Health News

Typhoid fever - A race against time

Date: Jan-17-2014
The life-threatening disease typhoid fever results from the ongoing battle between the bacterial pathogen Salmonella and the immune cells of the body. Prof. Dirk Bumann's research group at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has now uncovered how the typhoid pathogen repeatedly manages to evade the host's immune system. Their findings are published in the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe.Typhoid fever is a bacterial infection caused by the pathogen Salmonella. The infected host's immune system detects Salmonella and activates immune cells such as neutrophils and monocytes.

New research offers alternative to daily injections for diabetics

Date: Jan-17-2014
The impact of latest research from the University of Bath could make frequent insulin injections for sufferers of Type 2 diabetes a thing of the past. While one of the major challenges facing anyone with the condition is the need for frequent, self-administered, injections, this new research proposes an alternative treatment which could be taken in the form of a pill.

Journal publishes training video of endotracheal extubation technique

Date: Jan-17-2014
An endotracheal extubation training video produced by Rafael Ortega, MD, the vice-chair of academic affairs for the department of anesthesiology at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and professor of anesthesiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), and his colleagues is featured in the New England Journal of Medicine.The training video, which is the seventh BMC-produced video to appear in the NEJM's Videos in Clinical Medicine section, provides best practices for physicians utilizing endotracheal extubation.

In 'walkable' densely populated neighborhoods the risk of diabetes and obesity is often reduced

Date: Jan-17-2014
Torontonians living in neighbourhoods that aren't conducive to walking have a 33 per cent greater risk of developing diabetes or being obese, according to new research.The design of Toronto's neighbourhoods such as Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills, Edenbridge-Humber Valley, and Morningside encourage dependency on cars and discourage walking - risk factors that can lead to obesity and diabetes.

Analysis of hundreds of tumor marker proteins at once made possible by 'barcode' profiling

Date: Jan-17-2014
A new technology developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Systems Biology (CSB) allows simultaneous analysis of hundreds of cancer-related protein markers from miniscule patient samples gathered through minimally invasive methods. This new technology uses antibodies linked to unique DNA 'barcodes' to detect a wide range of target proteins and is both powerful and exquisitely sensitive.

Researchers reveal that both sides of our brains are required for speech

Date: Jan-17-2014
We use both sides of our brain for speech, a finding by researchers at New York University and NYU Langone Medical Center that alters previous conceptions about neurological activity. The results, which appear in the journal Nature, also offer insights into addressing speech-related inhibitions caused by stroke or injury and lay the groundwork for better rehabilitation methods.

Drones could save lives in the hands of firefighters and other first responders

Date: Jan-17-2014
University of Cincinnati engineering researchers are finding new and unique approaches to developing autopilots for unmanned aerial vehicles and getting them into the hands of firefighters and other first responders. In the not too distant future, you may hear the hum of a drone's rotors as it descends upon you and be filled with a sense of relief, not panic.After all, it's coming to save you, not harm you.Research at the University of Cincinnati could soon enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) - similar to U.S.

Being overweight or obese confers no survival advantage in type 2 diabetes

Date: Jan-17-2014
Being overweight or obese does not lead to improved survival among patients with type 2 diabetes. The large-scale study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers refutes previous studies that have suggested that, for people with diabetes, being overweight or obese could lead to lower mortality for people compared with normal-weight persons - the so-called "obesity paradox."The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Adolescents' sleep and daytime functioning improved by later school start times

Date: Jan-17-2014
Julie Boergers, Ph.D., a psychologist and sleep expert from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center, recently led a study linking later school start times to improved sleep and mood in teens. The article, titled "Later School Start Time is Associated with Improved Sleep and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents," appears in the current issue of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics."Sleep deprivation is epidemic among adolescents, with potentially serious impacts on mental and physical health, safety and learning.

First therapy to target damage after heart attack could transform field

Date: Jan-17-2014
After a heart attack, much of the damage to the heart muscle is caused by inflammatory cells that rush to the scene of the oxygen-starved tissue. But that inflammatory damage is slashed in half when microparticles are injected into the blood stream within 24 hours of the attack, according to new preclinical research from Northwestern Medicine® and the University of Sydney in Australia.When biodegradable microparticles were injected after a heart attack, the size of the heart lesion was reduced by 50 percent and the heart could pump significantly more blood.