Health News

Curbing feline obesity by offering smaller more frequent meals

Date: Feb-25-2014
Just as with people, feline obesity is most often linked to excessive food intake or not enough physical activity. Attempts to cut back on calories alone often result in failed weight loss or weight regain in both people and their pets.So how do you encourage your cat to get more exercise?Researchers from the University of Illinois interested in finding a method to maintain healthy body weight in cats, looked at a previously suggested claim that increased meal frequency could help to increase overall physical activity.

The use of maternal oxygen during labor: clinical opinion published

Date: Feb-25-2014
When a fetal heartbeat pattern becomes irregular during labor, many practitioners give oxygen to the mother. But questions remain whether this oxygen supplementation benefits the fetus or may actually be potentially harmful.

Rapid increase in chronic illnesses plus high rates of infectious disease faced by developing countries

Date: Feb-25-2014
Chronic illness, already a major and expensive problem in developed countries, is rapidly increasing in developing countries, adding to the longstanding burden caused by high rates of infectious diseases. However, poor countries will not be able to afford the costly medical technologies that wealthy countries use to treat chronic conditions, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, pulmonary disease, and diabetes, writes Daniel Callahan, cofounder of The Hastings Center.

Mosquitoes resistant to DDT are also resistant to mosquito net insecticide

Date: Feb-25-2014
A single genetic mutation causes resistance to DDT and pyrethroids (an insecticide class used in mosquito nets), according to new research in the journal Genome Biology. As resistance to pyrethroids and DDT is already spreading in mosquito populations, scientists say that this knowledge could help improve malaria control strategies. The scientists used a wide range of methods to narrow down how the resistance works, finding a single mutation in the GSTe2 gene, which makes insects break down DDT so it's no longer toxic.

Centers used solely for recovering organs from deceased donors may improve efficiency and costs of transplantation

Date: Feb-25-2014
Free-standing organ recovery centers could markedly improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with deceased organ donation, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Transplantation. The study's findings have major implications for cost containment and national policies related to organ transplantation.Transplant surgeons have historically traveled to donor hospitals, where they perform complex, time-sensitive procedures with unfamiliar hospital staff. This often involves air travel and significant delays. In 2001, Mid-America Transplant Services in St.

Cardiac function improved in mice with genetic heart defect

Date: Feb-25-2014
Congenital heart disease is the most common form of birth defect, affecting one out of every 125 babies, according to the National Institutes of Health. Researchers from the University of Missouri recently found success using a drug to treat laboratory mice with one form of congenital heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - a weakening of the heart caused by abnormally thick muscle. By suppressing a faulty protein, the researchers reduced the thickness of the mice's heart muscles and improved their cardiac functioning.

New study supports the possibility of localized rejuvenation of aging muscles

Date: Feb-25-2014
A study co-published in Nature Medicine by University of Toronto researcher Penney Gilbert has determined a stem cell based method for restoring strength to damaged skeletal muscles of the elderly.Skeletal muscles are some of the most important muscles in the body, supporting functions such as sitting, standing, blinking and swallowing. In aging individuals, the function of these muscles significantly decreases.

Chemotherapy enhanced by preventing cell repair in tumour cells

Date: Feb-25-2014
Chemotherapies are cancer treatments that work by inducing lesions in the DNA of tumour cells in order to inhibit their proliferation. However, the body naturally tries to repair these lesions, and thus reduces the efficacy of chemotherapy. Blocking the mechanisms for DNA repair would help to potentiate chemotherapy by reducing the resistance of cells to treatment.

Researchers identify multilevel approach to coping with social stigmas

Date: Feb-25-2014
Socially stigmatized groups have poorer health than non-stigmatized groups, but a team of believes that more emphasis on two-way and multidisciplinary interventions will have a greater and more successful impact on relieving many health issues."We took an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how to reduce health disparities due to the effects of social stigma, including stigmas based on race, sexual orientation and chronic illness," said Jonathan Cook, assistant professor of psychology, Penn State.

Connection between protein misfolding, sleep loss, and age strengthened by fruit fly study

Date: Feb-25-2014
Pulling an "all-nighter" before a big test is practically a rite of passage in college. Usually, it's no problem: You stay up all night, take the test, and then crash, rapidly catching up on lost sleep. But as we age, sleep patterns change, and our ability to recoup lost sleep diminishes.Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, have been studying the molecular mechanisms underpinning sleep.