Health News

Link Between Sleep Apnea In Obese Pregnant Women And Poor Maternal And Neonatal Outcomes

Date: Sep-23-2012
The newborns of obese pregnant women suffering from obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit than those born to obese mothers without the sleep disorder, reports a study published online today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. Sleep apnea, which causes repeated awakenings and pauses in breathing during the night, was also associated with higher rates of preeclampsia in the severely overweight pregnant women, the researchers found...

Researchers Find Free Bus Passes Have Health Benefit

Date: Sep-23-2012
Free bus passes for over-60s may be encouraging older people to be more physically active, say the authors of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Researchers from Imperial College London reached their conclusion by analysing four years of data from the UK National Travel Survey. They found that people with a bus pass are more likely to walk frequently and take more journeys by "active travel" - defined as walking, cycling or using public transport...

New Strategies Needed To Combat Disease In Developing Countries

Date: Sep-23-2012
So-called lifestyle diseases are gaining ground with epidemic speed in low-income countries. The traditional health focus in these countries has been to combat communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. However, research from the University of Copenhagen suggests that dividing campaigns into combating either non-communicable or communicable diseases is ineffective and expensive. A new article by Danish scientists published in the well-reputed journal Science provides an overview...

Doctors, Patients Make Better Sense Of Genome Data Using Informatics Approach

Date: Sep-23-2012
The cost of sequencing the entire human genome, or exome - the regions of the genome that are translated into proteins that affect cell behavior - has decreased significantly, to the point where the cost of looking at the majority of a patient's genomic data may be less expensive than undertaking one or two targeted genetic tests. While efficient, the acquisition of this much genetic data - in some cases as many as 1.5 to 2 million variants - creates other challenges...

A Conversation With Rohit Pappu About Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Date: Sep-23-2012
Students are taught that a protein's 3-dimensional shape is critical to its function, but it turns out that many proteins exist in a state of 'disorder' and yet are functional If you open any biology textbook to the section on proteins, you will learn that a protein is made up of a sequence of amino acids, that the sequence determines how the chain of amino acids folds into a compact structure, and that the folded protein's structure determines its function. In other words sequence encodes structure and function derives from structure. But the textbooks may have to be rewritten...

New Clue To Slower Progression Of AIDS

Date: Sep-23-2012
The average time from HIV infection to full-blown AIDS in the absence of treatment is about 10 years, and while some people succumb much sooner, others, known as the "slow progressors", can remain healthy for another 20 years or more. Now scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), believe they may have uncovered a new clue as to why. They found HIV-infected people who carry a gene variant that causes the immune system to attack a particular section of a virus protein are more likely to be among the slow progressors...

Blood Pressure Lowered In Healthy Adults By Low Calorie Cranberry Juice

Date: Sep-23-2012
Regularly drinking low-calorie cranberry juice may help get your blood pressure under control, according to new findings presented at the American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research 2012 Scientific Sessions. In a study that measured the effects of drinking low-calorie cranberry juice, participants drank either low-calorie juice or a placebo drink every day for eight weeks as part of a controlled diet. Blood pressure was measured at the beginning, mid-point and end of the study...

Largest Genomic Study Finds Khoe-San Peoples From Southern Africa Are Unique, Special

Date: Sep-23-2012
Genetically, culturally and ethically the Khoe-San have something special to add to this world. The importance of this study is to put the Khoe and San heritage in the right place in history and this research will provide a genetic backdrop for future studies - Mattias Jakobsson. The largest genomic study ever conducted among Khoe and San groups reveals that these groups from southern Africa are descendants of the earliest diversification event in the history of all humans - some 100 000 years ago, well before the 'out-of-Africa' migration of modern humans...

The Battle Against Obesity May Be Won By Manipulating Hormone Receptors

Date: Sep-23-2012
In the body's ongoing effort to maintain a healthy weight, an arsenal of cellular proteins called androgen receptors is critical for blocking fat accumulation. Now researchers reporting in the September issue of the Cell Press Journal Chemistry & Biology have discovered that naturally occurring steroids called glucocorticoids can thwart the receptors' activity, ultimately encouraging fat buildup. "This has implications in this era of an obesity epidemic," says senior author Dr. Michael Mancini, from Baylor College of Medicine...

More Research Needed Before Implementing Measures To Prevent Non-Communicable Diseases

Date: Sep-23-2012
Proposals designed to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as "fat taxes" will have wide-ranging effects on the economy and health but wider research is needed to avoid wasting resources on ineffective measures, according to an economist from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Writing in Science, Professor Richard Smith says that effective prevention of the increasing problem of NCDs will require changes in how we live our lives, which will in turn lead to significant economic changes across populations, industries and countries...