Health News

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, And Gender Variant Issues: New American Academy Of Child And Adolescent Psychiatry Practice Parameter

Date: Sep-28-2012
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is proud to announce its new Practice Parameter on issues related to and affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and gender variant youth. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and gender variant children and adolescents face unique developmental challenges and stressors that can influence their mental health and wellbeing. Social issues such as stigma, bullying, and discrimination, and personal factors like internalized prejudice and feelings of being different are just a few of the concerns that can affect gender and sexual minority youth...

New Ultra Thin Dissolvable Electronics Developed

Date: Sep-28-2012
Miniature, completely biocompatible, electronic instruments that can harmlessly disintegrate into their surroundings after working for a certain amount of time, have been constructed by biomedical engineers from Tufts University. This discovery of "transient electronics", a new group of silk-silicon devices that function for a specific amount of time followed by disintegration, pave the path for medical implants that never need to be surgically removed. It could also be a potential milestone for compostable consumer electronics and environmental monitoring devices...

Insomniacs Risk Health By Not Seeking Professional Advice

Date: Sep-28-2012
Over half (51%) of people who take sleeping remedies have diagnosed themselves, because they do not believe seeking professional medical help is necessary. This finding, from The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, is a serious concern, because insomnia is usually the result of an underlying physical or mental health problem. If these people do not seek advice from health professionals, they are putting themselves in severe danger...

Scientists Have Way To Control Sugars That Lead To Diabetes, Obesity

Date: Sep-28-2012
Scientists can now turn on or off the enzymes responsible for processing starchy foods into sugars in the human digestive system, a finding they believe will allow them to better control those processes in people with type 2 diabetes and obesity. Bruce Hamaker, a professor of food science and director of the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research at Purdue University, said the four small intestine enzymes, called alpha-glucosidases, are responsible for generating glucose from starch digestion...

Severe Hunger Increases Breast Cancer Risk In War Survivors

Date: Sep-28-2012
Jewish women who were severely exposed to hunger during World War Two were five times more likely to develop breast cancer than women who were mildly exposed, according to research in the October issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. The study also found that women who were up to seven-years-old during that period had a three times higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who were aged 14 years or over. Sixty-five women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005 and 2010 were compared with 200 controls without breast cancer...

Understanding How Salamanders Grow New Limbs Provides Insights Into The Potential Of Human Regenerative Medicine

Date: Sep-28-2012
Based on two new studies by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, regeneration of a new limb or organ in a human will be much more difficult than the mad scientist and supervillain, Dr. Curt Connors, made it seem in the Amazing Spider-man comics and films. As those who saw the recent "The Amazing Spiderman" movie will know, Dr. Connors injected himself with a serum made from lizard DNA to successfully regrow his missing lower right arm - that is, before the formula transformed him into a reptilian humanoid...

Overcoming Fear Is Not Easy For Teens

Date: Sep-28-2012
Teens' responses to danger or fear remain strong even when the threatening situation has passed, according to a new study conducted by Weill Cornell Medical College experts. The report, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), claims that when a threat hits an adolescent's brain, their capability to make the fear disappear is lost, which could account for the anxiety and stress normally present during teenage years...

Positive Effects In Alzheimer's To Melatonin And Exercise In Mouse Model

Date: Sep-28-2012
The combination of two neuroprotective therapies, voluntary physical exercise, and the daily intake of melatonin has been shown to have a synergistic effect against brain deterioration in rodents with three different mutations of Alzheimer's disease. A study carried out by a group of researchers from the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute (IIBB), in collaboration with the University of Granada and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, shows the combined effect of neuroprotective therapies against Alzheimer's in mice...

STD Rate Among Black Teenagers Could Be Reduced By Improved Communication

Date: Sep-28-2012
Black urban teenagers from low-income families face a rate of sexually transmitted disease up to 10 times higher than their white counterparts, but recent studies at Oregon State University have identified approaches to prevention programs that might reduce this problem. The research, based on interviews of black adolescents ages 15-17 in San Francisco and Chicago, found that information from parents, teachers and other caring adults is actually listened to, more than the adults might think...

Geographic Software Maps Distinctive Features Inside Bones

Date: Sep-28-2012
A common type of geographic mapping software offers a new way to study human remains. In a recent issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, researchers describe how they used commercially available mapping software to identify features inside a human foot bone - a new way to study human skeletal variation. David Rose, a Captain in the Ohio State University Police Division and doctoral student in anthropology, began the project to determine whether the patterns of change inside the bones of human remains could reveal how the bones were used during life...