Health News

Exercise Improves School Performance For Kids With ADHD

Date: Oct-17-2012
Children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) may perform better in school after just twenty minutes of exercise. The finding, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, came from a team of experts at Michigan State University who have demonstrated for the first time that kids with ADHD can focus better and become less distracted after a quick session of exercise. This is significant because "inhibitory control" is the biggest struggle people with the disorder have to deal with...

Motherhood May Dampen Cocaine's Effects

Date: Oct-17-2012
Mother rats respond much differently to cocaine than female rats that have never given birth, according to new University of Michigan research that looks at both behavior and brain chemistry. The findings may help lay the groundwork for more tailored human addiction treatment, based on scientific understanding of how gender, hormones and life experience impact drug use. In an oral presentation at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, U-M researcher Jennifer Cummings, Ph.D...

Mouse Model Shows Risk For Asthma, Allergies May Improve Fight Against Skin Cancer

Date: Oct-17-2012
A molecule involved in asthma and allergies has now been shown to make mice resistant to skin cancer, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The molecule, called TSLP (thymic stromal lymphopoietin), is produced by damaged skin and activates the immune system. Chronic low levels of TSLP are suspected in making the immune system oversensitive to what should be a harmless environment, leading to the skin rashes and overproduction of mucus common in allergies and asthma...

Aggregation Of Proteins In Cells May Result In Diseases

Date: Oct-17-2012
Changes in the structure of proteins can lead to various diseases, such as Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes and corneal dystrophy. A research team from Aarhus University has now discovered how a particular protein can damage cells. These results may lead to the development of drugs to treat corneal dystrophy in the future. Many diseases are caused by proteins losing their natural three-dimensional structure and thus their function...

Promising Approach For The Treatment Of Alcohol Dependence

Date: Oct-17-2012
"Addiction is a brain disease" was the title of an editorial in the renowned journal Science 15 years ago. The author argued that recognising addiction as a disorder of the brain can impact society´s overall health and social policy strategies and help diminish the health and social costs associated with drug abuse and addiction (Leshner, 1997). Such a presentation of the complex concept of addiction was revolutionary, as social and psychological aspects were largely considered as the most important, although not the only ones involved...

Scientists Aiming For Lung Cancer Blood Test

Date: Oct-17-2012
Early signs of lung cancer could be diagnosed using a simple blood test following a new discovery by scientists at the University of York. Early detection of lung cancer has been shown to save lives, but available methods for screening at-risk people are either too costly or involve invasive procedures. The latest findings, published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mean that a simple blood test could now be developed...

For Drugs That Promote Bone Growth, Protein Could Be Key

Date: Oct-17-2012
Georgia Health Sciences University researchers have developed a mouse that errs on the side of making bone rather than fat, which could eventually lead to better drugs to treat inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Drugs commonly used to treat those types of conditions - called glucocorticoids - work by turning down the body's anti-inflammatory response, but simultaneously turn on other pathways that lead to bone loss. The result can lead to osteoporosis and an accumulation of marrow fat, says Dr...

Pneumococcal Vaccine To Be Tested In Older Adults

Date: Oct-17-2012
Researchers plan to see if a higher dose of a pneumococcal vaccine will create a stronger immune response in older adults who received an earlier generation vaccine against pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases. The study supported by the National Institutes of Health will compare two dosages of a pneumococcal vaccine approved for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years, and adults 50 and older. The trial will enroll up to 882 men and women ages 55 to 74. The study is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH...

Face-To-Face Counseling More Effective Than Computer-Delivered Interventions On College Drinking

Date: Oct-17-2012
Colleges have increased use of computer-delivered interventions to provide alcohol counseling because they can reach more students while using fewer resources. But in a new systematic review, researchers found that the impact of CDIs on students was weaker and more short-lived than the effect of face-to-face counseling...

Personalized Treatment Strategy, The Future For Childhood Cancer?

Date: Oct-17-2012
After leukaemia and brain tumours, neuroblastoma is the most common form of cancer to affect children. A thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has studied a DNA method which is now used for all cases of neuroblastoma in Sweden, and which has led to more effective treatment at individual level. Neuroblastoma affects around 20 children each year, most of them under the age of two...