Health News

Decision-Making Memories Are Stored In A Mysterious Area Of The Brain Known To Be Involved With Vision And Eye Movements

Date: Aug-13-2012
The sought-after equanimity of "living in the moment" may be impossible, according to neuroscientists who've pinpointed a brain area responsible for using past decisions and outcomes to guide future behavior. The study, based on research conducted at the University of Pittsburgh and published in the professional journal Neuron, is the first of its kind to analyze signals associated with metacognition - a person's ability to monitor and control cognition (a term cleverly described by researchers as "thinking about thinking...

"Whole Person," Family-Centered Medical Care Addresses The Individual's And The Family's Unique Set Of Needs And Challenges In Autism

Date: Aug-13-2012
Over 400 attendees from across the U.S. and around the world participated in the first national conference for families and professionals, "Treating the Whole Person with Autism: Comprehensive Care for Children and Adolescents with ASD." Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, organized and hosted the conference in collaboration with educational partners at Nationwide Children's Hospital (NCH), The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)...

With The Help Of Gecko Feet, Scientists Hope To Create Bandages That Stick When Wet

Date: Aug-13-2012
Scientists already know that the tiny hairs on geckos' toe pads enable them to cling, like Velcro, to vertical surfaces. Now, University of Akron researchers are unfolding clues to the reptiles' gripping power in wet conditions in order to create a synthetic adhesive that sticks when moist or on wet surfaces. Place a single water droplet on the sole of a gecko toe, and the pad repels the water. The anti-wetting property helps explain how geckos maneuver in rainy tropical conditions...

Hand Implants Not Fit For Purpose

Date: Aug-13-2012
Poorly-performing medical implants have hit the headlines recently, and the trend looks set to continue: the September issue of the Journal of Hand Surgery (JHS) homes in on the unacceptable performance of hand implants for osteoarthritis patients. Citing several recent studies, the editorial asks why these implants - which perform worse that certain hip replacement implants now deemed unacceptable - are still widely used. JHS is an online and print, orthopedic surgery journal published by SAGE...

Impaired Decision-Making In Hoarders

Date: Aug-13-2012
In patients with hoarding disorder, parts of a decision-making brain circuit under-activated when dealing with others' possessions, but over-activated when deciding whether to keep or discard their own things, a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded study has found. NIMH is part of the National Institutes of Health. Brain scans revealed the abnormal activation in areas of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula known to process error monitoring, weighing the value of things, assessing risks, unpleasant feelings, and emotional decisions. NIMH grantee David Tolin, Ph.D...

How Iron Levels And A Faulty Gene Can Cause Bowel Cancer

Date: Aug-13-2012
HIGH LEVELS of iron could raise the risk of bowel cancer by switching on a key pathway in people with faults in a critical anti-cancer gene, according to a study published in Cell Reports*. Cancer Research UK scientists, based at the University of Birmingham and the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, found bowel cancers were two to three times more likely to develop in mice with a faulty APC gene that were fed high amounts of iron compared to mice who still had a working APC gene...

A Key Step Toward 'Universal' Vaccine And Therapies Against Flu

Date: Aug-13-2012
A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Crucell Vaccine Institute in the Netherlands describes three human antibodies that provide broad protection against Influenza B virus strains. The same team had previously reported finding broadly neutralizing antibodies against Influenza A strains...

In Children Treated With Peginterferon Alpha For Hepatitis C, There Are Height, Weight And BMI Changes

Date: Aug-13-2012
Follow-up research from the Pediatric Study of Hepatitis C (PEDS-C) trial reveals that children treated with peginterferon alpha (pegIFNα) for hepatitis C (HCV) display significant changes in height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and body composition. Results appearing in the August issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, indicate that most growth-related side effects are reversible with cessation of therapy. However, in many children the height-for-age score had not returned to baseline two years after stopping treatment. In the U.S...

Hormone In Fruit Flies Sheds Light On Diabetes Cure, Weight-Loss Drug For Humans

Date: Aug-13-2012
Manipulating a group of hormone-producing cells in the brain can control blood sugar levels in the body - a discovery that has dramatic potential for research into weight-loss drugs and diabetes treatment. In a paper published in the October issue of Genetics and available online now, neurobiologists at Wake Forest University examine how fruit flies (Drosophila) react when confronted with a decreased diet. Reduced diet or starvation normally leads to hyperactivity in fruit flies - a hungry fly buzzes around feverishly, looking for more food...

Health Insurance In The US: 89 Million People Uninsured During 2004 To 2007

Date: Aug-12-2012
Eighty-nine million Americans were without health insurance for at least one month during the period from 2004 to 2007, and 23 million lost coverage more than once during that time, according to researchers at Penn State and Harvard University. "These findings call attention to the continuing instability and insecurity of health insurance in our country," said Pamela Farley Short, professor of health policy and administration, Penn State...