Health News

New routines could help stroke patients battle fatigue

Date: Mar-17-2014
People who have suffered a stroke often experience severe fatigue. But doctors find it hard to help these patients as their experiences of fatigue may not necessarily be caused by physiological problems. New research from University of Copenhagen suggests that dreams of returning to everyday life as it was before the stroke may contribute to the patients' experiences of fatigue and that it may be a help to establish new routines instead of trying to regain old ones.

A child's weight problem goes unnoticed by parents

Date: Mar-17-2014
One out of two parents of children who are overweight feel that their child's weight is normal. Four out of ten parents of children who are overweight or obese are even worried that their child will get too thin. These are the findings of a European study of parents of more than 16,000 children, including 1,800 children from Sweden. Susann Regber has worked for many years with children with obesity as a pediatric nurse. In her dissertation at Sahlgrenska Academy, she studied the parents' role in the health-promoting and disease-prevention work against child obesity in young children.

Dramatic increase reported in opioid prescriptions during emergency department visits over the last decade

Date: Mar-17-2014
George Washington University (GW) researchers report dramatic increases in prescriptions of opioid analgesics, such as Percocet, Vicodin, oxycodone and Dilaudid, during U.S. emergency department visits from 2001 to 2010. These findings were not explained by higher visit rates for painful conditions, which only increased modestly during the time period. This report was published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine."This trend is especially concerning given dramatic increases in opioid-related overdoses and fatalities in recent years," said Maryann Mazer-Amirshahi, M.D.

E. coli coaxed to resist radiation damage In the lab

Date: Mar-17-2014
Capitalizing on the ability of an organism to evolve in response to punishment from a hostile environment, scientists have coaxed the model bacterium Escherichia coli to dramatically resist ionizing radiation and, in the process, reveal the genetic mechanisms that make the feat possible.The study, published in the online journal eLife, provides evidence that just a handful of genetic mutations give E. coli the capacity to withstand doses of radiation that would otherwise doom the microbe.

Researchers find high acceptability of three-colored raspberry jelly

Date: Mar-17-2014
Raspberries are among the most popular berries in the world and are high in antioxidants that offer significant health benefits to consumers. The red raspberry is most commonly used in processed products like juices, jams, jellies and preserves because of its short shelf life. A new study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), found that the production of a mixed raspberry jelly with black and yellow raspberries could be a good alternative to just one-colored jelly.

Researchers reveal mathematical and biochemical 'design features' for cell decoding of pulses

Date: Mar-17-2014
Every cell in the body has to sense and respond to chemicals such as hormones and neurotransmitters. They do so by relaying information from receptors to intracellular biochemical pathways that control cell behaviour, but relatively little is known about how cells decode the information in dynamic stimuli.A team of researchers have found that differences in response kinetics working down the intracellular signalling pathway dictate differential sensitivity to different features of pulsatile hormone inputs.

Decline seen in prostate specific antigen screening after 2012 USPSTF recommendations

Date: Mar-17-2014
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center have assessed the impact of the 2012 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations against routine prostate specific antigen (PSA) cancer screenings, which cited evidence that the risks of screening outweigh the benefits. Results of the current study indicate that the USPSTF recommendations have resulted in a decrease in the number of PSA screenings ordered by doctors, with the greatest decline seen among urologists.

Coping with hidden shame

Date: Mar-17-2014
Shame on you. These three simple words can temporarily - or, when used too often, permanently - destroy an individual's sense of value and self-worth."In modernity, shame is the most obstructed and hidden emotion, and therefore the most destructive," said Thomas Scheff, professor emeritus of sociology at UC Santa Barbara. "Emotions are like breathing - they cause trouble only when obstructed."When hidden, he continued, shame causes serious struggles not only for individuals but also for groups.

How much discretion should parents have in determining what sort of child they have?

Date: Mar-17-2014
From genetic and genomic testing to new techniques in human assisted reproduction, various technologies are providing parents with more of a say about the children they have and "stirring the pot of 'designer baby' concerns," writes Thomas H. Murray, President Emeritus of The Hastings Center, in a commentary in Science.Murray calls for a national conversation about how much discretion would-be parents should have. "Preventing a lethal disease is one thing; choosing the traits we desire is quite another," he writes.

Cardioprotection provided by post-heart attack biological events

Date: Mar-17-2014
Heart attack and stroke are among the most serious threats to health. But novel research at UT Southwestern Medical Center has linked two major biological processes that occur at the onset of these traumatic events and, ultimately, can lead to protection for the heart.On one end of the cascade is the so-called Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), and at the other end are numerous proteins with modified glucose molecules attached to them. For years, researchers have made countless observations relating to these opposite ends of the spectrum.