Health News

Seeking Targets For Dealing With Anthrax

Date: Aug-22-2012
A trawl of the genome of the deadly bacterium Bacillus anthracis has revealed a clutch of targets for new drugs to combat an epidemic of anthrax or a biological weapons attack. The targets are all proteins that are found in the bacteria but not in humans and are involved in diverse bacterial processes such as metabolism, cell wall synthesis and bacterial persistence. The discovery of a range of targets might bode well for creating a drug cocktail that could preclude the emergence of drug resistance...

Improved Risk Model For Lung Cancer

Date: Aug-22-2012
A lung cancer risk prediction model developed by scientists at the University of Liverpool has been shown to be a viable tool for selecting high risk individuals for prevention and control programmes. The model, developed at the University's Cancer Research Centre and funded by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, was tested in international datasets and found to be a more effective predictor of individuals at risk than smoking duration or family history alone. The results are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine...

Drug Used For Preventing Life-Threatening Bleeding In Women During Labor May Not Be Effective

Date: Aug-22-2012
There is insufficient evidence for the effectiveness of a drug that is being used increasingly to prevent life-threatening bleeding in women after giving birth in community settings in low income countries, according to a review of all the available research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. [1] Misoprostol (brand name Cytotec) was originally developed for treating gastric ulcers, but is increasingly used in low- and middle-income countries for preventing postpartum haemorrhage (PPH)...

Children With Low Vitamin D Levels Can Decrease Risk Of Respiratory Infections By Vitamin D Supplementation

Date: Aug-22-2012
A study conducted in Mongolian schoolchildren supports the possibility that daily vitamin D supplementation can reduce the risk of respiratory infections in winter. In a report that will appear in the journal Pediatrics and has received early online release, an international research team found that vitamin D supplementation decreased the risk of respiratory infections among children who had low blood levels of vitamin D at the start of the study...

Toxic Byproduct Of Heat-Processed Food May Cause Increased Body Weight And Diabetes

Date: Aug-22-2012
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a common compound in the modern diet that could play a major role in the development of abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research team, led by Helen Vlassara, MD, Professor and Director of the Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging, found that mice with sustained exposure to the compound, methyl-glyoxal (MG), developed significant abdominal weight gain, early insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes...

Developing Better Rehab Programs For Stroke Patients

Date: Aug-22-2012
The simple act of picking up a pencil requires the coordination of dozens of muscles: The eyes and head must turn toward the object as the hand reaches forward and the fingers grasp it. To make this job more manageable, the brain's motor cortex has implemented a system of shortcuts. Instead of controlling each muscle independently, the cortex is believed to activate muscles in groups, known as "muscle synergies." These synergies can be combined in different ways to achieve a wide range of movements...

Tail Chasing In Dogs As An Animal Model For Studying The Genetic Background Of OCD In Humans

Date: Aug-22-2012
The genetics research group, based at the University of Helsinki and the Folkhalsan Research Center and led by Professor Hannes Lohi, has in collaboration with an international group of researchers investigated the characteristics and environmental factors associated with compulsive tail chasing in dogs...

Restoring Function In Motor Control Brain Areas Via Neural Interface For Prosthesis

Date: Aug-22-2012
Amputation disrupts not only the peripheral nervous system but also central structures of the brain. While the brain is able to adapt and compensate for injury in certain conditions, in amputees the traumatic event prevents adaptive cortical changes. A group of scientists reports adaptive plastic changes in an amputee's brain following implantation of multielectrode arrays inside peripheral nerves. Their results are available in the current issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience...

Temporal Training Aids Cognitive Rehabilitation In The Elderly

Date: Aug-22-2012
Research has found that declines in temporal information processing (TIP), the rate at which auditory information is processed, underlies the progressive loss of function across multiple cognitive systems in the elderly, including new learning, memory, perception, attention, thinking, motor control, problem solving, and concept formation. In a new study, scientists have found that elderly subjects who underwent temporal training improved not only the rate at which they processed auditory information, but also in other cognitive areas...

Improvements Needed In Depression Diagnosis For Women

Date: Aug-22-2012
Major depression affects as many as 16% of reproductive-aged women in the U.S. Yet pregnant women have a higher rate of undiagnosed depression than nonpregnant women, according to a study published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website*...