Health News

Blocking Newly Identified Molecule May Improve And Speed Recovery From Stroke

Date: Jul-31-2012
Researchers at UCLA have identified a novel molecule in the brain that, after stroke, blocks the formation of new connections between neurons. As a result, it limits the brain's recovery. In a mouse model, the researchers showed that blocking this molecule - called ephrin-A5 - induces axonal sprouting, that is, the growth of new connections between the brain's neurons, or cells, and as a result promotes functional recovery...

What Is Inflammation? What Causes Inflammation?

Date: Jul-31-2012
Inflammation is the body's attempt at self-protection; the aim being to remove harmful stimuli, including damaged cells, irritants, or pathogens - and begin the healing process. When something harmful or irritating affects a part of our body, there is a biological response to try to remove it, the signs and symptoms of inflammation, specifically acute inflammation, show that the body is trying to heal itself. Inflammation does not mean infection, even when an infection causes inflammation. Infection is caused by a bacterium, virus or fungus, while inflammation is the body's response to it...

Lack Of Sleep Can Influence The Way You Perform Certain Tasks

Date: Jul-31-2012
Anyone that has ever had trouble sleeping can attest to the difficulties at work the following day. Experts recommend eight hours of sleep per night for ideal health and productivity, but what if five to six hours of sleep is your norm? Is your work still negatively affected? A team of researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have discovered that regardless of how tired you perceive yourself to be, that lack of sleep can influence the way you perform certain tasks. This finding is published in the online edition of The Journal of Vision...

Childhood Abuse And Age At Menarche Linked

Date: Jul-31-2012
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found an association between childhood physical and sexual abuse and age at menarche. The findings are published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Researchers led by corresponding author, Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at BUSM, found a 49 percent increase in risk for early onset menarche (menstrual periods prior to age 11 years) among women who reported childhood sexual abuse compared to those who were not abused...

Rate Of New Infection Is Beginning To Level Off In The Nation With The World's Highest Prevalence Of HIV

Date: Jul-31-2012
The results from a nationally representative HIV incidence study in Swaziland indicate that the national rate of new HIV infections is 2.38% among adults ages 18-49. This figure, comparable to the 2009 UNAIDS estimate of 2.66% for Swaziland adults ages 15-49, suggests that the HIV epidemic in Swaziland may have begun to stabilize in the past few years. The findings of the Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey (SHIMS) were presented at the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington DC. "The country continues to have very high HIV incidence rates...

Novel Therapy May Prevent Damage To The Retina In Diabetic Eye Diseases

Date: Jul-31-2012
Researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center have identified a compound that could interrupt the chain of events that cause damage to the retina in diabetic retinopathy. The finding is significant because it could lead to a novel therapy that targets two mechanisms at the root of the disease: inflammation and the weakening of the blood barrier that protects the retina. To date, treatments for diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness among working-age Americans, have been aimed largely at one of those mechanisms...

Post-Surgical Scarring For Glaucoma Patients Reduced By Breakthrough Treatment

Date: Jul-31-2012
Scientists at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have developed an innovative way to combat post-surgical scarring for glaucoma patients. A clinical trial has shown that the use of a new drug delivery method has resulted in 40 per cent fewer injections needed by glaucoma patients to prevent scarring after surgery. This also means fewer hospital visits for these patients in future. Glaucoma, a disease characterised by a build-up of pressure in the eye, is a major cause of blindness worldwide...

Patients With Painful Heel Spurs Get Relief From Standard Radiation Therapy Dose

Date: Jul-31-2012
Patients with plantar fasciitis (painful bone heel spur) experience significantly less pain and improved quality of life following a standard dose of external beam radiation therapy, a common cancer treatment similar to receiving an X-ray, according to a randomized, cooperative group study that was published online in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology - Biology - Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)...

Prozac Found To Be Effective As An Anti-Viral

Date: Jul-31-2012
UCLA researchers have come across an unexpected potential use for fluoxetine - commonly known as Prozac - which shows promise as an antiviral agent. The discovery could provide another tool in treating human enteroviruses that sicken and kill people in the U.S. and around the world. Human enteroviruses are members of a genus containing more than 100 distinct RNA viruses responsible for various life threatening infections, such as poliomyelitis and encephalitis...

The Cost-Effectiveness Of Early Treatment Of HIV Shown In Expanded Analysis Of HPTN 052 Study Results

Date: Jul-31-2012
When the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052 investigators released their landmark study results last year showing that treatment can reduce HIV transmission by 96% in serodiscordant couples, questions were raised about the cost of early antiretroviral therapy (ART) and if it should be universally implemented. Data presented today at the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. show that treatment as prevention is "very cost-effective"...