Health News

Helping To Speed Discoveries: World's Largest Release Of Comprehensive Human Cancer Genome Data

Date: May-30-2012
To speed progress against cancer and other diseases, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project announced the largest-ever release of comprehensive human cancer genome data for free access by the global scientific community. The amount of information released more than doubles the volume of high-coverage, whole genome data currently available from all human genome sources combined. This information is valuable not just to cancer researchers, but also to scientists studying almost any disease...

An Individualized Approach Needed When Treating Blood Pressure In Diabetics

Date: May-30-2012
Aggressive efforts to lower blood pressure in people with diabetes are paying off - perhaps too well, according to a new study The research shows that there have been dramatic improvements in blood pressure control among patients with diabetes in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, with as many as 82 percent of patients having blood pressure controlled and 94 percent getting appropriate BP treatment. However, given the dramatic rise in control, as many people now may be getting over-treated with blood pressure medications as are being under-treated...

Reducing Tuberculosis Transmission By Targeting 'Hotspots'

Date: May-30-2012
Reducing tuberculosis transmission in geographic "hotspots" where infections are highest could significantly reduce TB transmission on a broader scale, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. An analysis of data from Rio de Janeiro showed that a reduction in TB infections within three high-transmission hotspots could reduce citywide transmission by 9.8 percent over 5 years, and as much as 29 percent over 50 years. The study was published by the journal PNAS...

Faithful Females Who Choose Good Providers Key To Evolutionary Shift To Modern Family, Study Finds

Date: May-30-2012
In early human evolution, when faithful females began to choose good providers as mates, pair-bonding replaced promiscuity, laying the foundation for the emergence of the institution of the modern family, a new study finds. The study helps answer long-standing questions in evolutionary biology about how the modern family, characterized by intense, social attachments with exclusive mates, emerged following earlier times of promiscuity...

Physicists Devise Method For Building Artificial Tissue

Date: May-30-2012
New York University physicists have developed a method that models biological cell-to-cell adhesion that could also have industrial applications. This system, created in the laboratory of Jasna Brujic, an assistant professor in NYU's Department of Physics and part of its Center for Soft Matter Research, is an oil-in-water solution whose surface properties reproduce those found on biological cells...

Just Making Two Lifestyle Changes Spurs Big And Lasting Results

Date: May-30-2012
Simply ejecting your rear from the couch means your hand will spend less time digging into a bag of chocolate chip cookies. That is the simple but profound finding of a new Northwestern Medicine study, which reports simply changing one bad habit has a domino effect on others. Knock down your sedentary leisure time and you'll reduce junk food and saturated fats because you're no longer glued to the TV and noshing. It's a two-for-one benefit because the behaviors are closely related...

US Food Security Threatened By Groundwater Depletion In Semiarid Regions Of Texas And California

Date: May-30-2012
The nation's food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere. The study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, paints the highest resolution picture yet of how groundwater depletion varies across space and time in California's Central Valley and the High Plains of the central U.S...

New Insights Into Structure Of Heart Muscle Fibers

Date: May-30-2012
A study led by researchers from McGill University provides new insights into the structure of muscle tissue in the heart - a finding that promises to contribute to the study of heart diseases and to the engineering of artificial heart tissue. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals that the muscle fibers in the heart wall are locally arranged in a special "minimal surface," the generalized helicoid...

News From The Annals Of Internal Medicine: May 29 Online Issue

Date: May-30-2012
1. Task Force Examines Evidence to Update Hormone Therapy Recommendations Evidence of significant adverse events led the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to issue recommendations against using estrogen plus progestin in 2002 and estrogen alone in 2005 to prevent chronic conditions. To update its recommendations, the Task Force conducted a systematic review of articles published since 2002 to determine the effectiveness of HRT in reducing risks for chronic conditions. The Task Force considered adverse events and the differences in outcomes among population subgroups...

Hospital Costs Significantly Higher For Surgical Patients Who Smoke

Date: May-30-2012
Cigarette smoking contributes to significantly higher hospital costs for smokers undergoing elective general surgery, according to a study published in the June 2012 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. When researchers analyzed data on more than 14,000 patients, they found that postoperative respiratory complications help drive up these health care costs. Study researchers estimate that approximately 30 percent of patients undergoing elective general surgery procedures smoke...