Health News

PTSD increases risk for cardiac ischemia

Date: Dec-04-2013
There is growing concern that long-term untreated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms may increase the risk of developing a number of medical problems, particularly compromised cardiovascular health.Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Cardiovascular disease is an umbrella term for diseases of the heart and blood vessels. There are multiple known risk factors, including age, family history, smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Male contraceptive pill may be available within ten years

Date: Dec-04-2013
A new male contraceptive could be on the horizon after scientists identified a novel way to block the transport of sperm during ejaculation. Published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, scientists have found that complete male infertility could be achieved by blocking two proteins found on the smooth muscle cells that trigger the transport of sperm.

Tackling rabies in Latin America by culling vampire bats can backfire

Date: Dec-04-2013
Culling vampire bat colonies to stem the transmission of rabies in Latin America does little to slow the spread of the virus and could even have the reverse effect, according to University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues.Vampire bats transmit rabies virus throughout Latin America, causing thousands of livestock deaths each year, as well as occasional human fatalities. Poison and even explosives have been used since the 1960s in attempts to control vampire bat populations, but those culling efforts have generally failed.

Risk of lethal prostate cancer in overweight patients increased by genetic mutation

Date: Dec-04-2013
Obesity is associated with a worse prostate cancer prognosis among men whose tumors contain a specific genetic mutation, suggest results from a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers. Among prostate cancer patients whose tumors contain the mutation, they had a more than 50% increased risk of dying from prostate cancer if they were overweight or obese compared to healthy-weight men; among men whose tumors did not have the mutation, there was no effect of obesity on cancer survival.

Pain affects quality of life of half of older Americans

Date: Dec-04-2013
More than half of older adults in the United States - an estimated 18.7 million people - have experienced bothersome pain in the previous month, impairing their physical function and underscoring the need for public health action on pain. Many of those interviewed by investigators for a study published in the current issue of PAIN® reported pain in multiple areas.

Transgenic technology: 'designer sperm' inserts custom genes into offspring

Date: Dec-04-2013
Get ready: The "new genetics" promises to change faulty genes of future generations by introducing new, functioning genes using "designer sperm." A new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal, shows that introducing new genetic material via a viral vector into the sperm of mice leads to the presence and activity of those genes in the resulting embryos. This new genetic material is actually inherited, present and functioning through three generations of the mice tested.

Recognition memory in young adults predicted by aerobic fitness and hormones

Date: Dec-04-2013
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found further evidence that exercise may be beneficial for brain health and cognition. The findings, which are currently available online in Behavioural Brain Research, suggest that certain hormones, which are increased during exercise, may help improve memory.Hormones called growth factors are thought to mediate the relationship between exercise and brain health. The hippocampus, a region of the brain crucial for learning and memory, is thought to be uniquely affected by these hormones.

Latina adolescents resist media barrage of body images through ethnic identification

Date: Dec-04-2013
A strong sense of ethnic identity can help Latina girls feel positive about their body and appearance, a new study concludes, even as this group slips further into dissatisfaction with themselves when compared to a media-filled world of unrealistic images of thin white women.Identification and pride in their ethnic background can act as a partial buffer against a deluge of advertisements, magazines, television shows and movies that show white women in sexualized roles, researchers said, and help teenage girls feel more comfortable with themselves and their appearance.

Researchers find a protein that viruses use to kill bacteria

Date: Dec-04-2013
In the arms race between bacteria and modern medicine, bacteria have gained an edge. In recent decades, bacterial resistance to antibiotics has developed faster than the production of new antibiotics, making bacterial infections increasingly difficult to treat. Scientists worry that a particularly virulent and deadly "superbug" could one day join the ranks of existing untreatable bacteria, causing a public health catastrophe comparable with the Black Death.Now research led by Dr.

Earlier identification of pathogens in patient samples using new technique

Date: Dec-04-2013
A team of Danish investigators has shown how to identify pathogens faster, directly from clinical samples. The research, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology appears in the journal's January 2014 issue.The investigators used a technique known as whole genome sequencing to identify and completely characterize bacteria causing urinary tract infections. In just 18 hours, they identified the culprit microorganisms, characterized the pathogens' patterns of antibiotic susceptibility, and identified specific strains.