Health News

98,000 Trampoline-Related Injuries In The U.S. Result In 3,100 Hospitalizations

Date: Sep-25-2012
Susannah Briskin, MD, a pediatric sports medicine specialist with University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, is the co-author of an updated report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) strongly cautioning against home trampolines. The report provides updated data on the number of and types of injuries caused by trampolines. The new report's key recommendation against recreational trampoline use remains consistent with AAP's previous policy statement from 1999 and reaffirmed in 2006...

How Environmental Cues Affect Motivation And Task-Oriented Behavior

Date: Sep-25-2012
Much of our daily lives are spent completing tasks that involve a degree of waiting, such as remaining on hold while scheduling a doctor's appointment or standing in line at an ATM. Faced with a wait, some people postpone, avoid, or abandon their task. Others endure the wait but feel dissatisfied and frustrated by the experience...

Poor Sleep Quality Linked To Resistant Hypertension

Date: Sep-25-2012
For people who already have high blood pressure, insomnia can have serious consequences, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research 2012 Scientific Sessions. Researchers studied the sleeping patterns of 234 people with high blood pressure. Most participants slept six or fewer hours, and those who also reported poor sleep quality were twice as likely to have resistant hypertension as those who slept well...

In Atrial Fibrillation, Undertreatment Persists Despite Rapid Adoption Of Novel Therapies

Date: Sep-25-2012
A novel blood thinner recently approved by the FDA, dabigatran (Pradaxa), has been rapidly adopted into clinical practice, yet thus far has had little impact on improving treatment rates for atrial fibrillation. This is according to a new study led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that examined national trends in oral anticoagulant use. They found that despite rapid adoption of dabigatran for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, a large proportion of patients - two in five - did not receive oral anticoagulant therapy...

Preventing Egg Cell Death In Women Undergoing Chemotherapy Or Radiation To Protect Fertility

Date: Sep-25-2012
New research offers hope to women whose fertility has been compromised by the side-effects of cancer therapy or by premature menopause. In a study published in Molecular Cell, researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), Monash University and Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research found that two proteins, PUMA and NOXA, cause the death of egg cells in the ovaries. Blocking the activity of the proteins may lead to new strategies to protect women's fertility...

Lithium Could Be Key To Personalized Treatment For Bipolar Disorder

Date: Sep-25-2012
Lithium is a 'gold standard' drug for treating bipolar disorder, however not everyone responds in the same way. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders finds that this is true at the levels of gene activation, especially in the activation or repression of genes which alter the level the apoptosis (programmed cell death). Most notably BCL2, known to be important for the therapeutic effects of lithium, did not increase in non-responders. This can be tested in the blood of patients within four weeks of treatment...

Primary Care Careers Less Inviting To Med Students

Date: Sep-25-2012
Primary care physicians are at the heart of health care in the United States, and are often the first to diagnose patients and ensure those patients receive the care they need. But researchers from North Carolina State University, East Carolina University (ECU) and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York have found that many students are choosing to pass up a career in primary care because those physicians make substantially less money than specialists, such as dermatologists or radiologists...

Challenges Faced By Retired Olympians

Date: Sep-25-2012
When elite-level athletes retire, they often struggle to adapt to their new lives. When finding that the characteristics that were valuable in sport are not equally useful in 'ordinary' life, they often start experiencing disorientation, depression, self-doubt or even illness. This is concluded in research from the University of Gothenburg. Successful athletes at the elite level develop characteristics that should generate success also later in life. However, this notion may be wrong, according to the new research...

Encouraging The Public With A 'Nudge' Or 'Think'

Date: Sep-25-2012
If approached in the right way, citizens are willing to change their behaviour and do more to help themselves and others, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project, carried out jointly at the universities of Manchester and Southampton, experimented with different intervention techniques which encourage citizen participation and explored people's motivations for community involvement...

Providing Non-Caloric Beverages To Teens Can Help Them Avoid Excessive Weight Gain

Date: Sep-25-2012
A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that adolescents who eliminated sugar-sweetened beverages for one year gained less weight than those who didn't, shedding light on an effective intervention to help combat adolescent obesity. This is one of the first high-quality randomized control trials to examine the link between the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and their direct impact on weight and body mass index (BMI), as well as how a teen's home environment impacts sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in general...