Exercise Programs Increases Benefits for Arthritis PatientsArthritis is the nation's most common cause of disability. The number of adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis is projected to increase to 67 million by 2030, and a large proportion of U.S. adults will limit their activity as a result, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, in a new study, University of Missouri scientists observed that adults with arthritis who received exercise interventions that included educational........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 10/8/2008 9:32:35 PM)
Car or pedestrian -- How we can follow objects with our eyesWhen an object moves fast, we follow it with our eyes: our brain correspondingly calculates the speed of the object and adapts our eye movement to it. This in itself is an enormous achievement, yet our brain can do even more than that. In the real world, a car will typically accelerate or brake faster than, say, a pedestrian. But the control of eye movement in fact responds more sensitively to changes in the speed of fast moving objects than........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 10/3/2008 5:22:34 AM)
Hepatitis B and pancreatic cancerStudy Summary: Hepatitis B could be a risk factor for pancreas cancer
A new study has shown that evidence of past hepatitis B infection was twice as common in people with pancreas cancer than in healthy controls. This study is the first to report an association between past exposure to the hepatitis B virus and pancreas cancer, but scientists cautioned that more studies are necessary to evaluate the nature of the link.
"While our........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/29/2008 9:38:00 PM)
A diagnosis marker for digestive system cancerGrowing evidence suggests that accumulation of multiple alterations such as activation of proto-oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes is responsible for the development and progression of digestive system cancer. Genetic instability of oncogenes such as microsatellite instability (MSI) and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is probably linked to mutations in genes responsible for tumor-genesis, and they play important roles in tumor........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 9/24/2008 6:19:17 PM)
Cancer patients experience increased risk of learning and memory problemsBoston Cancer patients with tumors that have spread to the brain (brain metastases) who undergo stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and whole brain radiation have more than double the risk of developing learning and memory problems, in comparison to those who only have stereotactic radiosurgery, as per a randomized study presented September 22, 2008, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston.
........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 9/22/2008 10:37:08 PM)
Decrease in hysterectomy complicationsUC Davis scientists who studied hospital discharge records for nearly 650,000 California women over a 13-year period have observed that complications from hysterectomies have significantly declined. The study appears in the recent issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, published by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
"This is very good news for women who need a hysterectomy," said Lloyd Smith, UC Davis professor of obstetrics........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/17/2008 5:41:29 PM)
New Youtube ChannelsI wanted to share two new, medicine-related Youtube channels with you. The first one is managed by the Detroit Medical Center and focuses on medical animations, educational materials
The second one was launched by Mark Senak, the blogger of Eye on FDA and focuses on........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/16/2008 9:58:16 PM)
New method identifies meth hot spotsA researcher at Oregon State University has used a new method of combining multiple sources of data to identify counties in Oregon with high numbers of methamphetamine-related problems per capita, giving officials a new tool in fighting the illegal drug.
The study, presented today at a toxicology conference in Canada, examined statistics from four sources then identified five counties with the most meth-linked incidents per capita, such as........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/15/2008 10:26:53 PM)
Estradiol may stimulate collagen production in aging skinApplying the hormone estradiol to skin protected from the sun appears to stimulate production of the protein collagen in older men and women, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, it may not have the same effect on sun-exposed skin, such as the face or arms.
As skin ages, its function is reduced, it becomes more fragile and wound healing is compromised, as per background........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/15/2008 9:29:54 PM)
Newly found gene variants account for kidney diseasesFor the first time, scientists have identified variations in a single gene that are strongly linked to kidney diseases disproportionately affecting African-Americans. This work was conducted by scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by NIH-funded researchers at the Johns Hopkins University. The findings are published online today in two papers in Nature Genetics and would be reported in the October print issue.
"These two........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 9/14/2008 10:04:26 PM)
About rural HIV careAn Indiana University study found that HIV care providers in rural Indiana report significant stigma and discrimination in the rural medical referral system surrounding issues of HIV and substance abuse. Providers felt that these factors impeded their ability to offer quality care to their patients.
"The findings of this study demonstrate inefficiencies in our public health care system and our inability to link people easily to a range of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/11/2008 9:29:59 PM)
Calcium during pregnancyPregnant women who take high levels of daily calcium supplements show a marked reduction in lead levels in their blood, suggesting calcium could play a critical role in reducing fetal and infant exposure.
A new study at the University of Michigan shows that women who take 1,200 milligrams of calcium daily have up to a 31 percent reduction in lead levels.
Women who used lead-glazed ceramics and those with high bone lead levels showed the........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/9/2008 8:57:02 PM)
Americans Show Little Tolerance for Mental IllnessA new study by University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Jason Schnittker shows that, while more Americans think that mental illness has genetic causes, the nation is no more tolerant of the mentally ill than it was 10 years ago.
