Health News

Heart surgeons find they can rely on less blood stock

Date: Jan-02-2014
Heart surgeons who performed aortic valve replacement operations for over 750 patients have found from analyzing data on complications that strategies to reduce the need for donor blood stocks are safe and improve outcomes.The study's authors - from the New York University Langone Medical Center - reviewed heart surgeries carried out at the center for 778 patients needing a replacement aortic valve and have published their findings in the journal of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.Led by Drs.

Health care costs higher for former, current smokers in year after surgery

Date: Jan-01-2014
Health care costs in the first year after an inpatient surgical procedure are higher for former and current smokers compared with patients who never smoked, according to a study by David O. Warner, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and colleagues. Cigarette smoking increases the risk of complications in surgical patients, according to the study background. The study involved patients who underwent surgery at Mayo Clinic hospitals between April 2008 and December 2009.

FDA approves SALMONELEX™ against Salmonella as new food processing aid

Date: Jan-01-2014
FDA & USDA have announced they have approved SALMONELEXTM as a "GRAS" (Generally Recognized as Safe) food processing aid against Salmonella. The new product consists of natural phages against Salmonella and is produced by Micreos of The Netherlands. The company confirms that industrial scale projects with US poultry processors will start in January 2014.

A wrong molecular turn leads down the path to type 2 diabetes

Date: Jan-01-2014
Computing resources at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have helped researchers better grasp how proteins misfold to create the tissue-damaging structures that lead to type 2 diabetes. The structures, called amyloid fibrils, are also implicated in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and in prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jacob and mad cow disease.The results pinpoint a critical intermediate step in the chemical pathway that leads to amyloid fibril formation.

Cholesterol study shows algal extracts may counter effects of high fat diets

Date: Jan-01-2014
Health Enhancement Products, Inc., in conjunction with Wayne State University's Department of Nutrition and Food Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, announces the publication of a scientific article in the Journal of Nutrition & Metabolism, "ProAlgaZyme sub-fraction improves the lipoprotein profile of hypercholesterolemic hamsters, while inhibiting production of betaine, carnitine, and choline metabolites."The paper describes the beneficial effects of the Company's proprietary algal culture in supporting healthy cholesterol balance.

X-ray laser maps important drug target

Date: Jan-01-2014
Researchers have used one of the brightest X-ray sources on the planet to map the 3-D structure of an important cellular gatekeeper known as a G protein-coupled receptor, or GPCR, in a more natural state than possible before. The new technique is a major advance in exploring GPCRs, a vast, hard-to-study family of proteins that plays a key role in human health and is targeted by an estimated 40 percent of modern medicines.

Cancer-prevention strategies should improve with discovery that adult stem cells suppress cancer while dormant

Date: Jan-01-2014
Researchers at UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have discovered a mechanism by which certain adult stem cells suppress their ability to initiate skin cancer during their dormant phase - an understanding that could be exploited for better cancer-prevention strategies.

Even or odd: No easy feat for the mind

Date: Jan-01-2014
Even scientists are fond of thinking of the human brain as a computer, following sets of rules to communicate, make decisions and find a meal.But if the brain is like a computer, why do brains make mistakes that computers don't?Research by Gary Lupyan, a cognitive scientist and psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that our brains stumble on even the simplest rule-based calculations. Instead, humans get caught up in contextual information, even when the rules are as clear-cut as separating even numbers from odd.

New vaccine protects against lethal pneumonia caused by staph bacteria

Date: Jan-01-2014
University of Iowa researchers have developed a new vaccine that protects against lethal pneumonia caused by Staphylococcus aureus (staph) bacteria, including drug-resistant strains like MRSA.The research team was led by Patrick Schlievert, professor and chair of microbiology in the UI Carver College of Medicine. The findings are published in the Journal of Infectious Disease.The new vaccine targets toxins that are made and secreted by staph bacteria.

New molecular discovery provides clues to cause of schizophrenia

Date: Jan-01-2014
For decades, scientists have been working toward discovering the cause of schizophrenia. Now, new research may provide further clues, as scientists have uncovered a molecular process that may contribute to the development of the disorder. This is according to a study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), schizophrenia affects approximately 24 million people worldwide.At present, there is no single test for schizophrenia. The condition is usually diagnosed with an assessment by a mental health specialist.