Health News

Pulmonary Function May Predict Age-Related Cognitive Decline

Date: Oct-11-2012
Keeping the lungs healthy could be an important way to retain thinking functions that relate to problem-solving and processing speed in one's later years, new research suggests. While these two types of "fluid" cognitive functions were influenced by reduced pulmonary function, a drop in lung health did not appear to impair memory or lead to any significant loss of stored knowledge, the study showed. Researchers used data from a Swedish study of aging that tracked participants' health measures for almost two decades...

Neutrophil Extracellular Traps And Amyloidosis Aggravation

Date: Oct-11-2012
Amyloidosis is a group of clinical syndromes characterized by deposits of amyloid fibrils throughout the body. These fibrils are formed by aggregates of proteins that have not been properly folded. Deposits of amyloid fibrils are found in a number of diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and type-2 diabetes. The amyloid deposits can be localized, as in the brain of Alzheimer's patients, or found spread through the body, as in amyloidosis related to mutations in the transthyretin gene. The clinical meaning of amyloid deposits is still poorly understood...

Mild Cognitive Impairment May Be Improved By Caffeine

Date: Oct-11-2012
Recent studies have linked caffeine consumption to a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, and a new University of Illinois study may be able to explain how this happens. "We have discovered a novel signal that activates the brain-based inflammation associated with neurodegenerative diseases, and caffeine appears to block its activity. This discovery may eventually lead to drugs that could reverse or inhibit mild cognitive impairment," said Gregory Freund, a professor in the U of I's College of Medicine and a member of the U of I's Division of Nutritional Sciences...

New Study Uncovers Effects Of Social Pressure To Have Children On Different Groups Of US Women

Date: Oct-11-2012
Women who choose to be permanently childfree perceive more social pressures to become mothers than other women, but feel less distress about not having kids than women who are childless from infertility or other reasons, a new national study shows. The study, from a national survey of nearly 1,200 American women of reproductive age with no children, identified various reasons why women have no children, from medical and situational barriers to delaying pregnancy to choosing to be childfree...

Anatomical Differences Discovered In Regenerated Lizard Tails

Date: Oct-11-2012
Just because a lizard can grow back its tail, doesn't mean it will be exactly the same. A multidisciplinary team of scientists from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona examined the anatomical and microscopic make-up of regenerated lizard tails and discovered that the new tails are quite different from the original ones. The findings are published in a pair of articles featured in a special October edition of the journal, The Anatomical Record...

New Link Identified Between High-Fat 'Western' Diet And Atherosclerosis

Date: Oct-11-2012
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found that a diet high in saturated fat raises levels of endothelial lipase (EL), an enzyme associated with the development of atherosclerosis, and, conversely, that a diet high in omega-3 polyunsaturated fat lowers levels of this enzyme. The findings establish a "new" link between diet and atherosclerosis and suggest a novel way to prevent cardiovascular heart disease. In addition, the research may help to explain why the type 2 diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) has been linked to heart problems...

Calculation Methods For Readmissions And Early Deaths Dramatically Affect Hospital Rankings

Date: Oct-11-2012
Hospital readmission rates and early death rates are used to rank hospital performance but there can be significant variation in their values, depending on how they are calculated, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "Hospital-specific readmission rates have been reported as a quality of care indicator but no consensus exists on how these should be calculated...

After Colon Surgery Coffee Found To Speed Up Return Of Bowel Function

Date: Oct-11-2012
Patients who drank coffee, rather than water, after bowel surgery to remove a part of their colon experienced a quicker return to bowel movements and tolerance of solid food. Those are two of the key findings of a comparative study of 80 patients, carried out at University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany, and published in the surgical journal BJS...

Software Developed That Facilitates Large-Scale Biological Inquiry

Date: Oct-11-2012
The world's leading mass spectrometer manufacturers have agreed to license technology that enabled University of Southern California (USC) researchers to develop software that, for the first time, allows scientists to easily use and share research data collected across proprietary platforms. The ProteoWizard Toolkit, a cross-platform set of libraries and applications designed to facilitate the sharing of raw data and its analysis, is expected to bolster large-scale biological research and help improve the understanding of complex diseases like cancer...

New Class Of Drugs Effective Against Superbug MRSA Identified

Date: Oct-11-2012
In two separate studies, researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have discovered a new class of treatment against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as well as evidence of a growing need to quickly genotype individual strains of the organism most commonly referred to as the "superbug." "The public is most familiar with the dramatic progression of skin infections caused by MRSA, but MRSA is responsible for a range of difficult to treat illnesses," noted Dr. Kurt B...