Health News

Control of nanomotors inside living cells

Date: Feb-12-2014
For the first time, a team of chemists and engineers at Penn State University have placed tiny synthetic motors inside live human cells, propelled them with ultrasonic waves and steered them magnetically. It's not exactly "Fantastic Voyage," but it's close. The nanomotors, which are rocket-shaped metal particles, move around inside the cells, spinning and battering against the cell membrane.

Hope for development of drugs to stall the growth of K-Ras cancers, previously deemed impossible to treat

Date: Feb-12-2014
NYU Langone Medical Center researchers have found a biological weakness in the workings of the most commonly mutated gene involved in human cancers, known as mutant K-Ras, which they say can be exploited by drug chemotherapies to thwart tumor growth.Mutant K-Ras has long been suspected of being the driving force behind more than a third of all cancers, including colon, lung, and a majority of pancreatic cancers. Indeed, Ras cancers, which are unusually aggressive, are thought of as "undruggable" because every previous attempt to stall their growth has failed.

How Galileo's visual illusion works in the mind's eye

Date: Feb-12-2014
Scientists have studied a visual illusion first discovered by Galileo Galilei, and found that it occurs because of the surprising way our eyes see lightness and darkness in the world. Their results advance our understanding of how our brains are wired for seeing white versus black objects. The work was done by Jens Kremkow and collaborators in the laboratories of Jose Manuel Alonso and Qasim Zaidi at the State University of New York College of Optometry. It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The surprising benefits of matchmaking this Valentine's Day

Date: Feb-12-2014
With Valentine's Day around the corner, you may be thinking of pairing up two friends for a date. If you follow your instinct to play Cupid, it'll pay off in happiness - not necessarily for the new couple, but definitely for you.According to new research, matchmaking, a time-honored tradition, brings intrinsic happiness to the matchmaker. To maximize the psychological benefits of matchmaking, you should take care to introduce two people who not only seem compatible but who would be unlikely to meet otherwise, researchers say.

Annual screening does not reduce risk of death from breast cancer

Date: Feb-12-2014
According to a study conducted by researchers in Canada and published in the BMJ, annual screening for breast cancer does not reduce likelihood of dying from cancer any more than physical examination or usual care do in women aged 40-59.Cancers of the breast detected in screening (or "mammography") are, on average, smaller than breast cancers that can be detected through physical examination. And experts know that women with small breast cancers have a better chance of long-term survival than women with large breast cancers.

More study needed into the impact of repetitive heading in soccer

Date: Feb-12-2014
Soccer is the most-popular and fastest-growing sport in the world and, like many contact sports, players are at risk of suffering concussions from collisions on the field.But researchers warned in a paper just published that not enough attention has been given to the unique aspect of soccer - the purposeful use of the head to control the ball - and the long-term consequences of repetitive heading.The literature review by Dr. Tom Schweizer, director of the Neuroscience Research Program of St. Michael's Hospital, was published in the journal Brain Injury.

Genome analysis reveals the origins of genetic adaptations for high altitude in Tibetans

Date: Feb-12-2014
Genetic adaptations for life at high elevations found in residents of the Tibetan plateau likely originated around 30,000 years ago in peoples related to contemporary Sherpa. These genes were passed on to more recent migrants from lower elevations via population mixing, and then amplified by natural selection in the modern Tibetan gene pool, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University, published in Nature Communications.

Study examines legislative challenges to school immunization mandates

Date: Feb-11-2014
From 2009-2012, 36 bills introduced in 18 states sought to modify school immunization mandates, with the majority seeking to expand exemptions although none of the bills passed, according to a study in JAMA. "School immunization mandates, implemented through state-level legislation, have played an important role in maintaining high immunization coverage in the United States," according to background information in the article. Immunization mandates permit exemptions that vary from state to state in terms of type of exemption (e.g., religious, personal belief, medical).

Hospital readmission rate varies following care at rehabilitation facilities providing services to Medicare fee-for-service patients

Date: Feb-11-2014
Among rehabilitation facilities providing services to Medicare fee-for-service patients, 30-day hospital readmission rates vary, from about 6 percent for patients with lower extremity joint replacement to nearly 20 percent for patients with debility (weakness or feebleness), according to a study in JAMA. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently identified 30-day hospital readmission as a national quality indicator for inpatient rehabilitation facilities; reporting will be required in 2014 by the CMS, according to background information in the article. Kenneth J.

Preterm infants more likely to have elevated insulin levels in early childhood

Date: Feb-11-2014
Researchers have found that preterm infants are more likely to have elevated insulin levels at birth and in early childhood compared to full-term infants, findings that provide additional evidence that preterm birth may be a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, according to a study in JAMA. In the United States, 1 in 9 live births are preterm, and l in 5 live births among African Americans are preterm.