figured out how this compound functions - and its ability to fight diabetes, obesity, and even some cancers. This groundbreaking research was published in the journal Science on Friday, and could pave the way for medicine that could mimic resveratrol - a compound that pharmaceutical industries have spent millions of dollars attempting to explore how it can be used to improve the body's defenses against aging and disease...

Why Is Antibiotic Resistance Increasing - A Novel Hypothesis

Date: Mar-09-2013
Why are bacteria becoming increasingly more resistant to antibiotics? A hypothesis regarding the enigma of antibiotic resistance has been put forward by a researcher from the University of Granada in Spain. He claims this could revolutionize how the pharmaceutical industry goes about targeting superbugs. Mohammed Bakkali, a geneticist, has demonstrated that using antibiotics can make non-resistant bacteria become resistant because they assume the DNA of already-resistant bacteria...