Health News

What Is Endocrinology?

Date: Aug-07-2012
Endocrinology is a specialty of medicine; some would say a sub-specialty of internal medicine, which deals with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases related to hormones. Endocrinology covers such human functions as the coordination of metabolism, respiration, reproduction, sensory perception, and movement. Endocrinology also focuses on the endocrine glands and tissues that secrete hormones. The word "endocrinology" comes from the Greek endon meaning "within", and the Greek krinein meaning "to separate"...

How Does Multiple Sclerosis Progress? Possible Clues Discovered

Date: Aug-06-2012
Researchers have discovered that one or more substances produced by a certain type of immune cell may be involved in the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease affecting the brain and spinal cord, may be involved caused by. The finding might lead to new, targeted treatments for those suffering from MS. Leading researcher, Robert Lisak, M.D., a professor of neurology at Wayne State explained that B cells belong to a subset of circulating white blood cells (lymphocytes), which become immunoglobulin (antibodies) producing plasma cells when mature...

Fewer Sugary Drinks At U.S. Schools, But Still Widely Available

Date: Aug-06-2012
A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine shows that in comparison to 4 years ago, 50% less students, or 1 in 4 U.S. public high school students could buy regular soda in school, during the 2010-11 school year. The researchers decided to examine the availability of competitive beverages, such as drinks sold by schools outside of meal programs, in school stores and snack bars, as well as vending machines and a la carte lines in the cafeteria in U.S. middle and high schools for four academic years, from 2006-07 to 2010-11...

Head Trauma Patients Have Worse Outcomes At Hospitals During The Weekend

Date: Aug-06-2012
According to a John Hopkins study, older adults who experience a severe head trauma over a weekend have a significantly higher chance of dying from their injuries than those similarly hurt and in the hospital from Monday to Friday, even if their injuries are not as severe and have fewer other illnesses than those hospitalized on weekdays. Patients undergoing heart attack, stroke, and aneurism treatment have also experienced this "weekend effect" which has been well documented. This new research affirms this effect and the problems in head trauma care...

50% Of UK Adults Don't Think They Can Run 100 Meters

Date: Aug-06-2012
There is a good chance of someone breaking the 10-second mark over 100 meters during the Olympics. However, a survey revealed that around 45% of adults believe they would be unable to run 100 meters without stopping. To mark the start of Slimming World's Miles for SMILES activity program, a program that promotes physical activity whilst raising money for the NSPCC, Slimming World together with YouGov conducted a survey involving 2,065 people, which discovered that 56% of women believed they would find it hard or impossible to run 100 meters compared with 31% of men...

Pupil Dilation May Reveal Sexual Preference

Date: Aug-06-2012
Many experts believe that pupil dilation can reveal sexual orientation when a person looks at attractive people, yet until now, there was no research supporting that theory. A new study by researchers at Cornell University, published in the journal PLoS ONE, measured pupillary changes of participants watching erotic videos by using a specialized infrared lens. Pupils widened most when a person was watching a video with people they found attractive, which then revealed where the volunteers fell on the sexual spectrum from heterosexual to homosexual...

Vaginal Deliveries For Early Preterm Births Are As Successful As C-Sections

Date: Aug-06-2012
According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, babies presenting vertex position (head first) born by vaginal delivery have equally as successful birth rates as those born by cesarean delivery (C-section). However, the researchers noted that preterm breech births by vaginal delivery are not successful, and C-sections are much more practical for these types of births, in order to avoid neonatal mortality. Lead author of the study, Uma M...

Cigarette Smoking Falls While Other Tobacco Usage Rises

Date: Aug-06-2012
A new report entitled "Consumption of Cigarettes and Combustible Tobacco - United States, 2000-2011" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that is featured in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows that tobacco use for rolling cigarettes has sharply risen since 2008 and offset the decrease in total cigarette consumption. Even though the consumption of cigarettes has progressively dropped for 11 years, with a 2...

New Kidney Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise

Date: Aug-06-2012
In the current edition of Nature Medicine, researchers at the University of Tübingen and immatics biotechnologies GmbH report on the results of two clinical trials testing the kidney-cancer vaccine IMA901. The vaccine, which is composed of ten synthetic tumor-associated peptides (TUMAPs), is used to treat individuals suffering from kidney cancer. Unlike chemotherapy, the vaccine works by triggering the body's own killer T-cells to attack the tumor...

Nasal Spray Could Make You A Better Judge Of Character

Date: Aug-06-2012
According to a new study, volunteers who inhaled a nasal spray containing the hormone oxytocin were better at detecting other peoples emotions. The study, conducted by Siri Leknes, a research fellow at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo and funded under the Research Council of Norway's Alcohol and Drug Research Program (RUSMIDDEL), focused on oxytocin, which is already well-known as the "bliss hormone" for helping provide a calm and relaxed feeling. The researchers provided 40 healthy student volunteers with a nasal spray containing either oxytocin or water...