Health News

Study Identifies Regions Of Genes Linked To Behçet's Disease

Date: Feb-19-2013
Researchers don't know the exact cause of Behçet's disease, a chronic condition that leads to oral and genital sores and serious complications such as blindness, but new research brings better understanding to what makes some people more susceptible to being affected. In one of the most extensive genetic analyses of Behçet's disease, a University of Michigan-led, international team of researchers has identified novel gene variants in the inflammatory disorder and uncovered data that could apply to studies of other diseases. The results appear in the journal Nature Genetics...

Tau Release From Healthy Neurons Induced By Neuronal Activity

Date: Feb-19-2013
Researchers from King's College London have discovered that neuronal activity can stimulate tau release from healthy neurons in the absence of cell death. The results published by Diane Hanger and her colleagues in EMBO reports show that treatment of neurons with known biological signaling molecules increases the release of tau into the culture medi-um. The release of tau from cortical neurons is therefore a physiological process that can be regulated by neuronal activity. Tau proteins stabilize microtubules, the long threads of polymers that help to maintain the structure of the cell...

Women's Social Activism May Be Inhibited By Self-Objectification

Date: Feb-19-2013
Women who live in a culture in which they are objectified by others may in turn begin to objectify themselves. This kind of self-objectification may reduce women's involvement in social activism, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science...

Potential Link Revealed Between Parkinson's And Visual Problems

Date: Feb-19-2013
The most common genetic cause of Parkinson's is not only responsible for the condition's distinctive movement problems but may also affect vision, according to new research by scientists at the University of York. Parkinson's, the second most common form of neurodegenerative disease, principally affects people aged over 60. Its most common symptom is tremor and slowness of movement (bradykinesia) but some people with Parkinson's also experience changes in vision...

What Are Coronaviruses? What Do Coronaviruses Cause?

Date: Feb-19-2013
Coronaviruses are viruses that belong to the subfamily Coronavirinae in the family Coronaviridae that typically affect the respiratory tract of mammals, including humans - they are associated with the common cold, pneumonia and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The virus may also affect the gut. A Coronavirus was first isolated in 1937 - it was an avian infectious bronchitis virus which had (and still has) the ability to seriously devastate poultry stocks...

Hospitals May Be Unfairly Punished For High Readmission Rates

Date: Feb-19-2013
When hospital patients have to be readmitted soon after discharge, hospitals look bad. A high readmission rate also can result in reduced Medicare reimbursements. But a study of spine surgery patients has found that the standard method used to calculate readmission rates is a misleading indicator of hospital quality. Loyola University Medical Center neurosurgeon Beejal Amin, MD, and his colleagues found that 25 percent of the readmissions of spine surgery patients were not due to true quality-of-care issues...

In Both Humans And Dogs, The Same Genetic Defect Causes Pompe Disease

Date: Feb-19-2013
Pompe disease, a severe glycogen storage disease appearing in Lapphunds is caused by a genetic defect in acid α-glucosidase gene. The same genetic mutation also causes the equivalent disease in humans. Based on this finding, canine Pompe disease can now be diagnosed with a genetic test. This research was completed at the Canine Genetics Research Group lead by professor Hannes Lohi in the University of Helsinki and Folkhälsan Research Center in Finland and was published in PLOS ONE. Human Pompe disease is caused by complete or partial deficiency of the acidic α-glucosidase enzyme...

Giving Equal Rights To Women Could Be Solution To Worldwide Food Insecurity

Date: Feb-19-2013
Around the world, at least a billion people are hungry or need better diets. To feed a global population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, we will need to increase food production by as much as 70 percent, most analysts believe. Achieving that goal requires civilization to address overpopulation and overconsumption through a bottom-up movement focused on agricultural, environmental and demographic planning, among other strategies, argues Stanford Woods Institute Senior Fellow Paul Ehrlich (Biology). A crucial first step is to give equal rights to women worldwide, Ehrlich says...

Diabetes And Increased Risk Of Heart Attack Death Linked

Date: Feb-19-2013
Having diabetes doubles a person's risk of dying after a heart attack, but the reason for the increased risk is not clear. A new University of Iowa study suggests the link may lie in the over-activation of an important heart enzyme, which leads to death of pacemaker cells in the heart, abnormal heart rhythm, and increased risk of sudden death in diabetic mice following a heart attack. "Many studies have shown that patients with diabetes are at especially high risk for dying from a myocardial infarction (heart attack)...

Tool Tested For Screening Cancer Patients For Malnutrition

Date: Feb-19-2013
Considering the many things a cancer patient has to think about, it's easy to understand why maintaining proper nutrition may not be top of the list. This can be true, too, at busy outpatient settings where it's often difficult to find the time and resources to test cancer patients for malnutrition. However, researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have found a shorter version of a commonly used nutrition-assessment tool does the job effectively and can potentially improve outcomes for cancer patients...