Health News

Link Between Freud's Unconscious Conflicts And Conscious Anxiety Disorder Symptoms Shown, Lending Empirical Support To Psychoanalysis

Date: Jun-18-2012
An experiment that Sigmund Freud could never have imagined 100 years ago may help lend scientific support for one of his key theories, and help connect it with current neuroscience. At the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, a University of Michigan professor who has spent decades applying scientific methods to the study of psychoanalysis presented new data supporting a causal link between the psychoanalytic concept known as unconscious conflict, and the conscious symptoms experienced by people with anxiety disorders such as phobias. Howard Shevrin, Ph.D...

Epileptic Seizures May Be Predicted By Musical Brain Patterns

Date: Jun-18-2012
The research led by Newcastle University's Dr Mark Cunningham and Professor Miles Whittington and supported by the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, indicates a novel electrical bio-marker in humans. The brain produces electrical rhythms and using EEG - electrodes on the scalp - researchers were able to monitor the brain patterns in patients with epilepsy. Both in patients and in brain tissue samples the team were able to witness an abnormal brain wave noticeable due to its rapidly increasing frequency over time...

Smokers Who Also Have Drinking Problems Could Be Identified By Smoking Cessation 'Quitlines'

Date: Jun-18-2012
Although numerous studies have shown a strong link between drinking and smoking behaviors, few telephone smoking-cessation "quitlines" routinely screen and counsel callers about their alcohol use. A first-of-its-kind study of drinking and smoking-cessation rates among callers to the New York State Smokers' Quitline (NYSSQL) has found that a high proportion of the smokers calling also drank at hazardous levels, and these high-level drinking smokers had more difficulty quitting smoking than moderate drinking smokers...

The Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis Unaffected By Active Ingredient Of Cannabis

Date: Jun-18-2012
The first large non-commercial study to investigate whether the main active constituent of cannabis (tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) is effective in slowing the course of progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) shows that there is no evidence to suggest this; although benefits were noted for those at the lower end of the disability scale. The CUPID (Cannabinoid Use in Progressive Inflammatory brain Disease) study was carried out by researchers from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), Plymouth University...

Teen Drink Driving Reduced By Graduated Driving Laws

Date: Jun-18-2012
State laws that limit driving privileges for teens have reduced the incidence of drinking and driving among the nation's youngest licensees, according to a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The vast majority of states now have laws that limit teen driving privileges and impose stiff penalties for driving under the influence. Graduated driving licensing laws limit the number of passengers young drivers may transport and how late at night they're allowed to drive, among other restrictions...

Obesity Spread Likely Due To Environmental Factors

Date: Jun-18-2012
An international team of researchers' study of the spatial patterns of the spread of obesity suggests America's bulging waistlines may have more to do with collective behavior than genetics or individual choices. The team, led by City College of New York physicist Hernan Makse, found correlations between the epidemic's geography and food marketing and distribution patterns. "We found there is a relationship between the prevalence of obesity and the growth of the supermarket economy," Professor Makse said...

Blindness Risk Reduced In Extremely Premature Babies By Antioxidant

Date: Jun-18-2012
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the second most common cause of childhood blindness in the United States, occurring in half of premature infants born earlier than or at 28 weeks gestational age. The condition is caused by abnormal blood vessel development in the retina of the eye. ROP risk increases with decreasing gestational age. A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) suggests that the antioxidant, rhSOD (recombinant human Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase), reduces the risk of developing ROP in extremely low gestational age newborns...

Up To 3.7 Million Will Enroll In New Or More Affordable Insurance Through The California Health Benefit Exchange, Medi-Cal Expansion

Date: Jun-18-2012
Nine out of 10 Californians under the age of 65 will be enrolled in health insurance programs as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a joint study by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Between 1.8 million and 2.7 million previously uninsured Californians will gain coverage by 2019, when the law's effect is fully realized, the researchers said. The report, which uses a sophisticated computer simulation model to project the ACA's impact on insurance coverage, comes as the U.S...

Multiple Tumor Zones Need To Be Sampled In Breast Cancer

Date: Jun-18-2012
Certain short strands of RNA, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), have been linked to the progression and metastasis of breast cancer and may provide information about prognosis. However, studies of miRNA expression profiles often report conflicting findings. While the potential for using miRNAs in breast cancer diagnosis is promising, scientists report in a new study published online in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics that differences in the amount and types of miRNA within breast tumors can be misleading...

Soft Drink Consumption Not The Major Contributor To Childhood Obesity

Date: Jun-18-2012
Most children and youth who consume soft drinks and other sweetened beverages, such as fruit punch and lemonade, are not at any higher risk for obesity than their peers who drink healthy beverages, says a new study published in the October issue of Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. The study examined the relationship between beverage intake patterns of Canadian children and their risk for obesity and found sweetened beverage intake to be a risk factor only in boys aged 6-11...