Health News

When Do We Lie? When We're Short On Time And Long On Reasons

Date: Sep-08-2012
Almost all of us have been tempted to lie at some point, whether about our GPA, our annual income, or our age. But what makes us actually do it? In a study forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Shaul Shalvi of the University of Amsterdam and Ori Eldar and Yoella Bereby-Meyer of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev investigated what factors influence dishonest behavior. Previous research shows that a person's first instinct is to serve his or her own self-interest...

Even The Elderly Benefit From Exercise

Date: Sep-07-2012
In a recent study, carried out by Dr. Louis Bherer, PhD (Psychology), Laboratory Director and Researcher at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM), researchers have discovered that the benefits of exercise are positive for all seniors, including those who are considered frail. The findings, published in the Journals of Gerontology, said these advantages appeared after just three months and specifically included increased cognitive and physical abilities, as well as quality of life...

Non-Alcoholic Red Wine Lowers Blood Pressure

Date: Sep-07-2012
Non-alcoholic red wine was found to lower blood pressure in men at high risk of heart disease, researchers from Spain reported in the journal Circulation Research. The authors explained that the men who drank non-alcoholic red wine daily for four weeks had higher levels of nitric oxide in their blood. Nitric oxide helps lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure- the molecule helps blood vessels relax, allowing more blood to reach the body's organs, including the heart...

Small Molecules Can Help Fight Obesity

Date: Sep-07-2012
A recent study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, has revealed that there is a link between cellular metabolism and microRNAs. This indicates that a medication developed to hinder these small molecules may work to fight obesity. RNA influences how our cells burn sugar and fat, a discovery which has given the experts from Virginia Tech and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas a jump start for finding methods of treating obesity and other weight-related health concerns...

Childhood Sexual Abuse Linked To Later Heart Attacks In Men

Date: Sep-07-2012
Men who experienced childhood sexual abuse are three times more likely to have a heart attack than men who were not sexually abused as children, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto. The researchers found no association between childhood sexual abuse and heart attacks among women...

Survival 'Excellent' Following Living Donor Liver Transplantation For Acute Liver Failure

Date: Sep-07-2012
Patients in Japan who underwent living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for acute liver failure (ALF) were classified as having excellent outcomes, with ten-year survival at 73%. The findings, published in the September issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), suggest that the type of liver disease or treatment plan does not affect long-term patient survival following LDLT. Donor and patient age, however, does impact long-term outcome post-transplant...

Predicting How Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder Will Respond To Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Date: Sep-07-2012
A new study led by MIT neuroscientists has found that brain scans of patients with social anxiety disorder can help predict whether they will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. Social anxiety is usually treated with either cognitive behavioral therapy or medications. However, it is currently impossible to predict which treatment will work best for a particular patient...

Promising New Drug Target For Inflammatory Lung Diseases

Date: Sep-07-2012
The naturally occurring cytokine interleukin-18, or IL-18, plays a key role in inflammation and has been implicated in serious inflammatory diseases for which the prognosis is poor and there are currently limited treatment options. Therapies targeting IL-18 could prove effective against inflammatory diseases of the lung including bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as described in a review article published in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers...

Strategies To Prevent Noise-Induced Hearing Loss, Tinnitus In Soldiers To Be Presented

Date: Sep-07-2012
Antioxidants, dietary supplements and high-tech brain imaging are among some of the novel strategies that may help detect, treat and even prevent noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus among American troops, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. A culmination of nearly 25 years of research on noise-induced hearing loss - a growing medical issue that affects more than 12 percent of American troops returning from conflicts around the globe - will be presented Sept. 9 at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery annual meeting in Washington, D.C...

'I Knew It All Along...Didn't I?' - Understanding Hindsight Bias

Date: Sep-07-2012
The fourth-quarter comeback to win the game. The tumor that appeared on a second scan. The guy in accounting who was secretly embezzling company funds. The situation may be different each time, but we hear ourselves say it over and over again: "I knew it all along." The problem is that too often we actually didn't know it all along, we only feel as though we did...