Health News

During An Injection, Look Away If You Want To Avoid Pain

Date: May-16-2012
Health professionals commonly say, "Don't look and it won't hurt" before administering an injection, but is there any scientific basis for the advice? A group of German investigators has found that, in fact, your past experience with needle pricks, along with information you receive before an injection, shape your pain experience. Their research is published in the May issue of Pain®. "Throughout our lives, we repeatedly experience that needles cause pain when pricking our skin, but situational expectations, like information given by the clinician prior to an injection, may also influence...

Dementia Sufferers More Likely To Die At Home Than In Nursing Homes

Date: May-16-2012
A new study from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University has found that, at time of death, individuals with dementia are more likely to be living at home than in a nursing home. This contradicts the commonly held view that most individuals with dementia in the United States eventually move to nursing homes and die there. "Transitions in Care for Older Adults With and Without Dementia" appears online in advance of publication in the May 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Most individuals with dementia, even advanced dementia, die of a physical condition such...

Protecting Autoworkers From Back And Shoulder Injury By Tilting Cars On The Assembly Line

Date: May-16-2012
Letting autoworkers sit while they reach into a car's interior could help prevent shoulder and back strain - but another solution might be to tilt the entire car so that workers can stand up. That's the finding of two recent studies, which tested two ways to protect autoworkers from injury. Sitting on a cantilevered chair reduced the stress on the workers' backs and shoulders for three common installation tasks. But a different strategy - tilting a car sideways on a carriage so that workers could access the interior while standing - reduced the stress for nine different tasks. The chair study...

The Importance Of Human Breast Milk Ingredient In Gastrointestinal Health

Date: May-16-2012
A new University of Illinois study shows that human milk oligosaccharides, or HMO, produce short-chain fatty acids that feed a beneficial microbial population in the infant gut. Not only that, the bacterial composition adjusts as the baby grows older and its needs change. Even though HMO are a major component of human milk, present in higher concentration than protein, many of their actions in the infant are not well understood. Furthermore, they're virtually absent from infant formula. The scientists wanted to find out what formula-fed babies were missing. "We refer to HMO as the fiber of...

Truvada For HIV Prevention Plus Behavioral Strategies

Date: May-16-2012
A drug that has been shown to prevent HIV infection in a significant number of cases must be combined with behavioral approaches if the U.S. health care establishment is to succeed in reducing the spread of the virus, according to the American Psychological Association. "Exclusive reliance on a drug to prevent HIV or any sexually transmitted disease could actually result in a worse outcome if those at risk don't understand how their own behavior affects treatment," said Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, chair of APA's Committee on Psychology and AIDS. "We know that medical intervention depends on human...

Controlling Inflammation: Novel Drug Candidates Offer New Route

Date: May-16-2012
Pursuing a relatively untapped route for regulating the immune system, an international team of researchers has designed and conducted initial tests on molecules that have the potential to treat diseases involving inflammation, such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, stroke and sepsis. The team started by creating a three-dimensional map of a protein structure called the C3a receptor, which sits on the surface of human cells and plays a critical role in regulating a branch of the immune system called the complement system. They then used computational techniques to design short portions of...

Water With Meals May Encourage Wiser Choices

Date: May-16-2012
Water could change the way we eat. That's the conclusion of new research by T. Bettina Cornwell of the University of Oregon and Anna R. McAlister of Michigan State University. Their findings appear online this week ahead of regular publication by the journal Appetite. The paper featured separate studies. One involved a survey of 60 young U.S. adults (ages 19-23) about the role of food-and-drink pairings. The second involved experiments with 75 U.S. children (ages 3-5) to determine the role of drinks and vegetable consumption. The same preschoolers were tested on different days under differing...

Discovery Of New Gene Mutations Leads To Breakthrough In Understanding The Cause Of Bile Duct Cancer

Date: May-16-2012
A team of international scientists has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the cause of bile duct cancer, a deadly type of liver cancer. By identifying several new genes frequently mutated in bile duct cancers, researchers are paving the way for better understanding of how bile duct cancers develop. Their discovery is published online in Nature Genetics. Bile Duct Cancer, or Cholangiocarcinoma, is a fatal cancer with a poor prognosis. Accounting for 10 to 25 per cent of all primary liver cancers worldwide, bile duct cancer is a prevalent disease in Southeast Asia, particularly in...

CHORI Bar Improves Cognitive and Metabolic Benefits In Just 2 Weeks

Date: May-15-2012
National Medal of Science winner Bruce N. Ames, PhD, led a team of scientists at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute's (CHORI) Nutrition & Metabolism Center to develop the CHORI bar, a low-calorie fruit based vitamin and mineral nutrition bar that is designed to help restore optimal nutritional balance in those with poor eating habits and to assist them in adopting a healthier diet. The CHORI bar, which is high in fiber, improves biological indicators, such as higher HDL-c and glutathione levels and lowered homocysteine that are associated with various risks, including...

Revlimid (Lenalidomide) For Myeloma - Phase III Study Findings

Date: May-15-2012
An evaluation of lenalidomide's (Revlimid) long-term 'maintenance' efficacy for patients with multiple myeloma has demonstrated considerable improvements from the time to progression and overall survival for those suffering from this often-fatal form of hematologic cancer. The May 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports that Dr. Philip L. McCarthy, MD, Professor of Oncology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and his team observed that administering lenalidomide (Revlimid) after induction therapy and hematopoietic stem-cell transplant decreased patients' risk of disease...