Health News

A sharper view into the brain

Date: Mar-20-2014
Deep in the human brain, two small but very important regions lie close together: the amygdala, which plays an important role in the generation and perception of emotions, and the hippocampus, which is a central switchboard for memories. These two small neighboring regions have until now been hard to tell apart in neuroimaging investigations of the living human because of their small dimensions, the amygdala being only the size of an almond.

Will health care reform require new population health management strategies?

Date: Mar-20-2014
In response to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, employers may no long offer traditional employee health care benefits as they protect themselves from rising health care costs and seek to minimize their risk. How the shifting landscape of health care coverage will impact population health management providers, employers, and employees is the focus of a commentary in Population Health Management.

Program taught in American Sign Language helps deaf achieve healthier weight

Date: Mar-20-2014
Deaf adults successfully lost weight in a program using American Sign Language. The study is the first randomized trial of a weight-reduction and lifestyle-change program in deaf ASL users.A group of deaf adults using American Sign Language in a healthy lifestyle program successfully lost weight, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology & Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity & Metabolism Scientific Sessions 2014.

Children with glomerular kidney disease more likely to have hypertension as adults

Date: Mar-20-2014
Men who as children had glomerular disease, a disorder of the portion of the kidney that filters blood and one that usually resolves with time, were more likely than men without childhood glomerular disease to have high blood pressure as an adult, according to a study in the March 19 issue of JAMA.Glomerular disease was defined for this study as glomerulonephritis or nephrotic syndrome (both are kidney disorders). Most children who develop glomerular disease have a favorable prognosis with complete resolution of all signs and symptoms.

Crop intensification can be a long-term solution to perennial food shortages in Africa

Date: Mar-20-2014
Farmers in Africa can increase their food production if they avoid over dependence on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and practice agricultural intensification - growing more food on the same amount of land - using natural and resource-conserving approaches such as agroforestry.According to scientists at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), crop production in Africa is seriously hampered by the degradation of soil fertility, water and biodiversity resources. Currently, yields for important cereals such as maize have stagnated at 1 tone per hectare.

Children exposed to methamphetamine before birth have increased cognitive problems

Date: Mar-20-2014
In the only long-term, National Institutes of Health-funded study of prenatal methamphetamine exposure and child outcome, researchers found youngsters exposed to the potent illegal drug before birth had increased cognitive problems at age 7.5 years, highlighting the need for early intervention to improve academic outcomes and reduce the potential for negative behaviors, according to the study published online by The Journal of Pediatrics.The researchers studied 151 children exposed to methamphetamine before birth and 147 who were not exposed to the drug.

Variations in eye structure and function may reveal features of early-stage Alzheimer's disease

Date: Mar-20-2014
Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute have discovered eye abnormalities that may help reveal features of early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Using a novel laboratory rat model of Alzheimer's disease and high-resolution imaging techniques, researchers correlated variations of the eye structure, to identify initial indicators of the disease.Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia, which is characterized by loss of memory and a progressive decline in cognitive function.

Cultural hitchhiking: How social behavior can affect genetic makeup in dolphins

Date: Mar-20-2014
A UNSW-led team of researchers studying bottlenose dolphins that use sponges as tools has shown that social behaviour can shape the genetic makeup of an animal population in the wild.Some of the dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia put conical marine sponges on their rostrums (beaks) when they forage on the sea floor - a non-genetic skill that calves apparently learn from their mother.Lead author, Dr Anna Kopps, says sponging dolphins end up with some genetic similarities because the calves also inherit DNA from their mothers.

Penn Medicine researchers show how lost sleep leads to lost neurons

Date: Mar-20-2014
Most people appreciate that not getting enough sleep impairs cognitive performance. For the chronically sleep-deprived such as shift workers, students, or truckers, a common strategy is simply to catch up on missed slumber on the weekends. According to common wisdom, catch up sleep repays one's "sleep debt," with no lasting effects. But a new Penn Medicine study shows disturbing evidence that chronic sleep loss may be more serious than previously thought and may even lead to irreversible physical damage to and loss of brain cells.

Form of epilepsy in sea lions similar to that in humans, Stanford researchers find

Date: Mar-20-2014
California sea lions exposed to a toxin in algae develop a form of epilepsy that is similar to one in humans, according to a new study led by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers.Every year, hundreds of sea lions wash up along the California coast, suffering seizures caused by exposure to domoic acid, a neurotoxin that can produce memory loss, tremors, convulsions and death.