Health News

The Long-Lasting Positive Effects Of Healthy Diets, Even With Partial Weight Regain

Date: Oct-14-2012
Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate diets have lasting, healthy effects, even with partial weight regain, according to a follow-up study by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Israel's Nuclear Research Center. The results were published in a peer-reviewed letter in the current New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) as an update to the landmark study, the workplace-based Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial (DIRECT), a tightly controlled 24-month dietary intervention. According to Dr...

Survival Of Transplanted Kidneys May Be Affected By Single Gene Variant In Donors

Date: Oct-14-2012
A single genetic variant in kidney donors' cells may help determine whether their transplanted organs will survive long term, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings provide new information that might be used to improve transplant longevity by revealing that the genetic make-up of kidney transplant donors affects the survival of transplanted organs...

Alzheimer's Cognitive Function Improved With Brain Damage Drug

Date: Oct-14-2012
A compound that was supposed to repair brain damage has become a promising medication for improving cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease, Washington State University researchers reported in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The scientists found that rats with Alzheimer's-like cognitive impairment responded surprisingly well to the investigational drug...

Curbing Malaria Spread With Cell Phone Data

Date: Oct-14-2012
Cell phone records may be a valuable source of data that if used correctly, could help control and eliminate malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers from the USA and Kenya reported in the journal Science. Even though malaria-carrying mosquitoes do not fly very far, the disease still manages to spread over very long distances. Infected humans can carry malaria to faraway places rapidly; as fast as a plane or car can take them...

Repairing Brain Damage, A Significant Departure From Current Alzheimer's Treatments

Date: Oct-13-2012
Washington State University researchers have developed a new drug candidate that dramatically improves the cognitive function of rats with Alzheimer's-like mental impairment. Their compound, which is intended to repair brain damage that has already occurred, is a significant departure from current Alzheimer's treatments, which either slow the process of cell death or inhibit cholinesterase, an enzyme believed to break down a key neurotransmitter involved in learning and memory development...

Multicolored Probes Target Cell Wall Synthesis In The Arms Race With Bacteria

Date: Oct-13-2012
An international team of scientists led by Indiana University chemist Michael S. VanNieuwenhze and biologist Yves Brun has discovered a revolutionary new method for coloring the cell wall of bacterial cells to determine how they grow, in turn providing a new, much-needed tool for the development of new antibiotics. Discovery of the new method is expected to broadly impact both basic and applied research tied to understanding, controlling or preventing bacterial cell growth in specific environments, said the two scientists in IU Bloomington's College of Arts and Sciences...

Assessing Work-Related Risk Of Musculoskeletal Injuries

Date: Oct-13-2012
A new paper by Thomas J. Albin, PE, CPE, of High Plains Engineering Services in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, confirms that observational assessment tools, often called checklists, used to assess risk factors such as wrist extension and motion repetition, can be valid tools in identifying work-related risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries. Published in Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, and Rehabilitation, Albin presents a comprehensive, multi-step yet simple approach for improving the use and effectiveness of checklists...

Assumptions On Wartime Sexual Violence Challenged By Study

Date: Oct-13-2012
A new study by the Simon Fraser University-based Human Security Report Project (HSRP), released at the United Nations headquarters in New York, finds that there is no compelling evidence to support a host of widely held beliefs regarding wartime sexual violence. The study, presented by HSRP director Andrew Mack, disputes the common assumption that conflict-related sexual violence is on the rise, and argues that the experience of a small number of countries afflicted by extreme levels of sexual violence is not the norm for all war-affected countries...

Gene Variations Linked To Higher Risk Of Bipolar Disorder

Date: Oct-13-2012
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified small variations in a number of genes that are closely linked to an increased risk of bipolar disorder, a mental illness that affects nearly six million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. "Using samples from some 3,400 individuals, we identified several new variants in genes closely associated with bipolar disorder," said Scripps Florida Professor Ron Davis, who led the new study, which was published recently by the journal Translational Psychiatry...

"Molecular Sled" Carries Viral Enzyme Along DNA To Find And Interact With Targets

Date: Oct-13-2012
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, with collaborators from Harvard University, the University of Madrid, Princeton University, and the University of Zurich, have discovered a new mechanism that may alter principle understandings of molecular interactions within a cell's nucleus. The discovery illustrates how two proteins of the human adenovirus use DNA as an efficient form of transportation inside a newly synthesized virus particle...