Health News

In 2011 A Record Number Of Children Were Covered By Health Insurance

Date: Feb-08-2013
A record number of U.S. children were covered by health insurance in 2011, mostly due to substantial increases in the enrollment rates of public insurance, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The new research is presented in the Carsey Institute brief "Record Number of Children Covered by Health Insurance in 2011" conducted by Michael Staley, a research assistant at the Carsey Institute and a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of New Hampshire...

Study Addresses The Unique Issues Faced By Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Physicians

Date: Feb-08-2013
Deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) people must overcome significant professional barriers, particularly in health care professions...

Popular Drug-Carrying Nanoparticles Get Trapped In Bloodstream

Date: Feb-08-2013
Many medically minded researchers are in hot pursuit of designs that will allow drug-carrying nanoparticles to navigate tissues and the interiors of cells, but University of Michigan engineers have discovered that these particles have another hurdle to overcome: escaping the bloodstream. Drug delivery systems promise precision targeting of diseased tissue, meaning that medicines could be more effective at lower doses and with fewer side effects. Such an approach could treat plaques in arteries, which can lead to heart attacks or strokes...

Getting Older Increases Risk Of Death From Excessive BMI, Correcting Flaw In Earlier 'Obesity Paradox' Research

Date: Feb-08-2013
Obesity kills, giving rise to a host of fatal diseases. This much is well known. But when it comes to seniors, a slew of prominent research has reported an "obesity paradox" that says, at age 65 and older, having an elevated BMI won't shorten your lifespan, and may even extend it. A new study takes another look at the numbers, finding the earlier research flawed. The paradox was a mirage: As obese Americans grow older, in fact, their risk of death climbs...

When The Cell's Two Genomes Collide

Date: Feb-08-2013
Plant and animal cells contain two genomes: one in the nucleus and one in the mitochondria. When mutations occur in each, they can become incompatible, leading to disease. To increase understanding of such illnesses, scientists at Brown University and Indiana University have traced one example in fruit flies down to the individual errant nucleotides and the mechanism by which the flies become sick. Diseases from a mutation in one genome are complicated enough, but some illnesses arise from errant interactions between two genomes: the DNA in the nucleus and in the mitochondria...

Method Devised To Safely See Whether Replacement Cells Are Still Alive

Date: Feb-08-2013
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have devised a way to detect whether cells previously transplanted into a living animal are alive or dead, an innovation they say is likely to speed the development of cell replacement therapies for conditions such as liver failure and type 1 diabetes. As reported in the March issue of Nature Materials, the study used nanoscale pH sensors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to tell if liver cells injected into mice survived over time...

Obesity Epidemic In Samoa Starts At Birth

Date: Feb-08-2013
As some Pacific island cultures have "westernized" over the last several decades, among the changes has been a dramatic increase in obesity. Researchers don't understand all the reasons why, but even a decade ago in American Samoa 59 percent of men and 71 percent of women were obese. A new Brown University study finds that the Samoan epidemic of obesity may start with rapid weight gain in early infancy. The implications of the study published online in the journal Pediatric Obesity may not be confined to Polynesian populations, said the authors...

For Protection Against Liver Disease, Some Omega-3 Oils Are Better Than Others

Date: Feb-08-2013
Research at Oregon State University has found that one particular omega-3 fatty acid has a powerful effect in preventing liver inflammation and fibrosis - common problems that are steadily rising along with the number of Americans who are overweight. The American Liver Foundation has estimated that about 25 percent of the nation's population, and 75 percent of those who are obese, have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease...

Practice-Based Evidence In Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation

Date: Feb-08-2013
The final phase of the SCIRehab Project (Phase 3) was published in the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine (JSCM). Nine papers comprised the Special Issue: Relationship of Inpatient Rehabilitation Interventions to Outcomes Following Spinal Cord Injury. Guest editors: J. Scott Richards, Gale Whiteneck, Daniel Lammertse, Marcel Dijkers, and Julie Gassaway. Key article available for free download via ingentaconnect.com: Whiteneck G, Gassaway J...

Protein That Allows Safe Recycling Of Iron From Old Red Blood Cells May Lead To New Treatments For Iron Deficiency And Parasitic Worm Infections

Date: Feb-08-2013
Humans survive by constantly recycling iron, a metal that is an essential component of red blood cells, but which is toxic outside of those cells. More than 90 percent of the iron in an adult human's 25 trillion life-sustaining red blood cells is recycled from worn-out cells. Almost 50 years ago scientists first began hypothesizing that our bodies must have a special protein 'container' to safely transport heme -- the form of iron found in living things -- during the breakdown and recycling of old red blood cells and other types of heme metabolism...