Health News

Stem Cells May Someday Enable Vision To Be Restored

Date: Jun-15-2012
Human-derived stem cells can spontaneously form the tissue that develops into the part of the eye that allows us to see, according to a study published by Cell Press in the 5th anniversary issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell. Transplantation of this 3D tissue in the future could help patients with visual impairments see clearly. "This is an important milestone for a new generation of regenerative medicine," says senior study author Yoshiki Sasai of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology...

In Men With Sleep Apnea, CPAP Found To Improve Sexual Function, Satisfaction

Date: Jun-15-2012
Men who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are seeing another potential benefit from continuous positive airway pressure therapy, or CPAP: improved sexual function and satisfaction in non-diabetic men under age 60. A study out of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., assessed the erectile function and libido of 92 men who were newly diagnosed with OSA and starting CPAP therapy. Erectile dysfunction (ED) is common in OSA patients, and nearly half of the men in the Walter Reed study reported the presence of ED...

Daytime Sleepiness Can Be Caused By Obesity, Depression

Date: Jun-15-2012
Wake up, America, and lose some weight - it's keeping you tired and prone to accidents. Three studies presented at sleep 2012 conclude that obesity and depression are the two main culprits making us excessively sleepy while awake. Researchers at Penn State examined a random population sample of 1,741 adults and determined that obesity and emotional stress are the main causes of the current "epidemic" of sleepiness and fatigue plaguing the country...

Pre-Surgical Steps For Eye Surgery Are Standardized Through JoVE's Video Publication

Date: Jun-15-2012
Over 45,000 corneal transplant eye surgeries are performed in the US every year. On June 12, 2012, in an effort to standardize this complex procedure, two video articles describing pre-surgical preparation of corneal tissue were published in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments. These articles are authored by groups of scientists from Italy and the United States. By utilizing the JoVE's unique visual format the authors of the studies hope to standardize the pre-surgical techniques, minimize wasted biomaterial and reduce the risk of tissue rejection in corneal transplant...

Lab-On-Chip Device Could Sort Cancer Cells

Date: Jun-15-2012
In life, we sort soiled laundry from clean; ripe fruit from rotten. Two Johns Hopkins engineers say they have found an easy way to use gravity or simple forces to similarly sort microscopic particles and bits of biological matter - including circulating tumor cells. In a recent online issue of Physical Review Letters, German Drazer, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and his doctoral student, Jorge A...

Engineers Conceive Disc Replacement To Treat Chronic Low Back Pain

Date: Jun-15-2012
In between the vertebrae of the human spine are 23 Oreo-sized, cartilage-filled discs that hold the vertebrae together and allow for spine movement. While the discs are critical for movement, they can become the source of back pain when they degenerate or herniate - a major health problem that affects 85% of Americans and drains the U.S. economy to the tune of $100 billion every year...

Novel Use Of Green Fluorescent Proteins To Search For Disabled Genes In Children With Glycosylation-Related Diseases

Date: Jun-15-2012
Just as Gotham City uses the Bat Signal to call for Batman's aid, a new tool developed by scientists from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California, should serve as the cellular equivalent for children with glycosylation disorders, sometimes called "CDG syndromes." In a new report appearing online in The FASEB Journal, scientists describe how they used a green fluorescent protein to identify the presence of genes - known and unknown - associated with a wide variety of glycosylation-related diseases...

The Long-Term Effects Of Meningitis On Children's Developmental Outcomes

Date: Jun-15-2012
Parents of infants who survive bacterial meningitis caused by group B Streptococcus might have to live with the effects of the disease on their children long after they're discharged from the hospital. A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that even though mortality rates of children infected with GBS meningitis have decreased in the past 25 years, just under half of children who survive the disease will suffer impairment as a result of the disease...

Compound That Improves Motivation May Help You Work Out Harder

Date: Jun-15-2012
As science rushes to develop safe weight loss drugs, a new research report approaches this problem from an entirely new angle: What if there were a pill that would make you want to exercise harder? It may sound strange, but a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal suggests that it might be possible. That's because a team of Swiss researchers found that when a hormone in the brain, erythropoietin (Epo), was elevated in mice, they were more motivated to exercise. In addition, the form of erythropoietin used in these experiments did not elevate red blood cell counts...

Cancer Survivors To Rise By A Third Over The Next Decade

Date: Jun-14-2012
The American Cancer Society has released their latest addition to its facts and figures publication called "Cancer Treatment and Survivorship Facts & Figures". Defining a cancer survivor as anyone still alive after being diagnosed with cancer, the report goes on to predict that the number of Americans with a history of cancer will rise by a third over the next decade, hitting some 18 million by 2022...