Health News

Motivational health coaching empowers diabetic patients, improves dental health

Date: Jan-28-2014
By means of so-called health coaching, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have helped a large group of diabetics to markedly improve their oral health. The patients assume responsibility for their own bodies and boost their self-efficacy through motivational health coaching, taking a different approach to conventional health campaigns and one-way communication. The research findings have just been published in Clinical Oral Investigations.Brochures with information about dental health or healthy living are fine.

Strategic placement of trees and plants near busy roadways may enhance air quality and positively impact public health

Date: Jan-28-2014
In recent years, the health of people living, working, or going to school near roads with high traffic volume has been a rising national concern. Studies conducted in the United States and throughout the world have shown that air pollution levels are especially elevated near high-volume roadways. A multidisciplinary group of researchers, planners and policymakers recently gathered in Sacramento, Calif. to discuss roadside vegetation as a viable option for mitigating these adverse health impacts from air pollution.

Conceptions about the determinants of skull development and form changed by new study

Date: Jan-28-2014
A new study by a team of researchers led by Matthew Ravosa, professor of biological sciences and concurrent professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, offers surprising insights into dietary influences on the growing skull.Ravosa notes that the robust jaws and large, thick-enameled molars of the first human ancestors from Africa, known as australopiths, have long been interpreted as adaptations for hard object feeding, especially in the genus Paranthropous robustus, and to a lesser extent, Australopithecus.

Sensory integration model improves understanding of unconscious priming

Date: Jan-28-2014
Priming, an unconscious phenomenon that causes the context of information to change the way we think or behave, has frustrated scientists as they have unsuccessfully attempted to understand how it works. For example, researchers have found that hearing aging-related words causes people to walk more slowly, or holding a hot cup of coffee while talking to another person heightens feelings of interpersonal warmth. But, recent failures to replicate demonstrations of unconscious priming have resulted in a heated debate within the field of psychology.

What is the average penis size?

Date: Jan-28-2014
Many scientific research papers have tried to answer the question to which many men want an answer - what is the average penis size?The published findings are often introduced with background information on men's widespread anxiety about whether or not their penis is big enough, and if sexual partners are going to be satisfied. So what is the truth?The truth about male genital length and girth might have become obscured by the free and widespread availability of internet pornography.

Long-term survival possible for pediatric heart transplant patients

Date: Jan-28-2014
Infants and children who undergo heart transplantation are experiencing good outcomes after surgery and may expect to live beyond 15 years post-surgery with reasonable cardiac function and quality of life, according to a study released at the 50th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.Hannah Copeland, MD and colleagues from Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, CA, reviewed medical charts of 337 pediatric heart transplant patients who underwent transplantation at their institution since 1985.

A byproduct of the pesticide DDT increases risk of Alzheimer's

Date: Jan-28-2014
The controversial pesticide DDT was banned in the US in 1972 but is still used in the agricultural industries of some countries. Now, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Neurology has found a link between having levels of a DDT byproduct in the blood and an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of neurodegenerative disease worldwide.

A byproduct of the pesticide DDT increases risk of Alzheimer's

Date: Jan-28-2014
The controversial pesticide DDT was banned in the US in 1972 but is still used in the agricultural industries of some countries. Now, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Neurology has found a link between having levels of a DDT byproduct in the blood and an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of neurodegenerative disease worldwide.

Availability of transcatheter repair of aortic stenosis benefits patients

Date: Jan-28-2014
The introduction of minimally invasive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for treatment of aortic stenos not only has increased the number of patients eligible for aortic valve replacement (AVR), but also has led to a decrease in patient mortality, according to a study released at the 50th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. These results suggest that patients fare better when multiple treatment options are available.Using data from the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database and the STS/ACC Transcatheter Valve Therapy (TVT) Registry™, J.

Origin of unusual glands in the body discovered

Date: Jan-28-2014
The thymus gland is a critical component of the human immune system that is responsible for the development of T-lymphocytes, or T-cells, which help organize and lead the body's fighting forces against harmful organisms like bacteria and viruses.The main body of the thymus lies beneath the breastbone in the upper chest. But scientists were surprised several years ago when two teams of researchers discovered that both mice and humans have extra thymus-like glands distributed throughout their necks.