Health News

Civilians trained by American mental health professionals bring healing to trauma victims of Libya's civil war, Baylor study finds

Date: Dec-16-2013
Civilians traumatized by Libya's civil war in 2011 - which left many homeless, poor and grieving for loved ones - have virtually no access to mental health professionals, but many have found healing through small groups led by Libyan volunteers who were trained by American professionals, according to a Baylor University study.The finding has implications for traumatized people elsewhere, including in Somalia and Ethiopia, where similar efforts have begun; and in Egypt and Uganda, where such training is to begin soon, said Matthew Stanford, Ph.D.

A powder to enhance NMR signals - towards fast and accurate structure determination by NMR and early cancer diagnosis by MRI

Date: Dec-16-2013
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy is an extremely powerful non-destructive technique for the characterization of molecules. Widely used by chemists from its origin, it is now essential in the synthesis and analysis laboratories and sees its scope extended in biological laboratories.Coupled with NMR, Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) allows, thanks to polarizing agents, the enhancement of NMR signals from a wide range of molecules resulting in the significant reduction of the NMR acquisition time.

What are the health benefits of carrots?

Date: Dec-16-2013
Carrots are often thought of as the ultimate health food. You were probably told to "eat your carrots" by your parents and you probably tell your kids the same thing, and when asked why, you explain, "Because they're good for you!"But how did the carrot get such a good reputation and why exactly are the root vegetables so good for our health?It is believed that the carrot was first cultivated in the area now known as Afghanistan thousands of years ago as a small forked purple or yellow root with a woody and bitter flavor, resembling nothing of the carrot we know today.

Guidelines to improve early diagnosis & effective treatment of heart failure in children

Date: Dec-15-2013
Heart failure in children is an important cause of childhood health problems and death. The Children's Heart Failure Study Group of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, in collaboration with the Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association, has developed new guidelines to assist practitioners in primary care and emergency departments to recognize and successfully manage heart failure in children with undiagnosed heart disease and symptoms of possible heart failure. The guidelines are published in the December issue of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Drug addicts 'can quit smoking' with additional therapy

Date: Dec-15-2013
New research from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, a part of the National Institutes of Health, suggests that people who are addicted to cocaine or methamphetamine are able to quit cigarette smoking while being treated for their substance addictions, and that quitting will not hinder their treatment.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking causes 1 in 5 deaths in the US every year. But the researchers say the highest death rate from smoking tobacco occurs in patients receiving treatment for substance abuse.

Scientists discover way to enhance self-control

Date: Dec-15-2013
Some people lack self-control. A habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time is one example. But now, scientists have developed a way of improving a person's self-control through electrical brain stimulation. This is according to a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience.Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) at Houston and the University of California, San Diego, say their findings could be useful for future treatments of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Tourette's syndrome, among other self-control disorders.

Magnetic nanoparticles to cure cancer

Date: Dec-15-2013
Scientists from Nanoprobes, Inc. claim that magnetic nanoparticles can cure cancer in just one treatment. Their findings are published in The International Journal of Nanomedicine.The team, led by Dr. James F. Hainfeld, claims that an injection containing the nanoparticles followed by 3 minutes in a magnetic field "completely cured" test animals of cancer.The idea is surprisingly simple. When you put an iron particle inside an alternating magnetic field, it spins back and forth, generating significant heat.

Burger consumption in restaurants associated with higher obesity risk in African-American women

Date: Dec-15-2013
Americans are increasingly eating more of their meals prepared away from home, and this is particularly true among African Americans, who also have higher rates of obesity than other Americans. Young adults tend to eat out more often at fast-food restaurants and these establishments are more often found in minority neighborhoods. A few studies have shown that frequently eating out is associated with greater weight gain than eating at home, but little previous research has focused on whether specific types of foods eaten at fast-food and full service restaurants have a greater effect.

Mechanism of cancer spread identified

Date: Dec-15-2013
Cancer involves a breakdown of normal cell behavior. Cell reproduction and movement go haywire, causing tumors to grow and spread through the body.A new finding by University of Pennsylvania scientists has identified key steps that trigger this disintegration of cellular regulation. Their discovery - that a protein called Exo70 has a split personality, with one form keeping cells under tight control and another contributing to the ability of tumors to invade distant parts of the body - points to new possibilities for diagnosing cancer metastasis.

Potential hemophilia treatment using new gene therapy

Date: Dec-15-2013
Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine and the Medical College of Wisconsin found that a new kind of gene therapy led to a dramatic decline in bleeding events in dogs with naturally occurring hemophilia A, a serious and costly bleeding condition that affects about 50,000 people in the United States and millions more around the world.Before the gene treatment, the animals experienced about five serious bleeding events a year.