Health News

Foot Size Often Grows During Pregnancy

Date: Mar-04-2013
Pregnancy commonly changes the size and shape of a woman's feet, researchers from the University of Iowa reported in the March issue of the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. The authors added that the change is permanent. Women commonly develop flat feet during pregnancy, possibly because the extra weight flattens out the arch of the foot. Also, the joints tend to be looser during pregnancy...

Mutations In 2 Genes Tied To The Death Of Motor Neurons Associated With ALS

Date: Mar-04-2013
A study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has discovered mutations in two genes that lead to the death of nerve cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and related degenerative diseases. The same mutation occurred in both genes and led to the abnormal build-up of the proteins inside cells. These proteins play an essential role in normal RNA functioning and have also been linked to cancer, including the Ewing sarcoma, the second most common type of bone cancer in children and adolescents...

Taking Sleepwalking Seriously

Date: Mar-04-2013
A new study found that adult sleepwalking is a potentially serious condition that may induce violent behaviors and affect health-related quality of life. "We found a higher frequency of daytime sleepiness, fatigue, insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms and altered quality of life in patients with sleepwalking compared to the control group," said Yves Dauvilliers, MD, PhD, the study's principal investigator and lead author. Dr. Dauvilliers is professor of physiology and neurology and director of the sleep lab at Gui-de-Chauliac Hospital in Montpellier, France...

First Functional HIV Cure Of An Infant

Date: Mar-04-2013
A baby who received antiretroviral therapy within 30 hours of birth has been cured, researchers from Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School reported at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Treating an HIV+ infant (or one with suspected HIV infection) in such a way so soon after birth is not common. A functional cure means there is a lack of detectable viral replication in the absence of ongoing retroviral therapy...

Teenage Girls' Hopes And Feelings About Reproduction, Especially When Fertility Is Threatened By Cancer

Date: Mar-04-2013
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have found that healthy adolescent females have predetermined expectations for becoming parents in the future, but have concerns about fertility and childbearing should they develop a life-threatening illness, such as cancer. The study appeared in the February issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. According to the researchers, this study helped further validate a tool that seeks to understand teenage girls' hopes and feelings about reproduction, especially when fertility is threatened by cancer...

Drug Companies And Gifts Given To Physicians, Hospitals And Other Health Care Providers

Date: Mar-04-2013
Drug companies spent nearly $84 million marketing pharmaceuticals in the District of Columbia in 2011, including an outlay of nearly $19 million for gifts given to physicians, hospitals and other health care providers, according to a report by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). The report notes that 12 physicians in the District received gifts (including consulting payments) that totaled more than $100,000 apiece that one year alone. "There is nothing inherently wrong with such gifts," said Susan F...

Heart Function Improved By Thyroid Hormones After Myocardial Infarction In Rats

Date: Mar-04-2013
Thyroid hormone treatment administered to rats at the time of a heart attack (myocardial infarction) led to significant reduction in the loss of heart muscle cells and improvement in heart function, according to a study published by a team of researchers led by A. Martin Gerdes and Yue-Feng Chen from New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. The findings, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, have bolstered the researchers' contention that thyroid hormones may help reduce heart damage in humans with cardiac diseases...

Key Enzyme Missing From Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Date: Mar-04-2013
A groundbreaking new study led by the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center's Dr. Peter Zhou found that triple-negative breast cancer cells are missing a key enzyme that other cancer cells contain - providing insight into potential therapeutic targets to treat the aggressive cancer. Zhou's study is unique in that his lab is the only one in the country to specifically study the metabolic process of triple-negative breast cancer cells...

HMO Enrollees With Poor Health Have Hardest Time Communicating With Doctors

Date: Mar-04-2013
In the nation's most diverse state, some of the sickest Californians often have the hardest time communicating with their doctors. So say the authors of a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research that found that residents with limited English skills who reported the poorest health and were enrolled in commercial HMO plans were more likely to have difficulty understanding their doctors, placing this already vulnerable population at even greater risk...

Improvement Needed In Empathic Communication Between Hospice Teams And Caregivers

Date: Mar-04-2013
A new study authored by University of Kentucky researcher Elaine Wittenberg-Lyles shows that more empathic communication is needed between caregivers and hospice team members. The study, published in Patient Education and Counseling, was done in collaboration with Debra Parker Oliver, professor in the University of Missouri Department of Family and Community Medicine. The team enrolled hospice family caregivers and interdisciplinary team members at two hospice agencies in the Midwestern United States...