Health News

An Effective Low Cost Solution To Hearing Loss

Date: Oct-01-2012
Hearing loss affects millions in the U.S., but many are not covered by insurance or can't afford the high prices of custom hearing aids, says a researcher. The MD Hearing Aid line is shown to have a high rate of user satisfaction. A study presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. shows that the MD Hearing Aid line offers a reasonable low-cost solution to those who are not using hearing aids or other amplification devices because of cost concerns...

10 Percent Of Aortic Valve Disease Explained By Major Genetic Discovery

Date: Oct-01-2012
Researchers at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center and University of Montreal have identified genetic origins in 10% of an important form of congenital heart diseases by studying the genetic variability within families. "This is more than the sum of the genes found to date in all previous studies, which explained only 1% of the disease, says Dr. Marc-Phillip Hitz, lead author of the study published in PLOS Genetics, under the direction of Dr...

Deadly New Virus In Africa Uncovered By Genetic Sleuthing

Date: Oct-01-2012
An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before. Described in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the new microbe has been named Bas-Congo virus (BASV) after the province in the southwest corner of the Congo where the three people lived...

Hospital Workers At Greater Risk Of Musculoskeletal Pain When There Is Work-Family Conflict

Date: Oct-01-2012
Nurses and other hospital workers, especially those who work long hours or the night shift, often report trying to juggle the demands of the job and family obligations. A study by The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) suggests that the higher the work-family conflict the greater the risk that health care workers will suffer from neck and other types of musculoskeletal pain...

Youth Fitness Testing In Schools

Date: Oct-01-2012
Techniques ranging from running to push-ups to sit-and-reach tests have been used to measure various aspects of fitness in children and adults. However, evidence is sparse on how well some of these techniques correspond to desired health outcomes in children, fueling debate about the best fitness measures for youth. Fitness testing has traditionally focused on four aspects: heart and lung function, body composition, muscular and skeletal fitness, and flexibility...

Shared Genetic Link Likely In Psychiatric And Movement Disorders

Date: Oct-01-2012
Fewer than 100 people in the world are known to be affected by a movement disorder called rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP), but its symptoms are life-changing. Seemingly normal young people are suddenly and dramatically unable to control movement of their arms or legs and have trouble speaking or swallowing. A normal life is nearly impossible. RDP is caused by a genetic mutation (ATP1A3) that often runs in families...

Lou Gehrig's Disease And Spinal Muscular Atrophy Linked By Shared Pathway

Date: Oct-01-2012
Researchers of motor neuron diseases have long had a hunch that two fatal diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), might somehow be linked. A new study confirms that this link exists. "Our study is the first to link the two diseases on a molecular level in human cells," said Robin Reed, Harvard Medical School professor of cell biology and lead investigator of the study. The results were published online in Cell Reports. ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which has an adult onset, affects neurons that control voluntary muscles...

Telomeric Measurements To Predict Real Life Expectancy In Mammals

Date: Oct-01-2012
A team of researchers from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), headed by CNIO Director María Blasco, has demonstrated in a pioneering study on mammals that longevity is defined at a molecular level by the length of telomeres. The work - which is published in the online edition of the journal Cell Reports - opens the door to further study of these cellular components in order to calculate the rate at which cells age and thus be able to determine life expectancy for a particular organism...

Researchers Find Possible Molecular Key To Regulation Of Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells

Date: Oct-01-2012
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have discovered that the micro ribonucleic acid miR-214 plays a critical role in regulating ovarian cancer stem cell properties. This knowledge, said the researchers, could pave the way for a therapeutic target for ovarian cancer.  The study appears in a recent issue of the The Journal of Biological Chemistry. According to the study's lead author, Jin Q. Cheng, Ph.D., M.D...

Lives Saved By Helicopter Heroes

Date: Oct-01-2012
The benefits and cost effectiveness of helicopter transport for severely injured patients is of continued debate. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care shows that for severe blunt trauma, patients transported by helicopter had a lower risk of death, compared to those transported by road. In a multi-centre study, based in university hospitals across France, researchers compared initial patient status at the scene of the accident, with time taken to get to hospital, type of treatment received pre-admission, and to health at discharge, or after 30 days...