Health News

Children With Anger Issues Show Improvement After Playing 'RAGE Control'

Date: Oct-26-2012
Children with serious anger problems can be helped by a simple video game that hones their ability to regulate their emotions, finds a pilot study at Boston Children's Hospital. Results were published online in the journal Adolescent Psychiatry. Noticing that children with anger control problems are often uninterested in psychotherapy, but very eager to play video games, Jason Kahn, PhD, and Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich, MD, at Boston Children's Hospital developed "RAGE Control" to motivate children to practice emotional control skills that they can later use in challenging life situations...

Study Finds Moderate Alcohol Consumption Decreases Number Of New Brain Cells

Date: Oct-26-2012
Drinking a couple of glasses of wine each day has generally been considered a good way to promote cardiovascular and brain health. But a new Rutgers University study indicates that there is a fine line between moderate and binge drinking a risky behavior that can decrease the making of adult brain cells by as much as 40 percent. In a study posted online and scheduled to be published in the journal Neuroscience on November 8, lead author Megan Anderson, a graduate student working with Tracey J...

Two-Drug Synergy Investigated For Treatment Of Drug-Resistant Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Date: Oct-26-2012
An interdisciplinary team of researchers has dissected a case of synergy in drug-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia to understand the mechanism by which two drugs, danusertib and bosutinib, work together to overcome resistance in the BCR-ABL gatekeeper mutation-specific disease. The team includes a researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Austria and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

'Firemaster 550' A Flame Retardant Identified As An Endocrine Disruptor

Date: Oct-26-2012
The flame-retardant mixture known as "Firemaster 550" is an endocrine disruptor that causes extreme weight gain, early onset of puberty and cardiovascular health effects in lab animals, according to a new study spearheaded by researchers from North Carolina State University and Duke University. Firemaster 550 is made up of four principal component chemicals and is used in polyurethane foam in a wide variety of products, ranging from mattresses to infant nursing pillows. The flame-retardant mixture was developed by Chemtura Corp., and was first identified by the research community in 2008...

Parents' Perception Of Their Children's Emotional Well-Being Likely Inaccurate

Date: Oct-26-2012
Parents consistently overestimate their children's optimism and downplay their worries, according to new research by psychologists at the University of California, Davis, Center for Mind and Brain. The findings suggest that secondhand evaluations by parents or other adults of children's emotional well-being need to be treated with caution. Many psychologists and researchers have long held that children under the age of seven cannot accurately report how they feel, said Kristin Lagattuta, associate professor of psychology at UC Davis, who led the study...

Successful Testing Of New Gene Therapy Method In Human Cells

Date: Oct-26-2012
Oregon Health & Science University's development of a new gene therapy method to prevent certain inherited diseases has reached a significant milestone. Researchers at the university's Oregon National Primate Research Center and the OHSU Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology have successfully demonstrated their procedure in human cells. It's believed that this research, along with other efforts, will pave the way for future clinical trials in human subjects. The research results are online in the highly respected journal Nature. Dr...

Study Identifies Risk Factors In Hospital Readmissions Among General Surgery Patients

Date: Oct-26-2012
Identifying risk factors in hospital readmissions could help improve patient care and hospital bottom lines, according to a study recently completed by Georgia State University's Experimental Economics Center and a team from the Emory University School of Medicine. The study, supported by a $1.2 million, three-year award to Georgia State's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and Emory School of Medicine from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging, identifies factors associated with hospital readmission within 30 days after surgery procedures...

Women's Feelings Towards Their Partners Change During Different Cycle Periods

Date: Oct-26-2012
Women who are involved in stable relationships, but have partners who aren't so attractive are more stand-offish during times that they are most fertile, according to a recent study conducted by UCLA researchers which will be published in the journal Hormones and Behavior.  According to the experts, who decided to analyze subdued alterations in females' behavior while they are ovulating, women often chose the stable guy over the sexy one, however, after the fact, they worry unconsciously about whether they have made the right decision...

Low-Risk Heart Attack Patients Identified By Simple, Inexpensive Risk Score May Have Shorter Hospital Stays

Date: Oct-26-2012
A simple-to-use risk score can identify low-risk patients following a severe heart attack (STEMI) and may provide an opportunity to employ early discharge strategies to reduce length of hospital stay and save hospital costs without compromising the safety of the patient, based on a study presented by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation at the 2012 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference...

Sleep Apnoea Detection By Electronic Nose

Date: Oct-26-2012
An electronic nose, used to detect the presence of molecules in the breath of a patient, could be used to diagnose obstructive sleep apnoea. A new study, published online ahead of print (25 October 2012) in the European Respiratory Journal, could make the diagnosis of the condition quick and inexpensive compared to current methods. The gold standard used to identify sleep apnoea is an overnight sleep test. This is technically demanding, time-consuming and cost-intensive...