Health News

The belief that we consider ourselves better than our peers holds true to convicted criminals as well

Date: Jan-14-2014
Research from the University of Southampton has shown that prisoners believe themselves to have more pro-social characteristics - such as kindness, morality, self-control, and generosity - than non-prisoners.The research also showed that prisoners did not rate themselves as more law abiding than non-prisoners, but they did rate themselves as equal.

Lymphoma drug protects against type 1 diabetes

Date: Jan-14-2014
New research shows that low doses of a cancer drug protect against the development of type 1 diabetes in mice. At the same time, the medicine protects the insulin-producing cells from being destroyed. The study is headed by researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, and has just been published in the distinguished scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

T2HemoStat detection of novel clot behavior could direct therapeutic choices for stroke and heart attack victims

Date: Jan-14-2014
T2 Biosystems, a company developing direct detection products enabling superior diagnostics, announced that scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and T2 Biosystems have published a paper in Blood describing novel clot structure biology detected while testing T2 Bio's T2HemoStat™. T2HemoStat is an innovative diagnostic tool for assessing blood clotting, platelet function, fibrinolytic activity and hematocrit measurements from a fingerstick blood sample in about 15 minutes. T2HemoStat uniquely detects millions of data points during a blood coagulation cascade.

No decrease in inappropriate antibiotic use in emergency rooms in adults

Date: Jan-14-2014
An analysis of emergency room (ER) visits over a 10-year period finds that while inappropriate antibiotic use is decreasing in pediatric settings, it continues to remain a problem in adults, according to an article published ahead of print in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.In the study, the investigators mined data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for the years 2001-2010. During this time, acute respiratory tract infections accounted for 126 million visits to emergency departments in the US.

New target discovered for brain cancer treatment

Date: Jan-14-2014
A new study is giving researchers hope that novel targeted therapies can be developed for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and most aggressive form of brain cancer, after demonstrating for the first time that a gene known as melanoma differentiation associated gene-9/syntenin (mda-9/syntenin) is a driving force behind the disease's aggressive and invasive nature.

Remission from depression much slower in adults who were abused in childhood

Date: Jan-14-2014
Remission from depression is delayed in adults who have experienced childhood physical abuse or parental addictions, a new study by University of Toronto researchers has found. The study is published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.University of Toronto investigators examined a range of factors associated with remission in a sample of 1,128 depressed Canadian adults, drawn from the National Population Health Survey. Depressed individuals were followed every other year until remission occurred, for up to 12 years.

Minority and poor patients diagnosed with more advanced thyroid cancers

Date: Jan-14-2014
UCLA researchers have found that minority patients and those of lower socioeconomic status are far more likely to have advanced thyroid cancer when they are diagnosed with the disease than white patients and those in higher economic brackets.In one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, the UCLA team looked at nearly 26,000 patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer and analyzed the impact of race and socioeconomic factors on the stage of presentation, as well as patient survival rates.

Preventing infection in patients with liver failure using novel potential approach

Date: Jan-14-2014
Findings published in the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases journal, Hepatology, indicate that infection, the commonest cause of mortality in patients with acute liver failure (ALF), may be decreased by inhibiting the activity of a protein found in saliva called SLPI (secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor). New research has found that this protein, produced by the body in response to injury, plays a vital role in patients with ALF.Acute liver failure occurs when there is rapid death of liver cells (hepatocytes).

During clotting red blood cells become shape shifters

Date: Jan-14-2014
Red blood cells are the body's true shape shifters, perhaps the most malleable of all cell types, transforming - among many other forms - into compressed discs capable of going through capillaries with diameters smaller than the blood cell itself. While studying how blood clots contract John W. Weisel, Ph.D., professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, discovered a new geometry that red blood cells assume, when compressed during clot formation.

Normal control of gene expression in the heart disrupted by myotonic dystrophy

Date: Jan-14-2014
Disruption of a transcription network controlled by MEF2 in heart tissue of people with myotonic dystrophy type 1 - an inherited form of muscular dystrophy with symptoms starting in early adulthood - affects activity of the minute bits of genetic material called microRNAs responsible for fine-tuning expression of proteins, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the journal Cell Reports.Malfunction of the heart involving its ability to beat properly is the second most common cause of death in the disorder, said Dr.