Health News

Experts express concern over nanosilver found in everyday items that may be harmful to health

Date: Mar-04-2014
Endocrine disrupters are not the only worrying chemicals that ordinary consumers are exposed to in everyday life. Also nanoparticles of silver, found in e.g. dietary supplements, cosmetics and food packaging, now worry scientists. A new study from the University of Southern Denmark shows that nano-silver can penetrate our cells and cause damage.Silver has an antibacterial effect and therefore the food and cosmetic industry often coat their products with silver nanoparticles. Nano-silver can be found in e.g.

How enzyme functions correlate with prostate cancer progression could lead to new treatments

Date: Mar-04-2014
A University of Houston (UH) scientist and his team are working to develop the next generation of prostate cancer therapies, which are targeted at metabolism.With approximately one out of six American men being diagnosed and nearly a quarter of a million new cases expected this year, prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men in the U.S. Since prostate cancer relies on androgens for growth and survival, androgen ablation therapies are the standard of care for late-stage disease.

The expanding role of social workers in patient care

Date: Mar-04-2014
Social workers will see their roles in patient care expand as hospitals and other providers draw on a range of professionals to meet the demands of the Affordable Care Act, experts told the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work Forum "Health Care Reform: From Policy to Practice."Former Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charles D. Baker Jr., the keynote speaker, said social workers bring an expansive view of care options and can play crucial roles, particularly under a "team-based care" approach.

Technology offers novel insights into shark behavior

Date: Mar-04-2014
Instruments strapped onto and ingested by sharks are revealing novel insights into how one of the most feared and least understood ocean predators swims, eats and lives.For the first time, researchers at the University of Hawaii and the University of Tokyo outfitted sharks with sophisticated sensors and video recorders to measure and see where they are going, how they are getting there, and what they are doing once they reach their destinations.

Novel neural crest system developed in zebrafish

Date: Mar-04-2014
Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School, Drs. Beste Kinikoglu and Yawei Kong, led by Dr. Eric C. Liao, cultured and characterized for the first time multipotent neural crest cells isolated from zebrafish embryos. This important study is reported in the journal Experimental Biology and Medicine. Neural crest is a unique cell population induced at the lateral border of the neural plate during embryogenesis and vertebrate development depends on these multipotent migratory cells.

The dual role of brain glycogen

Date: Mar-04-2014
Two articles produced by Joan Guinovart's lab answer key questions regarding the activity of glycogen in neurons.An excess of glycogen causes neuronal death while a lack of this polysaccharide endangers these cells under oxygen shortage to the brain.

Researchers making treatment of rare blood disorder more affordable and effective

Date: Mar-04-2014
A University of Pennsylvania research team has defined a possible new way to fight a disease that is currently treatable only with the most expensive drug available for sale in the United States. In a study published this month in Blood, the Penn team describes the strategy, based on the oldest part of the human immune system - called "complement" - that could turn out to be less costly and more effective for the majority of patients with a rare blood disorder.

Infant sleep machines could damage babies' hearing

Date: Mar-04-2014
Some parents use "infant sleep machines" to mask environmental noises in busy households and help their babies get to sleep. But a new study finds that these machines can also contribute to hearing loss in babies.Any parent knows how difficult it is to get a baby to sleep and to stay asleep. Babies are easily disturbed by everyday noises, and a lack of sleep can have adverse physical consequences not only for the child, but for their parents.Sleep machines are devices designed to help babies sleep more soundly.

Bedroom TVs a cause of childhood obesity, study suggests

Date: Mar-04-2014
Recent figures show that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents over the past 3 decades. New research suggests that children who have televisions in their bedroom are more likely to gain weight, compared with those who do not have them in their bedroom.This is according to a study recently published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.The team, led by Dr. Diane Gilbert-Diamond of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, states that approximately 71% of individuals aged between 8 and 18 years have televisions in their bedrooms.

In a mouse model, novel treatment reduced myocardial infarction size

Date: Mar-04-2014
Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) have developed a novel treatment for myocardial infarction. In a study carried out at the UEF, virus vectors were used in a mouse model to deliver small RNA molecules into the heart, and this significantly reduced the size of myocardial infarction. In the novel treatment method, RNA molecules are targeted at the regulatory area of the vascular endothelial growth factor gene (VEGF-A). These molecules use epigenetic mechanisms to enhance the production of the growth factor in cells.