Health News

Adoption Of Foster Children By Gay, Lesbian Or Heterosexual Parents

Date: Oct-23-2012
High-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when placed with gay, lesbian or heterosexual parents, UCLA psychologists report in the first multi-year study of children adopted by these three groups of parents. The psychologists looked at 82 high-risk children adopted from foster care in Los Angeles County. Of those children, 60 were placed with heterosexual parents and 22 were placed with gay or lesbian parents (15 with gay male parents and seven with lesbian parents)...

Heart Disease Risk From Type 2 Diabetes Not Reduced By Weight Loss

Date: Oct-23-2012
Intervention stopped early in NIH-funded study of weight loss in overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes after finding no harm, but no cardiovascular benefits An intensive diet and exercise program resulting in weight loss does not reduce cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke in people with longstanding type 2 diabetes, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health...

For MRSA-Related Pneumonia Study Finds Optimal Treatment Duration

Date: Oct-23-2012
The national practice guideline for treating MRSA-related pneumonia is seven to 21 days. A Henry Ford Hospital study found that effective treatment can be done in half the time. Researchers found that 40 percent of patients were treated for eight to 13 days on a therapy of the antibiotics vancomycin or linezolid, and had the highest survival rate. The Henry Ford study is believed to be the first to evaluate the length of treatment for MRSA-related pneumonia. The study was presented Friday at the annual Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting in San Diego...

Inner-City Foster Care Population Benefit From Dental Healthcare Approach

Date: Oct-23-2012
A partnership between a New York City dental school and a local foster care agency has provided consistent dental care to more than 650 children, and may serve as a model for other dental school program curriculums. The success of Partners Against Caries (PAC), both for the participating foster children and dental school students, was outlined at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans. Poor dental and oral health can affect children's growth, school performance and attendance, and can contribute to physical and mental health problems...

Changes In Sleep Habits Linked To Increased Hunger And Eating

Date: Oct-23-2012
Length of sleep time and percentage of general sleep in the different sleep stages are linked to an increase in hunger and intake of calories from fat and carbohydrates, as well as a decrease in metabolic rate. This may account for the link between obesity and sleep problems, according to researchers from St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University. It has been long known that sleep and diet are closely linked...

Engineered Organs A Future Possibility Following Cell Mechanism Findings

Date: Oct-23-2012
Biologists have teamed up with mechanical engineers from the The University of Texas at Dallas to conduct cell research that provides information that may one day be used to engineer organs. The research, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light on the mechanics of cell, tissue and organ formation. The research revealed basic mechanisms about how a group of bacterial cells can form large three-dimensional structures. "If you want to create an organism, the geometry of how a group of cells self-organizes is crucial," said Dr...

Egg Freezing No Longer At Experimental Stage

Date: Oct-23-2012
Egg freezing techniques in young women have shown to produce pregnancy rates, resulting in the birth of healthy babies, similar to IVF (in vitro fertilization) cycles which use fresh eggs. This report, by the Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), replaced an earlier report from 2008 which indicated that the technique was experimental and should only be proposed under that circumstance...

Parental Stress Influences Children's Obesity

Date: Oct-23-2012
A high number of stressors in parents can cause a greater likelihood of children with obesity. Additionally, when parents feel stressed, their children consume fast food more frequently, in contrast to children whose parents are less stressed. Elizabeth Prout-Parks, M.D., a physician nutrition specialist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and lead author of this study, published in the November issue of Pediatrics, says: "Stress in parents may be an important risk factor for child obesity and related behaviors. The severity and number of stressors are important...

Stem Cell Study May Help To Unravel How A Genetic Mutation Leads To Parkinson's Symptoms

Date: Oct-23-2012
By reprogramming skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients with a known genetic mutation, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified damage to neural stem cells as a powerful player in the disease. The findings, reported online in Nature, may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disease. The scientists found that a common mutation to a gene that produce the enzyme LRRK2, which is responsible for both familial and sporadic cases of Parkinson's disease, deforms the membrane surrounding the nucleus of a neural stem cell...

How Self-Discipline Works And How We Might Boost It

Date: Oct-23-2012
Converging scientific evidence - not to mention a great deal of life experience - tells us that self-control is an important ability. It helps us keep our cool, get things done, and resist the things that tempt us. Scientists believe that gaining a clearer understanding of how self-control works could provide critical insights into addressing some of the large-scale problems facing society today, including obesity and addiction...