Health News

Children With Autism May Benefit From Interaction With Therapy Dogs

Date: Feb-15-2013
About 1 in 150 children are affected by an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by difficulty with language, communication, and social interaction. A critical review of several published studies evaluating the potential for therapy or assistance dogs to help children with ASD overcome some of these challenges is published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Journal website...

Women In The Military Deployed After Childbirth At Increased Risk For Depression

Date: Feb-15-2013
About 16,000 women on active duty in the U.S. military give birth each year. Most return to service after 6 weeks and can be deployed after 4 months. The potential for an increased risk of depression among new mothers who deploy and are exposed to combat experience is presented in a study published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Journal of Women's Health website...

Increase In Opioid Prescriptions In Germany

Date: Feb-15-2013
More and more opioids are being prescribed for pain relief in Germany. This is the conclusion arrived at by Ingrid Schubert, Peter Ihle, and Rainer Sabatowski, whose study of a sample of inhabitants of the state of Hesse with health insurance from a large statutory provider is published in the latest issue of Deutsches Arzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2013; 110(4): 45-51). Behind this study lies the intention to improve pain treatment with opioids, particularly for patients with cancer...

Identification Of Molecular Master Switch For Pancreatic Cancer, Potential Predictor Of Treatment Outcome

Date: Feb-15-2013
A recently described master regulator protein may explain the development of aberrant cell growth in the pancreas spurred by inflammation A team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania profiled gene expression of mouse pancreatic ductal and duct-like cells from different states - embryonic development, acute pancreatitis and K-ras mutation-driven carcinogenesis - to find the molecular regulation of these processes...

No Link Found Between Genetic Risk Factors And 2 Top Wet AMD Treatments

Date: Feb-15-2013
New findings from a landmark clinical trial show that although certain gene variants may predict whether a person is likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a potentially blinding eye disease that afflicts more than nine million Americans, these genes do not predict how patients will respond to Lucentis™ and Avastin™, the two medications most widely used to treat the "wet" form of AMD...

Neither High Fructose Corn Syrup Nor Table Sugar Increases Liver Fat Under 'Real World' Conditions

Date: Feb-15-2013
A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism presented compelling data showing the consumption of both high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and sucrose (table sugar) at levels consistent with average daily consumption do not increase liver fat in humans, a leading cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The findings also add to an already well-established body of science that high fructose corn syrup and table sugar are metabolically equivalent...

Researchers Develop A Cocaine Biosensor Inspired By Nature

Date: Feb-15-2013
Since the beginning of time, living organisms have developed ingenious mechanisms to monitor their environment. As part of an international study, a team of researchers has adapted some of these natural mechanisms to detect specific molecules such as cocaine more accurately and quickly. Their work may greatly facilitate the rapid screening - less than five minutes - of many drugs, infectious diseases, and cancers...

Deep Brain Therapy Benefits May Linger After Device Turned Off In Some Dystonia Cases

Date: Feb-15-2013
Two patients freed from severe to disabling effects of dystonia through deep brain stimulation therapy continued to have symptom relief for months after their devices accidentally were fully or partly turned off, according to a report published online in the journal Movement Disorders. "Current thought is that symptoms will worsen within hours or days of device shut-off, but these two young men continued to have clinical benefit despite interruption of DBS therapy for several months...

STDs Are An Epidemic In The U.S., CDC Warns

Date: Feb-15-2013
In step with Valentine's Day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the U.S. has around 110 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs or STIs), amounting to 20 million new infections each year, and it is only getting worse. The announcement followed two new studies just released by the CDC. They revealed the following STDs as the most common: human papilloma virus (HPV) chlamydia gonorrhea syphilis herpes hepatitis b trichomoniasis HIV Over half of these infections are in the young adult population, those aged 15 to 24 years...

How Animals Taste, And Avoid, High Salt Concentrations Has Implications For Humans

Date: Feb-15-2013
For consumers of the typical Western diet - laden with levels of salt detrimental to long-term health - it may be hard to believe that there is such a thing as an innate aversion to very high concentrations of salt. But Charles Zuker, PhD, and colleagues at Columbia University Medical Center have discovered how the tongue detects high concentrations of salt (think seawater levels, not potato chips), the first step in a salt-avoiding behavior common to most mammals...