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The First Results Of A Major Scientific Effort To Understand Our Own Ecosystem: The Microbial Communities That Dwell Within Us
Date: Mar-04-2013Earth Day may be more than a month away, but another, more personal, ecosystem has been shown to also be worth protecting - within our bodies are communities of microbes that affect the behavior of human cells hosting them. These communities, called the "microbiome," are so crucial to our health that some consider it to be a complex "second genome." Understanding the interaction of these microbes among one another and their human hosts has the potential to yield insights into numerous diseases and complex human disorders from obesity to susceptibility to infection...
Traffic Deaths In British Columbia Could Be Halved
Date: Mar-04-2013A study by a Simon Fraser University researcher shows British Columbia has much higher traffic death rates than most northern European countries. Comparisons to the safest country, the Netherlands, suggest B.C. could reduce the number of traffic deaths by more than 200 per year. It also found that fatality and injury risks varied by travel mode...
Important Information On Sustainable Diet Provided By New Protein Quality Method
Date: Mar-04-2013A groundbreaking report by an Expert Consultation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) has recommended a new, advanced method for assessing the quality of dietary proteins. The report, "Dietary protein quality evaluation in human nutrition", recommends that the Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score (DIAAS) replace the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) as the preferred method of measuring protein quality...
Sexting Practices Among Urban Minority Youth
Date: Mar-04-2013Sexting, the use of technology to send or receive sexually explicit messages, photos, or videos, is a relatively new trend and, in many cases, has legal implications. As many as 25-50% of young people may participate in sexting. A close-up look at the sexting practices of a group of urban ethnic minority youths is presented 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...
Majority Of UK GPs Would Prescribe E-Cigarettes, If They Were Regulated
Date: Mar-04-2013New report, published in GP Magazine today, concludes "GPs averse to nicotine delivery devices being introduced to the market without a robust regulatory system in placei" However, e-cigarettes could be the answer to help reduce health inequalitiesii and save lives...
Tumors Create Conditions That Weaken Immune Response
Date: Mar-04-2013Tumors in melanoma patients cause the body's immune defense to weaken to a point where it's not able to kill cancerous cells in the tumor, according to new research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The researchers, led by Dr Sophia Karagiannis and Professor Frank Nestle at King's College London, UK, also found a potential antibody biomarker which could help determine what treatments are best for different people. Previous research has indicated that antibodies are produced in melanoma patients that attack cancer cells...
Kidney Disease Caused By High-Fat Diets Tackled By Grape Seed And Skin Extract
Date: Mar-04-2013New insight into grape seed extract as a therapeutic and preventative measure to fight obesity-induced kidney damage is presented in a new study. Grape seed and skin extract (GSSE) is known to contain powerful antioxidants. This study, published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, is the first to make a link between GSSEs and high-fat-diet-induced renal disease. The authors examined the effect of GSSE processed from a grape cultivar ('Carignan') of Vitis vinifera from northern Tunisia on rats...
Hyper-Masculinity Encouraged By Aggressive Advertising
Date: Mar-04-2013Does advertising influence society, or is it merely a reflection of society's pre-existing norms? Where male attitudes are concerned, a new study* implicates magazine advertisements specifically aimed at men as helping to reinforce a certain set of views on masculinity termed "hyper-masculinity." The article by Megan Vokey, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Manitoba, and colleagues is published in Springer's journal Sex Roles...
Pneumonia Patients Prescribed Steroids May Have A Shorter Hospital Stay
Date: Mar-04-2013Patients with pneumonia may spend fewer days in the hospital if they are given steroids along with antibiotics and supportive care. That's the finding of a Mayo Clinic analysis of eight randomized-controlled clinical trials involving more than 1,100 patients. The results appear in the March issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine. "Given that the average hospital stay for community-acquired pneumonia can range from nine to 23 days, the prospect of speeding recovery, even by a day or two, is helpful," says co-author M. Rizwan Sohail, M.D., a Mayo infectious disease specialist...
The Reason Pregnant Women Are More Vulnerable To Certain Infections Is Likely Due To Progesterone
Date: Mar-04-2013Women who are pregnant or using synthetic progesterone birth control injections have a conspicuous vulnerability to certain infections including malaria, Listeria, HIV, and herpes simplex virus. A new research report appearing in the March 2013 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology offers strong evidence for a possible explanation: the progesterone receptor, a pregnancy hormone sensor, targets a part of the immune system responsible for protection against these and other invaders...
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