The study published online in the journal Social Science and Medicine uses a 2006 replication of the 1996 General Social Survey Mental Health Module to explore trends in public beliefs about mental illness in........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/31/2008 8:49:30 PM)
Chronic stress alters our genetic immune responseMost people would agree that stress increases your risk for illness and this is especially true for severe long-term stresses, such as caring for a family member with a chronic medical illness. However, we still have a relatively limited understanding of exactly how stress contributes to the risk for illness. In the August 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry, scientists shed new light on one link between stress and illness by describing a........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/27/2008 9:16:23 PM)
Patients and ResearchersCureTogether, a new web 2.0 startup, plans to bring together patients and scientists to create an open-source health research system
An excerpt from the Kurzweil.net article
The first conditions being studied are migraine, endometriosis, and vulvodynia; each affect more than five million Americans. Patients will also be able to share ideas and provide their anonymous medical data to an aggregate database available “open........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/25/2008 7:57:28 PM)
China sees spike in rabies casesA new Chinese study has reported a dramatic spike in rabies infections. The research, published recently in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases, shows that in some provinces of China the number of human rabies cases has jumped dramatically since the new millennium.
Jia-Hai Lu, from the School of Public Health at Sun Yat-Sen University, China, led a team of scientists who studied the rabies trend in China between 1990 and 2007. Lu........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/20/2008 8:05:01 PM)
Overweight children at significant risk for pre-diabetesA study by scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) observed that overweight Hispanic children are at significant risk for pre-diabetes, a condition marked by higher than normal blood glucose levels that are still not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. The persistence of pre-diabetes during growth is linked to progression in risk towards future diabetes, as per the study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/13/2008 1:05:52 AM)
Smoking predicts increased stroke risk for your spouseEventhough Second Hand Smoke (SHS) is widely accepted as a risk factor for coronary heart disease, there have been few studies investigating the association of SHS and stroke risk. In a new study, reported in the September 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, scientists report on evidence of increased risk of stroke for spouses of smokers.
For those who never smoked, being married to a current smoker was linked to a 42%........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/30/2008 12:12:58 AM)
New Guidelines for Treating Rheumatoid ArthritisProven combinations of medicines and the introduction of new anti-arthritis drugs have significantly improved the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as per guidelines issued by the American College of Rheumatology and co-authored by physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Lead author Kenneth Saag, M.D., M.Sc., a professor in the UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, said the new guidelines update........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/22/2008 7:45:59 PM)
End of life physician-patient communicationEventhough a growing body of research supports a link between effective communication and patient, family and doctor satisfaction, doctors, including oncologists and other specialists who frequently care for terminal patients, do not routinely receive training in end-of-life conversations during medical school, residency training, or after they start to practice medicine.
A study published in recent issue of the Journal of Psychosocial........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 7/22/2008 7:40:13 PM)
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Larger labs report kidney function routinelyLabs that conduct the highest number of routine blood tests are more likely than others to report estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), an important measure of kidney function that can identify early kidney disease, as per a survey funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The work is published in the recent issue of the American Journal of........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 10/14/2008 8:23:38 PM)
Groundbreaking Discovery May Lead to Stronger AntibioticsThe last decade has seen a dramatic decline in the effectiveness of antibiotics, resulting in a mounting public health crisis across the world. A new breakthrough by University of Virginia scientists provides physicians and patients a potential new approach toward the creation of less resistant and more effective antibiotics.
"As bacteria become more resistant to our current classes of antibiotics, there also has been a general lack of new........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 10/1/2008 9:42:24 PM)
Will patients stick to physical therapy?Patients' responses to a simple questionnaire can reliably predict whether they will adhere to physical treatment after spine surgery, Johns Hopkins scientists suggest in a new study. The findings could help physicians identify patients who might benefit from additional preoperative preparation to ensure they attend treatment sessions and follow through with prescribed exercise, a factor that can greatly affect their long-term recovery.
"It........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 10/1/2008 8:35:40 AM)
Mapping the neuron-behavior link in Rett SyndromeA link between certain behaviors and the lack of the protein linked to Rett Syndrome a devastating autism spectrum disorder demonstrates the importance of MeCP2 (the protein) and reveals never-before recognized functions linked to aggression and obesity, said scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the current issue of the journal Neuron.
"This protein is critical for the proper function of majority of neurons," said Dr.........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 9/24/2008 9:30:35 PM)
How to treat gastroesophageal adenocarcinom patients?Gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas have a poor prognosis. However, numerous randomized clinical trials (RCT) have reviewed, and continue to evaluate, the survival benefit of various therapy regimens. Surgery remains standard care for early stage esophageal cancer and gastric cancer. However, RCTs have also shown a survival benefit linked to chemotherapy and chemoradiation. Few studies have examined community-based patterns of care for these........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 9/18/2008 10:46:16 PM)
Incontinence affects a substantial proportion of womenNearly one-quarter of women surveyed, and more than one-third of older women, report at least one pelvic floor disorder, which includes urinary and fecal incontinence and the shifting of a pelvic organ, as per a research studyin the September 17 issue of JAMA These disorders become more prevalent with increasing age and weight.
Pelvic floor disorders include urinary and fecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse (when a pelvic organ, such as........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/16/2008 10:28:39 PM)
Looking vs. seeingThe superior colliculus has long been thought of as a rapid orienting center of the brain that allows the eyes and head to turn swiftly either toward or away from the sights and sounds in our environment. Now a team of researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has shown that the superior colliculus does more than send out motor control commands to eye and neck muscles.
