Health News

Brain Aging May Be Accelerated By Concussions And Head Impacts

Date: Aug-02-2012
Concussions and even lesser head impacts may speed up the brain's natural aging process by causing signaling pathways in the brain to break down more quickly than they would in someone who has never suffered a brain injury or concussion...

Greater Economic Stability Likely For HIV Patients Undergoing Early Treatment

Date: Aug-02-2012
In a first-of-its-kind health campaign in Uganda, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill show that adults with HIV who had less severe infections could work more hours per week, and their children were more likely to be enrolled in school. The finding, led by Harsha Thirumurthy, Ph.D...

Link Discovered Between Protein Involved In DNA Replication/Centrosome Regulation And Dwarfism/Small Brain Size

Date: Aug-02-2012
Research published Aug. 1 by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) links gene mutations found in some patients with Meier-Gorlin syndrome (MGS) with specific cellular dysfunctions that are thought to give rise to a particularly extreme version of dwarfism, small brain size, and other manifestations of abnormal growth which generally characterize that rare condition...

Possible Clue To Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis Discovered

Date: Aug-02-2012
Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers, working with colleagues in Canada, have found that one or more substances produced by a type of immune cell in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) may play a role in the disease's progression. The finding could lead to new targeted therapies for MS treatment. B cells, said Robert Lisak, M.D., professor of neurology at Wayne State and lead author of the study, are a subset of lymphocytes (a type of circulating white blood cell) that mature to become plasma cells and produce immunoglobulins, proteins that serve as antibodies...

Tool That Helps Dietitians Deliver Info Clients Need And Can Understand

Date: Aug-02-2012
If you've consulted with a nutrition educator about how best to lose weight or manage your diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, you may not have learned as much as you could have, said a University of Illinois professor of nutrition extension. "Only 80 percent of the dietitians we surveyed did any pre-assessment of the client's nutrition literacy, which makes it difficult for educators to target their counseling so clients can understand and act on the information they are given," said Karen Chapman-Novakofski, also a registered dietitian...

Obesity Treatments Obstructed By Weight-Loss Clinic Drop-Out Rates

Date: Aug-02-2012
More than 1.7 billion people worldwide may be classified as overweight and need appropriate medical or surgical treatment with the goal of sustainable weight loss. But for weight management programs to be effective, patients must complete them, states a study published in the Canadian Journal of Surgery (CJS) that analyzed drop-out rates and predictors of attrition within a publicly-funded adult weight management program...

Women With Advanced Breast Cancer Offered New Hope By Change In Drug Regimen

Date: Aug-02-2012
A study co-authored by a Loyola researcher and published in the New England Journal of Medicine is offering new hope to women with advanced breast cancer. The study found that combing two drugs that normally are each given as single agents significantly extended the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer. Kathy Albain, MD, a breast cancer specialist at Loyola University Medical Center, is among the main authors of the study...

Physiologists Have Identified The Biological Mechanism That Could Be Responsible For Cold Feet

Date: Aug-02-2012
Cold feet - those chilly appendages that plague many people in the winter and an unlucky few all year round - can be the bane of existence for singles and couples alike. In a new study, scientists led by Selvi C. Jeyaraj of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital have identified a biological mechanism that may be responsible for icy extremities: an interaction between a series of molecules and receptors on smooth muscle cells that line the skin's tiny blood vessels. The new research, along with an accompanying editorial by Martin C...

Childhood Obesity May Affect Puberty, Create Problems With Reproduction

Date: Aug-02-2012
A dramatic increase in childhood obesity in recent decades may have impacts that go beyond the usual health concerns - it could be disrupting the timing of puberty and ultimately lead to a diminished ability to reproduce, especially in females. A body of research suggests that obesity could be related to growing problems with infertility, scientists said in a recent review, in addition to a host of other physical and psycho-social concerns. The analysis was published in Frontiers in Endocrinology. Human bodies may be scrambling to adjust to a problem that is fairly new...

Memory Failures From Annoying To Lethal - When We Forget To Remember

Date: Aug-02-2012
A surgical team closes an abdominal incision, successfully completing a difficult operation. Weeks later, the patient comes into the ER complaining of abdominal pain and an X-ray reveals that one of the forceps used in the operation was left inside the patient...