Health News

Childhood Risk For Anxiety And Depression Likely Associated With Decreased Gene Activity

Date: Oct-21-2012
Decreased activity of a group of genes may explain why in young children the "fear center" of the anxious brain can't learn to distinguish real threats from the imaginary, according to a new University of Wisconsin study. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), lays out evidence that young primates with highly anxious temperaments have decreased activity of specific genes within the amygdala, the brain's fear center...

Long-Term Breast Cancer Risk For Postmenopausal Women Predicted By Blood Hormone Levels

Date: Oct-21-2012
Blood hormone tests predicted a woman's risk for developing postmenopausal breast cancer for up to 20 years, according to data from the Nurses' Health Study presented at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. "We found that a single hormone level was associated with breast cancer risk for at least 16 to 20 years among postmenopausal women not using postmenopausal hormones," said Xuehong Zhang, M.D., an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass...

Smokers Motivated To Quit Through Team Support For Cessation In The Workplace

Date: Oct-21-2012
When smoking co-workers in the same team are placed on a cessation program, providing financial incentives to the team collectively in return for success of the smokers in the cessation program helped the smokers to quit smoking and remain abstinent for 12 months, according to data presented at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. Sang Haak Lee, M.D., Ph.D., pulmonologist and professor of medicine at St...

Boys In US Reaching Puberty Earlier, Like Girls

Date: Oct-20-2012
Boys in the United States are reaching puberty some 6 months to 2 years earlier than a few decades ago, reflecting the trend in girls, according to a new study by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published online before print on Saturday. The study authors suggest more research should now be done to find out why this is happening. Lots of published evidence shows girls are reaching puberty earlier, and this is now generally accepted, but until now, there hasn't been as much research on whether today's boys are also showing a similar tendency...

Over 50s Who Enjoy Life More Live Longer, England Survey

Date: Oct-20-2012
Seniors who enjoy life more live longer, according to a study of ageing in England that followed thousands of people aged 50 and over for a decade.   The study also reveals some key concerns about the UK's ageing population, particularly surrounding social isolation. The findings are from the most recent report, released this month, of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), led by University College London (UCL). ELSA, A Study of Ageing in England ELSA is an extensive project that is following over 10,000 people living in England as they age from 50 years onwards...

Chronic Diseases May Be Avoided By Plant-Based Diets

Date: Oct-20-2012
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 63 percent of the deaths that occurred in 2008 were attributed to non-communicable chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, Type 2 diabetes and obesity - for which poor diets are contributing factors. Yet people that live in societies that eat healthy, plant-based diets rarely fall victim to these ailments. Research studies have long indicated that a high consumption of plant foods is associated with lower incidents of chronic disease...

High Levels Of Hormones During Pregnancy Associated With Higher Risk For HR-Negative Breast Cancer

Date: Oct-20-2012
Increased concentrations of the pregnancy hormones estradiol and progesterone were associated with an increased risk for hormone receptor-negative breast cancer diagnosed before age 50, according to the results of a nested case-control study presented at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. Annekatrin Lukanova, M.D., Ph.D...

Demand For Gluten And Lactose-Free Substitute For Low-Fat White Sauces

Date: Oct-20-2012
Consumers are increasingly demanding the development of ready-to-eat gluten and lactose-free food products that meet their needs and help improve their health. A recent study in Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), shows how new white sauce formulations are being created to meet these demands. Consumers with celiac disease often find that gluten-free products are of inferior quality compared with their traditional, non-gluten-free counterparts. Traditional white sauce is made with milk, flour or starch, oil, and salt...

Mechanisms Behind Fever-Induced Seizures Revealed By New Fruit Fly Model Of Epilepsy

Date: Oct-20-2012
UC Irvine and Brown University researchers have created a new fruit fly model of inherited epilepsy that's providing insights into the mechanisms underlying temperature-dependent seizures while establishing a platform from which to develop therapies for these disorders. In The Journal of Neuroscience, Diane O'Dowd of UCI, Robert Reenan of Brown and colleagues report their method for placing a gene mutation that causes human fever-induced seizures into drosophila fruit flies. As a result, the mutant flies experience heat-induced seizures...

Fighting Food-Poisoning Bacteria With Leaves Of Carob Tree

Date: Oct-20-2012
Leaves of the plant that yields carob - the substitute for chocolate that some consider healthier than chocolate - are a rich source of antibacterial substances ideal for fighting the microbe responsible for listeriosis, a serious form of food poisoning, according to a report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Nadhem Aissani and colleagues explain that the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria has fostered a search for new natural substances to preserve food and control disease-causing microbes...