Health News

Concern About Laws That Cross Traditional Boundaries And Intrude Into The Realm Of Medical Professionalism

Date: Aug-10-2012
The American College of Physicians (ACP) have released a paper,* Statement of Principles on the Role of Governments in Regulating the Patient-Physician Relationship, which recommends principles for the role of federal and state governments in health care and the patient-physician relationship. "The physician's first and primary duty is to put the patient first," David L. Bronson, MD, FACP, president of ACP, said. "To accomplish this duty, physicians and the medical profession have been granted by government a privileged position in society." Dr...

Natural Births A Major Cause Of Post-Traumatic Stress

Date: Aug-10-2012
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develops in individuals who experience highly traumatizing situations such as terrorist attacks and car accidents, but symptoms can also come about after normal life events - including childbirth. A Tel Aviv University researcher has found that approximately one third of all post-partum women exhibit some symptoms of PTSD, and a smaller percentage develop full-blown PTSD following the ordeal of labor. This surprising finding indicates a relatively high prevalence of the disorder, says Prof...

Predicting Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury

Date: Aug-10-2012
For more than 1 million people in the U.S. living with spinal cord injury, the frightening days and weeks following the injury are filled with uncertainty about their potential for recovery and future independence. A new model based on motor scores at admission and early imaging studies may allow clinicians to predict functional outcomes and guide decision-making for therapy and care-giving needs, as described in an article published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website...

Strategy For Reversing Type 1 Diabetes Supported By Ongoing Clinical Trial

Date: Aug-10-2012
A phase I clinical trial has confirmed that use of a generic vaccine to raise levels of an immune system modulator can cause the death of autoimmune cells targeting the insulin-secreting cells of the pancreas and temporarily restore insulin secretion in human patients with type 1 diabetes. Results of the study - led by Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Immunobiology Laboratory - are being published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, and a larger Phase II trial is currently underway...

Stress Makes Men Appreciate Heavier Women

Date: Aug-10-2012
Increased stress in men is associated with a preference for heavier women, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS ONE. The researchers, led by Viren Swami of the University of Westminster in London, compared how stressed versus non-stressed men responded to pictures of female bodies varying from emaciated to obese...

Brain-Boosting Proteins Triggered By Natural Birth -- But Not C-Section

Date: Aug-10-2012
Vaginal birth triggers the expression of a protein in the brains of newborns that improves brain development and function in adulthood, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers, who also found that this protein expression is impaired in the brains of offspring delivered by caesarean section (C-sections). These findings are published in the August issue of PLoS ONE by a team of researchers led by Tamas Horvath, the Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Research and chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine at Yale School of Medicine...

Lower IQs Seen In Boys Exposed In The Womb To The Insecticide Chlorpyrifos

Date: Aug-10-2012
A new study is the first to find a difference between how boys and girls respond to prenatal exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos. Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health found that, at age 7, boys had greater difficulty with working memory, a key component of IQ, than girls with similar exposures. On the plus side, having nurturing parents improved working memory, especially in boys, although it did not lessen the negative cognitive effects of exposure to the chemical...

Brain Patterns In Teens Can Predict Future Alcohol Use

Date: Aug-09-2012
That fact that heavy drinking impacts the brain of developing youths is a well-known fact. However, now researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Healthcare System have discovered that certain patterns of brain activity could also help to predict which youths are at risk of becoming problem drinkers. The study is featured online in the August edition of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs...

What Is Physiology?

Date: Aug-09-2012
Physiology aims to understand the mechanisms of living - how living things work. Human physiology studies how our cells, muscles and organs work together, how they interact. Physiology, sometimes referred to as the "science of life", looks at living mechanisms, from the molecular basis of cell function to the whole integrated behavior of the entire body. The word "physiology" comes from the Ancient Greek physis, which means "nature, origin", and logia, which means "study of"...

Hoarding Not Related To OCD, New Findings Reveal

Date: Aug-09-2012
A report published in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication, has found that patients with hoarding disorder had abnormal activity in regions of the brain that was stimulus dependent when the person had to decide what to do with objects that either belonged to them, or someone else. Hoarding disorder (HD) is when a person excessively collects objects and is unable to throw them away even though these objects might be useless or invaluable...