Health News

Recommendations For Treating Thyroid Dysfunction During And After Pregnancy

Date: Aug-13-2012
The Endocrine Society has made revisions to its 2007 Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for management of thyroid disease during pregnancy and postpartum. The CPG provides recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of patients with thyroid-related medical issues just before and during pregnancy and in the postpartum interval. Thyroid hormone contributes critically to normal fetal brain development and having too little or too much of this hormone can impact both mother and fetus...

Thoughts Of Giving Rather Than Receiving Motivate People To Help Others

Date: Aug-13-2012
We're often told to 'count our blessings' and be grateful for what we have. And research shows that doing so makes us happier. But will it actually change our behavior towards others? A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that thinking about what we've given, rather than what we've received, may lead us to be more helpful toward others...

Survey Finds Support For Outdoor Smoking Ban

Date: Aug-13-2012
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center who surveyed employees and patients about a ban on outdoor smoking at the cancer center found that 86 percent of non-smokers supported the ban, as did 20 percent of the employees who were smokers. Fifty-seven percent of patients who were smokers also favored the ban. The study appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice...

Populations Survive Despite Many Deleterious Mutations

Date: Aug-13-2012
From protozoans to mammals, evolution has created more and more complex structures and better-adapted organisms. This is all the more astonishing as most genetic mutations are deleterious. Especially in small asexual populations that do not recombine their genes, unfavourable mutations can accumulate. This process is known as Muller's ratchet in evolutionary biology. The ratchet, proposed by the American geneticist Hermann Joseph Muller, predicts that the genome deteriorates irreversibly, leaving populations on a one-way street to extinction...

Radiation After Lumpectomy Better For Majority Of Older, Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients

Date: Aug-13-2012
For the majority of older, early-stage breast cancer patients, radiation therapy following breast conserving surgery may help prevent the need for a later mastectomy, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The findings, published in the journal Cancer, are contrary to current national treatment guidelines, which recommend that older women with early stage, estrogen-positive disease be treated with lumpectomy followed by estrogen blocker therapy alone -- and forgo radiation therapy post-surgery...

Leukoaraiosis Shown To Alter Brain Function In Elderly

Date: Aug-13-2012
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic say a common condition called leukoaraiosis, made up of tiny areas in the brain that have been deprived of oxygen and appear as bright white dots on MRI scans, is not a harmless part of the aging process, but rather a disease that alters brain function in the elderly. Results of their study are published online in the journal Radiology. "There has been a lot of controversy over these commonly identified abnormalities on MRI scans and their clinical impact," said Kirk M. Welker, M.D...

Brain Changes After A Stuffed Nose Protect The Sense Of Smell

Date: Aug-13-2012
Has a summer cold or mold allergy stuffed up your nose and dampened your sense of smell? We take it for granted that once our nostrils clear, our sniffers will dependably rebound and alert us to a lurking neighborhood skunk or a caramel corn shop ahead. That dependability is no accident. It turns out the brain is working overtime behind the scenes to make sure the sense of smell is just as sharp after the nose recovers. A new Northwestern Medicine study shows that after the human nose is experimentally blocked for one week, brain activity rapidly changes in olfactory brain regions...

Childhood Genetic Disease Occurs When Mutations Disrupt Cellular Recycling

Date: Aug-13-2012
Genetics researchers have identified a key gene that, when mutated, causes the rare multisystem disorder Cornelia deLange syndrome (CdLS). By revealing how mutations in the HDAC8 gene disrupt the biology of proteins that control both gene expression and cell division, the research sheds light on this disease, which causes intellectual disability, limb deformations and other disabilities resulting from impairments in early development...

New Genetic Regions Influencing Blood Glucose Traits Revealed By MAGIC

Date: Aug-13-2012
Researchers have identified 38 new genetic regions that are associated with glucose and insulin levels in the blood. This brings the total number of genetic regions associated with glucose and insulin levels to 53, over half of which are associated with type 2 diabetes. The researchers used a technology that is 100 times more powerful than previous techniques used to follow-up on genome-wide association results. This technology, Metabochip, was designed as a cost-effective way to find and map genomic regions for a range of cardiovascular and metabolic characteristics on a large scale...

How Stress And Depression Can Shrink The Brain

Date: Aug-13-2012
Major depression or chronic stress can cause the loss of brain volume, a condition that contributes to both emotional and cognitive impairment. Now a team of researchers led by Yale scientists has discovered one reason why this occurs - a single genetic switch that triggers loss of brain connections in humans and depression in animal models. The findings, reported in the Aug...