Health News

The 'entrance exam' that is key to a successful pregnancy

Date: Feb-06-2014
Researchers have discovered how an 'entrance exam' set by the womb determines if the implantation of an embryo is successful; potentially a milestone for advances in pregnancy treatments.The new study, led by Warwick Medical School and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, sheds light on how the lining of the womb analyses individual embryos and thus decides whether or not to support further development.Before implantation, human embryos are genetically very diverse.

Compliant Advertising and Promotion of Healthcare Products Conference, April 10-11, 2014, Alexandria, Virginia

Date: Feb-06-2014
Q1 Productions Hosting Inaugural Life Science Compliant Advertising and Promotion ConferencePromotional Review Objectives, Utilizing Social Media, and Incorporating Compliance Software Among Session TopicsThe first-ever Compliant Advertising and Promotion of Healthcare Products Conference will take place April 10-11, 2014 in Alexandria, Virginia, fulfilling a demand for an inclusive device and pharmaceutical focused meeting that covers both regulatory and promotional review committee topics.

Short stays in darkness can boost hearing, study shows

Date: Feb-06-2014
Music experts often say that blind performers like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder are good examples of how not being able to see can enhance one's ability to hear. Now, a new neuroscience study appears to support this - it found preventing sight for as little as a week may be enough to help the brain process sound more effectively.Writing in the journal Neuron, researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland describe how they explored the relationship between vision and hearing in the brains of mice.

Dispelling myths can help prevent cancer deaths

Date: Feb-06-2014
On World Cancer Day, February 4, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is helping to "Debunk the myths" about cancer in collaboration with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). "Many people still think a cancer diagnosis is a death sentence and that cancer is an unavoidable disease," said PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne. "In fact, today many cancers are curable if they are detected early, and a third of the most common cancers are preventable." Nearly 3 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the Americas, and 1.

New approach prevents thrombosis without increasing the risk of bleeding

Date: Feb-06-2014
In collaboration with an international team, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed an antibody, 3F7, which blocks a protein that is active in the coagulation system factor XII. Inhibition of factor XII makes it possible to prevent thrombosis in blood vessels without increasing the risk of bleeding in clinical settings. Thrombosis is caused by blood clotting; clots can block blood flow in one or more blood vessels and so cause thrombotic diseases such as stroke, myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolism.

New drug treatment reduces chronic pain following shingles

Date: Feb-06-2014
A new drug treatment has been found to be effective against chronic pain caused by nerve damage, also known as neuropathic pain, in patients who have had shingles.The researchers hope that the drug might also be effective against other causes of chronic neuropathic pain, such as diabetes, HIV, nerve injury and cancer chemotherapy, as it targets a mechanism that is not targeted by any existing therapies and has fewer side effects.Drugs available now have limited success at treating neuropathic pain and often have unpleasant or disabling side effects.

New sensor system improves indoor air quality while making building ventilation more energy efficient

Date: Feb-06-2014
A research consortium being coordinated at Saarland University is developing a novel sensor system for monitoring airborne contaminants that will provide high-quality indoor air without the energy losses typically associated with ventilation. Energy consumption levels can be halved as a result. Professor Andreas Schütze is an expert in gas sensor technology at Saarland University and is the coordinator of the European research project 'SENSIndoor'.

Faces we don't forget

Date: Feb-06-2014
Psychologists at the University of Jena (Germany) are showing in a new study, that we tend to remember unattractive faces more likely than attractive ones. In the science magazine Neuropsychologia the psychologists write that attractive faces without particularly remarkable features leave much less distinctive impressions on our memory.Great eyes, full lips and harmonious features: actress Angelina Jolie is in possession of all of these. That she is regarded as the epitome of female attractiveness doesn't come as a surprise for Dr.

What does 'whole grain' really mean?

Date: Feb-06-2014
The most comprehensive definition of whole grain termed to date has been published this week in the journal Food and Nutrition Research. The effort to create the definition, which is intended to assist in the production and labeling of foods rich in whole grains, was born of the HEALTHGRAIN EU project, the largest project ever focusing on cereals and health; and was led by a multi-disciplinary team from some of Europe's leading universities and food research institutes.

Ten genes show the way

Date: Feb-06-2014
Similar to the sugar glucose, its sulphurous analogue sulpho-glucose, is produced by all photosynthetically active organisms. The annual production of sulpho-glucose in nature is estimated at about ten billion tons. Researchers of the Department of Biology of the University of Konstanz, led by the microbiologists Dr. David Schleheck and Prof. Dr. Alasdair Cook, and supported by colleagues from the Department of Chemistry, have now revealed how sulpho-glucose is degraded.