Health News

Real-time insight into our brain

Date: Mar-06-2014
Combining two imagine technologies, such as MRI for structure and MEG for activity, could provide a new understanding of our how our brain works.New advances related to new uses of imaging technologies could help scientists uncover the brain's mysteries. Now, European scientists have successfully combined magnetic resonance imagining, or MRI, scanning with an emerging imaging technology called magnetoencephalography, or MEG. There have thus bundled two ways of imaging the brain in one helmet-like device.

Researchers discourage rheumatology patients from using cannabis

Date: Mar-06-2014
Patients with rheumatic conditions are in need of symptom relief and some are turning to herbal cannabis as a treatment option. However, the effectiveness and safety of medical marijuana to treat symptoms of rheumatic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or fibromyalgia is not supported by medical evidence.

UK survey shows video consultations welcomed by patients

Date: Mar-06-2014
Video consultations are set to prove increasingly popular with patients and Health Care Professionals according to a survey carried out by the UKs leading Telemedicine provider, Immedicare. The research follows on the back of the Government's announcement late last year to provide £50 million for GPs to help increase access to out of hours GP services by the use of secure video consultations. The poll amongst 500 GPs, and 1,000 patients across the UK showed that over 75% of GPs and 61% of patients would be comfortable having a consultation using secure video technology.

Primates protected from deadly Marburg virus

Date: Mar-06-2014
For the first time, scientists have demonstrated the effectiveness of a small-molecule drug in protecting nonhuman primates from the lethal Marburg virus. Their work, published online in the journal Nature, is the result of a continuing collaboration between Army scientists and industry partners that also shows promise for treating a broad range of other viral diseases.According to senior author Sina Bavari, the drug, known as BCX4430, protected cynomolgous macaques from Marburg virus infection when administered by injection as long as 48 hours post-infection. Bavari and his team at the U.

Brain structure in young people affected by cigarette smoking

Date: Mar-06-2014
The young, it turns out, smoke more than any other age group in America. Unfortunately, the period of life ranging from late adolescence to early adulthood is also a time when the brain is still developing.Now, a small study from UCLA suggests a disturbing effect: Young adult smokers may experience changes in the structures of their brains due to cigarette smoking, dependence and craving. Even worse, these changes can occur in those who have been smoking for a relatively short time.

Alzheimer's death toll larger than reported, study says

Date: Mar-06-2014
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the US, trailing the top two killers, heart disease and cancer. But a new study suggests Alzheimer's actually contributes to nearly as many deaths as the top two, pointing to incorrect identification of the disease as the real reason for death.The researchers, led by Bryan D. James of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, published the results of their study in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Nano systems tested to determine which works best in killing cancer cells

Date: Mar-06-2014
New UC research to be presented this week tested four iron-oxide nanoparticle systems to see which, when heated, would likely work best as a tool for targeting cancer cells. In current research related to improving cancer treatments, one promising area of research is the effort to find ways to selectively pinpoint and target cancer cells while minimizing effects on healthy cells.

Local hyperthermia of tumors looks promising

Date: Mar-06-2014
A combination of iron-oxide nanoparticles and an alternating magnetic field, which together generate heat, have activated an immune system response to tumors in mice according to an accepted manuscript by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Center researchers in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine released online.

Drug candidate suggested by yeast model of Alzheimer's disease

Date: Mar-06-2014
Using a yeast model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), Whitehead Institute researchers have identified a drug that reduces levels of the toxic protein fragment amyloid-β (Aβ) and prevents at least some of the cellular damage caused when Aβ accumulates in the brains of AD patients."We can use this yeast model to find small molecules that will address the underlying cellular pathologies of Alzheimer's, an age-related disease whose burden will become even more significant as our population grows older," says Kent Matlack, a former staff scientist in Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist's lab.

Muscle-controlling neurons know when they mess up

Date: Mar-06-2014
Whether it is playing a piano sonata or acing a tennis serve, the brain needs to orchestrate precise, coordinated control over the body's many muscles. Moreover, there needs to be some kind of feedback from the senses should any of those movements go wrong. Neurons that coordinate those movements, known as Purkinje cells, and ones that provide feedback when there is an error or unexpected sensation, known as climbing fibers, work in close concert to fine-tune motor control.