Health News

Does meditation have benefits for mind and body?

Date: Feb-26-2014
It is hard to believe some still question whether meditation can have a positive effect on mind and body. A very selective research review recently raised the question, leading to headlines such as the one in The Wall Street Journal that said the benefits are limited. I have been researching effects of meditation on health for 30 years and have found it has compelling benefits.

Treatment priorities set in new national research effort

Date: Feb-26-2014
Treatment regimens often evolve without strong scientific evidence of their benefits and drawbacks, particularly in comparison to other drugs or approaches.Now Duke Medicine is participating in a large national initiative aiming to fill in that missing information.In separate articles published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, teams led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute detailed the research priorities necessary to address gaps in knowledge about two conditions - bipolar disorder among adolescents and early breast tumors in women.

New scanning technique makes the invisible visible

Date: Feb-26-2014
As the first in the world, researchers from Aarhus have shown that a new scanning technique can see changes in metabolism that have until now remained invisible, while they are taking place.The 2003 development of the so-called hyperpolarization technique by a Danish research was a groundbreaking moment that made it possible to see all the body's cells with the help of a new contrast agent for MRI scans.

Some cells randomly express one parent's version of a gene over the other

Date: Feb-26-2014
Team finds that some cells activate only one of their two gene copies during development, altering protein yields and raising new questionsWe are a product of our parents. Maybe you have your mother's large, dark eyes, and you inherited your father's infectious smile. Both parents contribute one copy, or allele, of each gene to their offspring, so that we have two copies of every gene for a given trait - one from mom, the other from dad. In general, both copies of a gene are switched on or off as an embryo develops into an adult.

Stand-alone organ donor facility is more efficient than a hospital

Date: Feb-25-2014
Transplant surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, claim that performing organ retrievals at a stand-alone facility, rather than a hospital, is more efficient and lowers costs considerably.Currently, crowded operating room schedules cause delays that make retrieving organs from brain-dead donors in hospitals logistically challenging and time consuming.Transplant teams travel to donors' hospitals to perform surgery - usually at night, when operating rooms are more likely to be free.

Young women with BRCA1 mutation 'should remove ovaries earlier'

Date: Feb-25-2014
It is widely known that having a BRCA1 gene mutation increases risk of female breast and ovarian cancers. And now, findings from a large international study suggest that women with these mutations should have preventive surgery to remove the ovaries by the age of 35, rather than waiting until a later age when the risk of ovarian cancer greatly increases.According to the National Cancer Institute, about 1.4% of women in the general population will develop ovarian cancer at some point in their lives. However, for women who inherit a BRCA1 mutation, 39% will develop ovarian cancer.

Eating grilled meat 'increases risk of Alzheimer's and diabetes'

Date: Feb-25-2014
There is no denying that Americans are big fans of barbecues. In fact, figures state that 62% of us use our grills all year round. But new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that consuming heat-processed animal products, such as grilled or broiled meats, may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY, say that heat-processed meats contain high levels of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs).

In multiple sclerosis, antibodies detected years before symptoms

Date: Feb-25-2014
Results of a small study suggest it may be possible, by detecting the presence of a blood biomarker, to predict whether a person is going to develop multiple sclerosis long before symptoms of the disease emerge.Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease where the body's own immune system gradually disrupts the blood brain barrier and attacks the myelin sheath that insulates the nerves, stopping the electrical signals they convey from leaking out.

Cheap urine test for cancer steps closer

Date: Feb-25-2014
Non-infectious illnesses like cancer and cardiovascular diseases are rising globally, but they are hard to diagnose because of lack of biomarkers, and in countries with poor infrastructure, expensive diagnosis using mammograms and colonoscopy is not available to many. Now, a team has developed a test that uses injected nanoparticles that find diseased tissue and produce a biomarker in urine that can be detected within minutes using paper strips rather like a home pregnancy test.

Salt imbalance occurs in nearly a third of hospitalised patients

Date: Feb-25-2014
Simple guidelines for diagnosing and treating a salt imbalance occurring in up to 30% of hospitalised patients are published in the European Journal of Endocrinology. The guidelines recommend that any hospital-based clinician must be able to correctly diagnose, classify and treat hyponatraemia, which is associated with morbidity, mortality and length of hospital stay in a wide range of conditions.