Health News

Brain connections may explain why girls mature faster

Date: Dec-27-2013
Newcastle University scientists have discovered that as the brain re-organises connections throughout our life, the process begins earlier in girls which may explain why they mature faster during the teenage years.As we grow older, our brains undergo a major reorganisation reducing the connections in the brain. Studying people up to the age of 40, scientists led by Dr Marcus Kaiser and Ms Sol Lim at Newcastle University found that while overall connections in the brain get streamlined, long-distance connections that are crucial for integrating information are preserved.

Congenital heart disease causes hypoglycaemia

Date: Dec-27-2013
In a new study, scientists from University of Copenhagen show that patients with congenital arrhythmia produce twice the amount of insulin after consuming sugar, compared to healthy subjects. At the same time, the patients' blood sugar decreases drastically a few hours after consuming sugar or food, compared to the healthy subjects, who maintain a stable blood sugar. 14 patients with congenital heart disease and 28 healthy control subjects participated in the study that has been published in Diabetes.

Young killer cells protect against infectious mononucleosis

Date: Dec-27-2013
More than 90 percent of all adults are carriers of the oncogenic Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). Primary infection with this herpes virus as a young child is generally not linked to any symptoms, and usually offers life-long protection from its cancer-causing effect. However, for people who do not become infected with the virus until adolescence, the infection often leads to infectious mononucleosis (commonly known as glandular fever). Our immune systems can generally fend off this disease after a period of between one and several months.

BCG vaccine more effective than previously thought

Date: Dec-27-2013
The BCG vaccine has been found to be more effective against the most common form of tuberculosis than previously thought, according to a new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases.Bacillus Calmette Guérin (BCG) vaccine is included in the childhood vaccination programme of many countries, and is the only licensed vaccine against tuberculosis (TB). However, it has previously been thought to only be effective against the less common forms of the disease that occur away from the lungs.

Emotions in Parkinson's disease

Date: Dec-27-2013
Patients affected by Parkinson's disease may experience, in addition to the more obvious motor symptoms (such as tremors and stiffness), difficulties recognizing emotions in the facial expressions and speech prosody (intonation) of other people. A number of investigations have shown that even deep brain stimulation, a treatment that has become widely used in recent years, may cause similar disorders.

Anti-epilepsy drugs can cause inflammations

Date: Dec-27-2013
Physicians at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have been investigating if established anti-epilepsy drugs have anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory properties - an effect for which these pharmaceutical agents are not usually tested. One of the substances tested caused stronger inflammations, while another one inhibited them. As inflammatory reactions in the brain may be the underlying cause for epileptic disorders, it is vital to take the trigger for the disorder under consideration when selecting drugs for treatment, as the researchers concluded.

Directing radiotherapy to tumours while sparing vital organs using computer-controlled couch

Date: Dec-27-2013
Swivelling patients around on a computer-controlled, rotating table could deliver high doses of radiotherapy to tumours more quickly than current methods, while sparing vulnerable organs such as the heart, brain, eyes and bowel.Sophisticated computer modelling could be used to slowly move the table - known as a couch - and a radiation source in three dimensions to direct radiation precisely to the patient's tumour, researchers have suggested.At the moment, a radiotherapy table can be angled during treatment, but there is no way to synchronise its rotation with a moving radiation beam.

Are concussions related to Alzheimer's disease?

Date: Dec-26-2013
A new study suggests that a history of concussion involving at least a momentary loss of consciousness may be related to the buildup of Alzheimer's disease-associated plaques in the brain. The research is published in the December 26, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Potential weight-loss mouth spray for fuller feeling

Date: Dec-26-2013
A chemical naturally occurring in the body, already proven to produce a feeling of being full when administered, has found an effective new route via a spray on the tongue, say health researchers from the University of Florida.The chemical, called peptide YY, is a gut hormone released after eating that the researchers have been trying to exploit for the reproduction of feeling full after food, and so aiding weight loss.

Girls' brains reorganize earlier, may explain their faster maturity

Date: Dec-26-2013
As we grow older, our brains reorganize themselves, pruning and streamlining nerve fiber linkages to reduce overall network connectivity while selectively preserving long-distance connections that are crucial to information integration.Now, a team led by Newcastle University in the UK has found this brain streamlining starts earlier in girls, suggesting it may explain why they mature before boys in their teen years.