Health News

Hormonal Response Is Stronger In People With Williams Syndrome, Shedding Light On The Biological Underpinnings Of Social Disorders

Date: Jun-25-2012
The hormone oxytocin - often referred to as the "trust" hormone or "love hormone" for its role in stimulating emotional responses - plays an important role in Williams syndrome (WS), according to a study published in PLoS One. The study, a collaboration between scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Utah, found that people with WS flushed with the hormones oxytocin and arginine vasopressin (AVP) when exposed to emotional triggers...

Healthy Eating Hindered By Parents' Work-Life Stress

Date: Jun-25-2012
In a tight economy, with fewer jobs, many people end up working harder and sacrificing more to stay employed. A new study finds that one of those sacrifices is sometimes their own and their family's nutrition. While prior studies have implicated working mothers in providing less healthy family food environments, this is one of the first studies of family nutrition to look at fathers - in particular a population of urban fathers, who face higher rates of unemployment and under-employment...

The Affordable Care Act Could Have Negative Consequences For Elderly Recipients

Date: Jun-25-2012
Ellen Kurtzman, Assistant Research Professor at GW School of Nursing, co-authors study examining how 3 of the law's provisions affect vulnerable older adults. Three provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) intended to enhance care transitions and prevent avoidable outcomes for the Medicare population are found to have inadequately addressed the needs of older, vulnerable recipients of long-term services and supports, according to George Washington University School of Nursing Assistant Research Professor Ellen Kurtzman, MPH, RN, FAAN. Ms...

Cancers With Disorganized 'Traffic Systems' More Difficult To Treat

Date: Jun-25-2012
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta reviewed test results from thousands of patients with various types of cancer and discovered that "disorganized" cancers were more difficult to treat and consistently resulted in lower survival rates. Principal investigator Jack Tuszynski says physicians could use a mathematical equation, or algorithm, to determine how disorganized their patients' cancer is. Once physicians determine that, then they could pinpoint which cancer treatment would be the most effective...

Myelodysplastic Syndrome Patients Treated With Deferasirox Show Beneficial Iron Reduction

Date: Jun-25-2012
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at six other institutions have recently tested a treatment for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, a blood-related malignancy that involves the ineffective production of blood cells, leaving patients anemic and in need of frequent blood transfusions. Because the body has no natural means to reduce iron that accumulates from repeated transfusions, patients' organs can become iron overloaded, leading to heart failure, liver injury, susceptibility to infection, and other complications...

Health Of Lung Transplant Patients Improves By Exercise Program

Date: Jun-25-2012
Lung transplant patients who took part in a three-month structured exercise program when they were discharged from hospital improved their health-related quality of life and reduced their risk of cardiovascular problems. Those are the key findings of research published in the American Journal of Transplantation. "People who have received lung transplants often have weak muscles and limited endurance due to their sedentary lifestyle before their transplant and the drugs they need to take after surgery," explains lead author Dr...

The Elusive Third Factor In Infection Biology

Date: Jun-25-2012
Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat (LMU) in Munich have identified an enzyme that is involved in a modification pathway that is essential for bacterial pathogenicity. Because it shows no similarity to other known proteins, it may be an ideal target for development of novel antimicrobial drugs. Studies on a number of pathogenic bacteria have shown that these strains become pathogenic only when an enzyme called elongation factor P (EF-P) is chemically modified on a conserved lysine residue...

Research Shows That Stimulation During Sleep Can Enhance Skill Learning

Date: Jun-25-2012
Want to nail that tune that you've practiced and practiced? Maybe you should take a nap with the same melody playing during your sleep, new provocative Northwestern University research suggests. The research grows out of exciting existing evidence that suggests that memories can be reactivated during sleep and storage of them can be strengthened in the process. In the Northwestern study, research participants learned how to play two artificially generated musical tunes with well-timed key presses...

Hemimegalencephaly, Massive Brain Asymmetry, Caused By Gene Mutations

Date: Jun-25-2012
Hemimegalencephaly is a rare but dramatic condition in which the brain grows asymmetrically, with one hemisphere becoming massively enlarged. Though frequently diagnosed in children with severe epilepsy, the cause of hemimegalencephaly is unknown and current treatment is radical: surgical removal of some or all of the diseased half of the brain...

Boosting Blood System Protein Complex Protects Against Radiation Toxicity

Date: Jun-25-2012
New research in Nature Medicine shows that boosting a protein pathway in the body's blood making system protects mice from otherwise fatal radiation poisoning. Scientists in the multi-institutional study - posted online by the journal - say their findings open the potential for new treatments against radiation toxicity during cancer treatment or environmental exposures - such as in a nuclear explosion or accident...