Health News

Rapid Improvements In Patient Care Achieved By Integrated Diabetes Management Program

Date: Oct-29-2012
In Canada alone, almost 2 million people are known to be living with diabetes. Around a million more have the disease but are not aware of that fact, and have not been given the tools they need to control their blood sugar and safeguard their health. The Heart Institute will be presenting the results of an innovative pilot program on October 29, at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto, Canada. Diabetic patients have a much greater risk of dangerous cardiovascular events, including recurrent heart attacks and development of heart failure...

Discovery Of Gene Linked To Age-Related Hearing Loss

Date: Oct-29-2012
University of South Florida researchers have identified a genetic biomarker for age-related hearing loss, a major breakthrough in understanding and preventing a condition of aging that affects 30 million Americans and greatly diminishes their quality of life. In a nine-year study that was a collaboration between USF's Global Center for Hearing & Speech Research and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology, researchers were able to identify the first genetic biomarker for presbycusis...

Intracoronary And Intravenous Use Of Abciximab During Angioplasty Yield Similar Results

Date: Oct-29-2012
Results of the AIDA STEMI MRI sub-study presented at TCT 2012 A study confirmed no differences in various measures of heart damage, according to cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI) imaging, in patients receiving the anti-clotting medication abxicimab directly into the heart (intracoronary) compared to those receiving it intravenously (IV). The results of the AIDA STEMI MRI sub-study were presented at the 24th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium...

Ancestry Could Help Solve Disease Riddles

Date: Oct-29-2012
Explosive advancement in human genome sequencing opens new possibilities for identifying the genetic roots of certain diseases and finding cures. However, so many variations among individual genomes exist that identifying mutations responsible for a specific disease has in many cases proven an insurmountable challenge...

Consumers Could Benefit From A Change In The Balance Of Bacteria In Drinking Water

Date: Oct-29-2012
The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS') award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series reports that scientists have discovered a plausible way to manipulate the populations of mostly beneficial microbes in "purified" drinking water to potentially benefit consumers. Based on a report by Lutgarde Raskin, Ph.D., in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology, the new podcast is available without charge at iTunes and from http://www.acs.org/globalchallenges...

Genetic Mutations Tested In Zebrafish

Date: Oct-29-2012
The zebrafish is a potential tool for testing one class of unique individual genetic differences found in humans, and may yield information helpful for the emerging field of personalized medicine, according to a team led by Penn State College of Medicine scientists. The differences, or mutations, in question create minor changes in amino acids -- the building blocks of DNA -- from person to person. Zebrafish can be used as a model to understand what biological effects result from these genetic mutations...

Will Older Adults Welcome Robots In The Home?

Date: Oct-29-2012
Robots have the potential to help older adults with daily activities that can become more challenging with age. But are people willing to use and accept the new technology? A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology indicates the answer is yes, unless the tasks involve personal care or social activities. After showing adults (ages 65 to 93 years) a video of a robot's capabilities, researchers interviewed them about their willingness for assistance with 48 common household tasks...

Boost Your Satisfaction With Life By Doing A Little More Exercise

Date: Oct-29-2012
Had a bad day? Extending your normal exercise routine by a few minutes may be the solution, according to Penn State researchers, who found that people's satisfaction with life was higher on days when they exercised more than usual. "We found that people's satisfaction with life was directly impacted by their daily physical activity," said Jaclyn Maher, graduate student in kinesiology...

Gene-Environment Interplay: The Impact Of Adversity On Early Life Development

Date: Oct-29-2012
It is time to put the nature versus nurture debate to rest and embrace growing evidence that it is the interaction between biology and environment in early life that influences human development, according to a series of studies recently published in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "Biologists used to think that our differences are pre-programmed in our genes, while psychologists argued that babies are born with a blank slate and their experience writes on it to shape them into the adults they become...

Need To Increase Physical Exercise? Then Avoid 'The Biggest Loser'

Date: Oct-29-2012
The Biggest Loser might be a TV ratings winner, but its extreme depiction of exercise is more likely to turn people off than get them off the couch, according to new research from the University of Alberta. Researchers in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation found that watching a short video clip of the Biggest Loser fuelled negative attitudes toward exercise, raising further questions about how physical activity is shown in the popular media...