Health News

Is it time to stub out misguided e-cigarette regulation?

Date: Feb-06-2014
Smokers are increasingly turning to electronic cigarettes as a means to reduce the health impacts of their addiction. But legislators around the world are far from unified in their approaches to regulating e-cigarettes. Misguided legislation based on concerns that are not backed by sound data may have unintended consequences for public health, experts say. With smoking behind almost six million premature deaths each year, a lot is at stake in the current round of regulation changes.

Vaccine barriers: 30,000 adults die of preventable diseases each year

Date: Feb-06-2014
Researchers from the University of Colorado in Denver have conducted a study examining adult vaccination, revealing a public health concern over the "stubbornly low" vaccination rates in adults. They note that 30,000 people in the US die of vaccine-preventable diseases each year, the majority of whom are adults.Published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the study was led by Dr. Laura Hurley, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine.

Psychologists explain how attractiveness prevents the recognition of faces

Date: Feb-06-2014
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. Holger Wiese of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany). "Her features combine many factors which contribute to the attractiveness of a face," the psychologist says. In his research, he mostly deals with the perception of faces. "On the one hand we find very symmetrical and rather average faces appealing," he explains.

Psychologists explain how attractiveness prevents the recognition of faces

Date: Feb-06-2014
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. Holger Wiese of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany). "Her features combine many factors which contribute to the attractiveness of a face," the psychologist says. In his research, he mostly deals with the perception of faces. "On the one hand we find very symmetrical and rather average faces appealing," he explains.

A metabolic molecule inhibits blood vessel growth in patients with diabetes, leading to impaired wound healing

Date: Feb-06-2014
Patients with diabetes are at increased risk of microvascular complications, which develop when the body's small blood vessels become diseased. One of the most common problems results when wounds fail to heal properly, which can lead to ulcers, chronic infections, and in the most serious cases, limb amputations.

A metabolic molecule inhibits blood vessel growth in patients with diabetes, leading to impaired wound healing

Date: Feb-06-2014
Patients with diabetes are at increased risk of microvascular complications, which develop when the body's small blood vessels become diseased. One of the most common problems results when wounds fail to heal properly, which can lead to ulcers, chronic infections, and in the most serious cases, limb amputations.

Lower risk of heart disease among young US workers who adhere to a Mediterranean diet

Date: Feb-06-2014
Among a large group of Midwestern firefighters, greater adherence to Mediterranean-style diet was associated with lower risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA). The study is the first to assess the effects of Mediterranean-style diet among a group of young, working U.S. adults.The study appears online in PLOS ONE.

A variety of auto-inflammatory diseases could be impacted by newly discovered signaling pathway

Date: Feb-06-2014
Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center have discovered a new signaling pathway in sterile inflammation that could impact the treatment of diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Their findings offer insight into the role that activation of interferon-regulatory factor 1 (IRF1), a protein that functions as a transcriptional activator of a variety of target genes, plays in the production of chemokines and the recruitment of mononuclear cells to sites of sterile inflammation.

Different approaches to restoring mental functioning showcased in NeuroRehabilitation

Date: Feb-06-2014
There is a growing need for Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy (CRT) due to the huge influx of soldiers returning from war zones with brain injuries, athletes with sports-related head injuries, and the growing population with age-related cognitive decline. This special collection of articles in NeuroRehabilitation illustrates the art and science of restoring mental functioning in those who have suffered a debilitating injury or who may otherwise have problems with attention, comprehension, learning, remembering, problem solving, reasoning, and processing.

Most parents fail to recognize if their child is overweight

Date: Feb-06-2014
In the idyllic town of Lake Wobegon, all the children are above average.And, judging by a new study by University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers, none are obese.Even though childhood obesity rates in the U.S. have tripled during the past 30 years, more than half of parents do not recognize that their child is overweight, according to a meta-analysis study conducted by UNL graduate student Alyssa Lundahl and her adviser, Timothy Nelson, an assistant professor of psychology.