Health News

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors May Increase Risk To Fetus During Pregnancy

Date: Nov-01-2012
Elevated risk of miscarriage, preterm birth, neonatal health complications and possible longer term neurobehavioral abnormalities, including autism, suggest that a class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) should only be prescribed with great caution and with full counseling for women experiencing depression and attempting to get pregnant, say researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Tufts Medical Center and MetroWest Medical Center. "Depression and infertility are two complicated conditions that more often than not go hand in hand...

Risk Of Treatment Failure And Death Following Deviation From Radiation Protocols

Date: Nov-01-2012
Implementing measures to ensure radiation therapy protocols are followed not only decreases deviations, but it can also improve overall survival in cancer patients, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital researchers suggest in a first-of-its kind study presented during a plenary session at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 54th Annual Meeting in Boston...

More Independence For People With Paraplegia Using Advanced Exoskeleton

Date: Nov-01-2012
The dream of regaining the ability to stand up and walk has come closer to reality for people paralyzed below the waist who thought they would never take another step. A team of engineers at Vanderbilt University's Center for Intelligent Mechatronics has developed a powered exoskeleton that enables people with severe spinal cord injuries to stand, walk, sit and climb stairs. Its light weight, compact size and modular design promise to provide users with an unprecedented degree of independence...

Researchers Aim To Prevent Or Treat Defects Before Birth In An Embryo Heart

Date: Nov-01-2012
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found a way to create three-dimensional maps of the stress that circulating blood places on the developing heart in an animal model - a key to understanding triggers of heart defects. The team has begun testing the technology to uncover how alcohol, drugs and other factors set off events that result in defects found in newborn humans...

Learning And Memory Enabled By Unique Protein Bond

Date: Nov-01-2012
Two proteins have a unique bond that enables brain receptors essential to learning and memory to not only get and stay where they're needed, but to be hauled off when they aren't, researchers say. NMDA receptors increase the activity and communication of brain cells and are strategically placed, much like a welcome center, at the receiving end of the communication highway connecting two cells. They also are targets in brain-degenerating conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's...

Researchers Discover How E. coli Adapts To Colonize Plants, Fruit And Vegetables

Date: Nov-01-2012
New research from the Institute of Food Research has given new clues as to how some E. coli strains, normally at home in mammalian gastrointestinal tracts, have adopted slightly different transmission strategies, with some being better adapted to live on plants than others. In the light of recent outbreaks of food poisoning due to contamination of vegetables by dangerous strains of E. coli, this information will be useful to making sure our food remains safe. E. coli is most at home in the warm, moist, nutrient-rich environment found in the gastrointestinal tract of warm-blooded animals...

Protection Against Bladder Cancer Offered By High Levels Of Vitamin D In Plasma

Date: Nov-01-2012
High levels of vitamin D are associated with protection against bladder cancer, according to a multidisciplinary study coordinated by molecular biologists and epidemiologists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), the conclusions of which are published in the Journal of National Cancer Institute (JNCI). The study has been led by Núria Malats, head of the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group, and Francisco X. Real, from the Epithelial Carcinogenesis Group, at the CNIO...

Breakfast Sandwich Gives 'Fast Food' A Whole New Meaning: Study Finds That Just 1 High-Fat Meal Can Affect Your Heart Health

Date: Nov-01-2012
Eat a breakfast sandwich and your body will be feeling the ill effects well before lunch - now that's fast food! High-fat diets are associated with developing atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) over a lifetime. But how quickly can damage start? Just one day of eating a fat-laden breakfast sandwich - processed cheese and meat on a bun - and "your blood vessels become unhappy," says Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher Dr. Todd Anderson, director of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta and head of cardiac science at the University of Calgary...

Standards And Guidelines Proposed For Rett Syndrome Research

Date: Nov-01-2012
There is an urgent need for new drugs to treat Rett syndrome, a rare and severe neurological disease mainly affecting girls. A bottleneck in drug development for this syndrome is a lack of clarity at the level of preclinical research. Key researchers in this field now tackle this issue, proposing standards and guidelines for Rett syndrome research, in an Open Access review article published on Oct. 31, 2012 in Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM)*. This "state of the science" assessment serves as a comprehensive resource of all findings and citations related to Rett syndrome...

Investigators Propose New Way To Prevent Recurrent Ear Infections

Date: Nov-01-2012
Eliminating bacteria's DNA and boosting antimicrobial proteins that already exist may help prevent middle ear infections from reoccurring. These are the findings from a Nationwide Children's Hospital study that examined how an immune defense protein common in the middle ear interacts with a structure meant to protect a colony of bacteria.  The bacterium nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) causes a wide range of diseases of both the lower and upper airways, including middle ear infection...