Health News

Mental health NGOs from across the globe unite in new report

Date: Mar-07-2014
A new report published on Tuesday 4 March 2014 by Mind and the McPin Foundation brings together the experiences of mental health charities and user groups from across the world for the first time. 'Driving Change' is based on the experiences of 19 mental health non government organisations (MHNGOs) from as far afield as Uganda to Australia. It highlights the incredible job that MHNGOs do in supporting people with mental health problems, sometimes in countries where shocking human rights violations such as chaining or stoning someone with a mental health problem are still commonplace.

High consumption of fish oil may benefit cardiovascular health, Pitt Public Health finds

Date: Mar-07-2014
Eating fish in amounts comparable to those of people living in Japan seems to impart a protective factor that wards off heart disease, according to an international study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.Middle-aged Japanese men living in Japan had lower incidence of coronary artery calcification, a predictor of heart disease, than middle-aged white men living in the United States, likely due to the significantly higher consumption of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish.

Atypical development in the siblings of children with autism is detectable at 12 months

Date: Mar-07-2014
Atypical development can be detected as early as 12 months of age among the siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder, a study published by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute and UCLA has found. Published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the study found that close to half of the younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) develop in an atypical fashion, with 17 percent developing ASD and another 28 percent showing delays in other areas of development or behavior.

Sudden cardiac death: genetic disease ARVC more common than hitherto assumed

Date: Mar-07-2014
Scientists have thrown light on the genetic mutation that causes a particularly severe genetic disease (ARVC5) on the Canadian island Newfoundland in 2008. At first, they assumed that it was a genetic anomaly limited to this Canadian province. In 2010, Milting's team - and at the same time a team of researchers from Copenhagen - proved that the "Newfoundland mutation" did also occur in Europe. Today, the scientists know about affected families in Germany, Denmark, the USA and Canada. They all share common ancestors, as was demonstrated through genetic analysis.

Working pressures increase children attending nursery with respiratory tract infections

Date: Mar-07-2014
Working parents are often caught between the needs of their sick child and their job, which can lead to continued day care use even when their child is ill. New research has found children going to nursery when they are unwell with respiratory tract infections (RTIs) may be an important factor in the spread of these illnesses in the community.The findings, presented yesterday [Thursday 6 March] at the South West Society for Academic Primary Care (SW SPAC) meeting, explored why parents send their children to nursery when they are unwell.

Researchers gain new insights into ancient Pacific settlers' diet

Date: Mar-07-2014
Researchers from New Zealand's University of Otago studying 3000-year-old skeletons from the oldest known cemetery in the Pacific Islands are casting new light on the diet and lives of the enigmatic Lapita people, the likely ancestors of Polynesians.

3-D changes in DNA may lead to a genetic form of Lou Gehrig's disease

Date: Mar-07-2014
New findings reveal how a mutation, a change in the genetic code that causes neurodegeneration, alters the shape of DNA, making cells more vulnerable to stress and more likely to die.The particular mutation, in the C9orf72 gene, is the most common cause for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), and frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), the second most common type of dementia in people under 65.This research by Jiou Wang, Ph.D.

Novel cancer vaccine holds promise against ovarian cancer, mesothelioma

Date: Mar-07-2014
A novel approach to cancer immunotherapy - strategies designed to induce the immune system to attack cancer cells - may provide a new and cost-effective weapon against some of the most deadly tumors, including ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. Investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center report in the Journal of Hematology & Oncology that a protein engineered to combine a molecule targeting a tumor-cell-surface antigen with another protein that stimulates several immune functions prolonged survival in animal models of both tumors.

UCSB study explores cocaine and the pleasure principle

Date: Mar-07-2014
On the other side of the cocaine high is the cocaine crash, and understanding how one follows the other can provide insight into the physiological effects of drug abuse. For decades, brain research has focused on the pleasurable effects of cocaine largely by studying the dopamine pathway. But this approach has left many questions unanswered.So the Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory (BPL) at UC Santa Barbara decided to take a different approach by examining the motivational systems that induce an animal to seek cocaine in the first place.

Blocking immune system protein in mice prevents fetal brain injury, but not preterm birth

Date: Mar-07-2014
An inflammatory protein that triggers a pregnant mouse's immune response to an infection or other disease appears to cause brain injury in her fetus, but not the premature birth that was long believed to be linked with such neurologic damage in both rodents and humans, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests.