Health News

Sleep Patterns Influence Pro-Athletes' Career Span

Date: Jun-18-2012
A pro athlete's career-span depends on how tired they are in the day, according to sleep researcher W. Christopher Winter, M.D., who presented two studies at SLEEP 2012. In the studies, baseball and football players were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their sleepiness. The researchers found that football players were more likely to stay with their drafting NFL teams after college if they were less tired during the day. Furthermore, they found that drop-out rates for sleepier baseball players trended higher than MLB averages...

Nanoparticle Exposure Linked To Rheumatoid Arthritis And Other Autoimmune Diseases

Date: Jun-18-2012
According to a study published in the journal Nanomedicine, researchers have found an association between exposure to nanoparticles and rheumatoid arthritis and the development of other serious autoimmune disease. In addition, the team discovered new cellular targets for developing potential drug therapies to treat autoimmune diseases. Findings from the study, conducted by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, indicate that there are health and safety implications for the manufacture, utilization, and disposal of nanotechnology products and materials...

Public Health Researchers Lead Effort To Find Genetic Proof Of Coronary Artery Disease Risk

Date: Jun-18-2012
University of Minnesota School of Public Health researchers have reported two high-signal genetic markers correlated with coronary artery disease (CAD) that should help define genetic fingerprints that can signal an increased risk of developing the disease. The results also offer biological and clinical data supporting future research into the genetic markers and their relationship to CAD, a condition that impacts more than 13 million Americans each year. The research, led by Weihong Tang, Ph.D., M.S., M.D...

For Patients With Resected SCLC Or Large-Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma, Chemotherapy Found To Be Effective

Date: Jun-18-2012
Research presented in the July 2012 issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) Journal of Thoracic Oncology, concluded that patients with limited large cell neuroendocrine tumors or with limited stage small-cell lung cancer who were treated with perioperative chemotherapy and surgery had better overall survival outcomes than patients treated with surgery alone. Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) represents about 15 percent of lung cancers annually. Of those, about 30 percent of patients have limited disease SCLC...

Oral Vaccines, Treatments For Intestinal Disease May Be Improved By Control Gene For 'Conveyor Belt' Cells

Date: Jun-18-2012
Scientists have found a master regulator gene needed for the development of M cells, a mysterious type of intestinal cell involved in initiating immune responses. M cells act like "conveyor belts," ingesting bacteria and transporting substances from the gut into Peyer's patches, specialized tissues resembling lymph nodes in the intestines. Better knowledge of M cells' properties could aid research on oral vaccines and inflammatory bowel diseases...

Many College Students Can't Track Down Credible Emergency Contraception Information Online

Date: Jun-18-2012
They seem to live their personal lives online, but when there is a glitch in the sex lives of college students, and emergency contraception is needed, many struggle to navigate the Web and find the information they need, according to a Northwestern University study. The study was recently published online in the journal Policy & Internet...

Strong Genetic Influence On The Risk Of Developing Alcohol Dependence

Date: Jun-18-2012
Excessive drinking is not only the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States, there is also a very strong genetic influence on the risk of developing alcohol dependence (AD). Given its serious public-health impact, as well as strong evidence for genetic influence, a new study has examined links between AD and genetic variations called common copy number variations (CNVs), finding a significant association between AD and CNVs on chromosome 5q13.2...

Hope For Therapy To Repair Damage To The Peripheral Nervous System

Date: Jun-18-2012
Researchers from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter, in collaboration with colleagues from Rutgers University, Newark and University College London, have furthered understanding of the mechanism by which the cells that insulate the nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system, Schwann cells, protect and repair damage caused by trauma and disease...

Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy Effective Treatment For Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Date: Jun-18-2012
Until recently, many elderly patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer were left untreated because treatment may not improve their quality of life. However, stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) has become one of the standards of treatment for these patients. The outpatient treatment given over a two-week period allows frail patients to undergo the treatment. Researchers wanted to know if this treatment maintained the same health-related qualify of life levels as patients receiving surgery...

MRSA Genome Sequencing Could Help Control Outbreaks

Date: Jun-18-2012
A new study shows that whole genome sequencing can rapidly and accurately differentiate among strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a way that current lab methods can't. Speeding up the turnaround of such vital information can help control hospital outbreaks of the superbug, said the researchers. The researchers sequenced genomes of MRSA samples from a real hospital outbreak and found they could precisely distinguish strains that were part of the outbreak from strains that were not, faster than conventional clinical testing methods...