Health News

Hope For New Generation Of Glucose-Measuring Biosensors Following Discovery Of New Pathway

Date: Jan-17-2013
CIC bioGUNE researchers have opened a new pathway for the future development of biosensors that enable measuring the glucose in the blood, but which are also believed to be more reliable with other fluids, such as urine. To this end, a complex scientific process has been developed which has called into question a dominant paradigm amongst the scientific community with respect to the mechanisms of binding and communication between proteins...

Mentoring Children And Teens Offers Many Positive Effects

Date: Jan-17-2013
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada (BBBSC) are releasing the first results of one of the largest mentoring studies ever conducted. The five-year study, which tracks the experiences of almost 1,000 children and teenagers registered with Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across Canada, found that those with a mentor are significantly more confident in their academic abilities and considerably less likely to display behavioural problems...

A Faux Pas On Facebook Not Easily Forgotten

Date: Jan-17-2013
If this were a Facebook post, you would remember it - better than a stranger's face or a line from a published book. That, in fewer than 140 characters, is the finding of research from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Warwick, published in the Springer journal Memory & Cognition. Oh, and: The small, social-networking faux pas you were hoping would fade from your friends' memories real soon...? Don't count on it. Sorry...

Alzheimer's Mouse Model Shows Transmission Of Tangles, Provides More Authentic Model Of Tau Pathology

Date: Jan-17-2013
Brain diseases associated with the misformed protein tau, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau pathologies, are characterized by neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) comprised of pathological tau filaments. Tau tangles are also found in progressive supranuclear palsy, cortical basal degeneration and other related tauopathies, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy due to repetitive traumatic brain injuries sustained in sports or on the battle field...

Some Children 'Grow Out Of' Autism: Small Group With Confirmed Autism Now On Par With Mainstream Peers

Date: Jan-17-2013
Some children who are accurately diagnosed in early childhood with autism lose the symptoms and the diagnosis as they grow older, a study supported by the National Institutes of Health has confirmed. The research team made the finding by carefully documenting a prior diagnosis of autism in a small group of school-age children and young adults with no current symptoms of the disorder. The report is the first of a series that will probe more deeply into the nature of the change in these children's status...

Huge Leap Forward In Gene Therapy Of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Date: Jan-17-2013
Usually, results from a new study help scientists inch their way toward an answer whether they are battling a health problem or are on the verge of a technological breakthrough. Once in a while, those results give them a giant leap forward. In a preliminary study in a canine model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), University of Missouri scientists showed exactly such a leap using gene therapy to treat muscular dystrophy. The results of the study were published in the journal Molecular Therapy ...

Cuba Cholera Outbreak Confirmed By Authorities

Date: Jan-16-2013
Cuban authorities have confirmed that 51 people have become infected with cholera in the country's capital, Havana. The Health Ministry says it is the largest outbreak of cholera in over 40 years. In an official communiqué, the Cuban government announced that health workers had reported a significant increase in the number of acute diarrhea cases in some parts of the city. Many of these cases were found to be among people with cholera...

New Gene Variants Linked To Autism Discovered

Date: Jan-16-2013
Twenty-five extra gene variants that occur in some people with an ASD (autism spectrum disorder) have been discovered by genetics scientists from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Utah, and Lineagen Inc. (a biotech company). The research team, led by Hakon Hakonarson, MD, PhD, explained in the journal PLOS ONE that they identified 25 additional copy number variants (CNVs) that occur in some people with autism. CNVs are duplicate or missing stretches of DNA...

Norovirus Symptoms? Then Stay Away From Hospitals Urges UK Health Agency

Date: Jan-16-2013
The UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA) is asking people with symptoms of norovirus infection to stay away from hospitals and care facilities so as not to put at risk those who are already ill and thus vulnerable to catching the vomiting and diarrhea virus. "If you need advice it is best to phone NHS Direct or your doctor," John Harris, HPA's expert on norovirus, says in an update on seasonal norovirus activity that the independent agency released on Tuesday...

Migraine With Aura Increases Women's Heart Attack Risk

Date: Jan-16-2013
Women who have migraine with aura may be at increased risk of heart attacks, and those taking newer contraceptives may be at higher risk of blood clots. These findings came from two new studies that will be presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. Visual disturbances and other sensory symptoms, such as flashing lights, numbness, tingling of the hands and face, blind spots, or smell distortion, that come before a migraine headache are known as migraine with aura...