Two complementary studies, both led by Richard Krauzlis,........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 9/16/2008 10:23:17 PM)
Guideline for drug treatment of osteoporosisThe American College of Physicians (ACP) today released a new clinical practice guideline on drug therapy of osteoporosis or low bone density to prevent fracture in men and women. The guideline appears in the September 16, 2008, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine
ACP recommends that physicians offer drug therapy to men and women who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis or a prior fracture not caused by substantial trauma. The guideline........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/15/2008 10:14:49 PM)
Extremely exact images from inside the bodyIt will be the only magnetic resonance tomograph of the modern 7 tesla generation in the world, in which a metrology institute is also involved. Magnetic resonance tomographs, which use a magnetic field of 7 tesla, have not yet been in operation in hospitals and clinics, but have solely served research. For the first time in the world, cardiovascular research carried out on such a device is now also to play an important role. The magnetic........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 9/14/2008 10:42:54 PM)
Purifying parasites with lightScientists have developed a clever method to purify parasitic organisms from their host cells, which will allow for more detailed proteomic studies and a deeper insight into the biology of organisms that cause millions of cases of disease each year.
A number of infectious pathogens, like those that cause Toxoplasmosis or Leishmaniases, have a complex life cycle alternating between free-living creature and cell-enclosed parasite. A thorough........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 9/14/2008 10:24:03 PM)
Nano-Sized 'Cargo Ships' to Destroy TumorsScientists have developed nanometer-sized 'cargo ships' that can sail throughout the body via the bloodstream without immediate detection from the body's immune radar system and ferry their cargo of anti-cancer drugs and markers into tumors that might otherwise go untreated or undetected.
In a forthcoming issue of the Germany-based chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT report that their........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 9/11/2008 9:03:51 PM)
Cryopreservation techniques bring hopes for womenEmerging cryopreservation techniques are increasing hope of restoring fertility for women after diseases such as ovary cancer that lead to destruction of reproductive tissue. The same techniques can also be used to maintain stocks of farm animals, and protect against extinction of endangered animal species by maintaining banks of ovarian tissue or even nascent embryos that can used to produce offspring at some point in the future.
Until now........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 9/10/2008 8:53:53 PM)
Creating Blood By Identifying Earliest Stem CellsJohns Hopkins scientists have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes.
The biochemical marker, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), is well known for its role in the regulation of blood pressure,........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/31/2008 8:42:33 PM)
Master switch in the brain that regulates appetite and reproductionBody weight and fertility have long known to be correlation to each other women who are too thin, for example, can have trouble becoming pregnant. Now, a master switch has been found in the brain of mice that controls both, and scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies say it may work the same way in humans.
Findings from the study, published ahead of print in the Aug. 31 online edition of Nature Medicine, suggest that........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/31/2008 8:29:43 PM)
Genetic predisposition may play a role in anxiety disordersFinnish researchers have identified genes that may predispose to anxiety disorders. Research conducted under the supervision of Academy Research Fellow Iiris Hovatta have focused on genes that influence human behaviour, and some of the studied genes show a statistical association with specific anxiety disorders. The work is carried out as part of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO).
Previously Hovatta's team........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/27/2008 9:12:34 PM)
Obesity raises risks of serious digestive health concernsThe prevalence of obesity and overweight in the United States coupled by the increased risk of gastrointestinal diseases correlation to obesity raises serious implications for the health of Americans. Several scientific studies in the recent issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology examine the association between obesity and the risk of colorectal cancer and gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD.
Dr. Frank K. Friedenberg and his........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/20/2008 1:39:53 AM)
Causes for sexual dysfunction change as people ageSexual dysfunction is not an inevitable part of aging, but it is strongly related many factors, such as mental and physical health, demographics and lifetime experiences, a number of of which are interrelated, as per a new study by scientists at the University of Chicago.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, observed that a history of sexually transmitted disease also has an impact on sexual health during the later part of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/13/2008 12:56:32 AM)
Gaining advantages from childhood experienceIt often seems that certain aspects of our personalities are influenced by events that occurred in our childhoods. A recent study by Dr. Akaysha Tang's research team from the University of New Mexico Psychology Department (http://atlab.unm.edu) and collaborators at Rockefeller University examined how early life experience influences social skills and ability to handle stressful situations using a rat model. The study will be published on July........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/30/2008 12:04:06 AM)
Sugar study is sweetener for stem cell scienceResearchers at The University of Manchester are striving to discover how the body's natural sugars can be used to create stem cell therapys for heart disease and nerve damage thanks to a 370,000 funding boost.
All cells that make up the tissues of the body such as skin, liver, brain and blood are surrounded by a layer of sugars that coat the cells.
These sugars help the cells to know what type of cell they are and to respond to the........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/22/2008 8:22:29 PM)
A virtual toothache helps student dentistsMasha is a dental patient. Her oral health problems continue to change as she meets new Case Western Reserve University student dentists in Second Life's virtual dental office.
The middle-aged avatar is an integral part of a new research project of the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences department of communication sciences to teach and give students practice time to communicate........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/21/2008 9:30:40 PM)
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