Health News

The 2012 APA Convention For Personality And Social Psychology

Date: Aug-01-2012
From how relationships affect our health to the psychology of an awkward party moment to why we often choose ignorance over information - a guide to some talks with new research in personality and social psychology at the APA Convention in Orlando, Aug. 2-5, 2012 ... Costs of forgiveness in marriage It is not always best to forgive and forget in marriage, according to new research that looks at the costs of forgiveness...

Bioactive Coating To "Camouflage" Neutral Electrodes Could Help Rehabilitate Long-Term Brain Function

Date: Aug-01-2012
Brain-computer interfaces are at the cutting edge for treatment of neurological and psychological disorder, including Parkinson's, epilepsy, and depression. Among the most promising advance is deep brain stimulation (DBS) - a method in which a silicon chip implanted under the skin ejects high frequency currents that are transferred to the brain through implanted electrodes that transmit and receive the signals. These technologies require a seamless interaction between the brain and the hardware. But there's a catch...

Herbal Products For Sun Protection?

Date: Aug-01-2012
Recent research supports the ability of some herbal agents, taken orally or applied topically, to prevent sunburn and limit the damage caused by excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. Natural products with proven and promising photoprotective properties are highlighted in an article in Alternative and Complementary Therapies, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Alternative and Complementary Therapies website...

Drugs Identified By Computational Analysis For The Treatment Of Drug-Resistant Breast Cancer

Date: Aug-01-2012
Researchers have used computational analysis to identify a new Achilles heel for the treatment of drug-resistant breast cancer. The results, which are published in Molecular Systems Biology, reveal that the disruption of glucose metabolism is an effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of tumours that have acquired resistance to front-line cancer drugs such as Lapatinib...

Mathematical Model Resolves Decade-Old Debate On Regulation Of Protein Production By MicroRNAs In Cells

Date: Aug-01-2012
An international team of mathematicians has proposed a new solution to understanding a biological puzzle that has confounded molecular biologists. They have applied a mathematical model to work out the functioning of small molecules known as microRNAs - components of the body akin to the electronics in modern airplanes. For a long time molecular biologists thought that the major role of RNA in living cells was to serve as a copy of a gene and a template for producing proteins, major cell building blocks...

Studying How Antimelanoma Immune Responses Develop During Disease Progression

Date: Aug-01-2012
In many types of cancer, activated immune cells infiltrate the tumor and influence clinical outcome. It is not always clear where these cells are activated, but results reported in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, indicate that in a subset of patients with metastatic melanoma, they can be activated in the tumor microenvironment. "Our data provide a new concept in melanoma," said Nicolas van Baren, M.D., Ph.D...

Vigilance Needed Against Evolution Of More-Virulent Malaria: Vaccine Research

Date: Aug-01-2012
Malaria parasites evolving in vaccinated laboratory mice become more virulent, according to research at Penn State University. The mice were injected with a critical component of several candidate human malaria vaccines that now are being evaluated in clinical trials. "Our research shows immunization with this particular type of malaria vaccine can create ecological conditions that favor the evolution of parasites that cause more severe disease in unvaccinated mice," said Andrew Read, Alumni Professor of Biological Sciences at Penn State...

Anxiety And Depression Increase Risk Of Sick Leave

Date: Aug-01-2012
Long-term sick leave is a burden for individuals and society at large, yet very little is known about the underlying reasons for it. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in collaboration with Australian and British institutes, have identified anxiety as a more important risk factor than previously thought. Common mental disorders such as anxiety and depression will affect 1 of 3 of us at some point in our lives. The core symptoms of mental disorders affect a person's emotional, cognitive and social functioning, which can impact on working ability...

An Important Factor In The Development Of Alzheimer's And Dementia Is Damage To Blood Vessels In The Brain By Autoantibodies

Date: Aug-01-2012
The presence of specific autoantibodies of the immune system is associated with blood vessel damage in the brain. These findings were made by Marion Bimmler, a graduate engineer of medical laboratory diagnostics at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and Dr. Peter Karczewski of the biotech company E.R.D.E.-AAK-Diagnostik GmbH in studies on a rat model. The researchers' results suggest that autoimmune mechanisms play a significant role in the pathogenesis and progression of Alzheimer's and vascular dementia (PloS ONE, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041602)*...

Celiac Disease Often Undiagnosed, Many Go Gluten-Free Without Diagnosis

Date: Aug-01-2012
Roughly 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease, but around 1.4 million of them are unaware that they have it, a Mayo Clinic-led analysis of the condition's prevalence has found. Meanwhile, 1.6 million people in the United States are on a gluten-free diet even though they haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease, according to the study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Researchers have estimated the rate of diagnosed and undiagnosed celiac disease at similar levels prior to this study, but this is the most definitive study on the issue...