Almost Half Of Kids With ADHD Not TreatedIn contrast to claims that children are being overmedicated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a team of scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has observed that a high percentage of kids with ADHD are not receiving therapy. In fact, almost half of the children who might benefit from ADHD drugs were not getting them.
"What we found was somewhat surprising," says Richard D. Todd, M.D., Ph.D., the........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/13/2006 6:40:26 PM)
Cause Of Neurodegenerative DiseaseWhen a faulty protein wreaks havoc in cells and causes disease, scientists are commonly quick to point the finger at a wayward gene. Now researchers are learning that some neurodegenerative diseases can develop even though a gene is perfectly normal. The diseases can be caused when the genetic instructions contained in the gene are not executed properly, leading to a lethal buildup of malformed proteins in brain cells.
The new studies by........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/13/2006 6:22:47 PM)
Nurses Have A Larger Role In Smoking CessationSome good advice from nurses to patients who smoke significantly increases the likelihood of those smokers quitting, according to several articles in a special issue of the July-August 2006 Nursing Research journal.
"These reports are evidence that nurses are widely recognized as central to global efforts to reduce the detrimental health effects of tobacco use," said Dr. Molly C. Dougherty, Nursing Research editor and professor of nursing at........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/13/2006 8:51:34 AM)
"DES Daughters" And Risk Of Breast CancerSo-called "DES daughters," born to mothers who used the anti-miscarriage drug diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy, are at a substantially greater risk of developing breast cancer in comparison to women who were not exposed to the drug in utero.
Reporting in the recent issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a nationwide team of scientists observed that DES daughters over age 40 had 1.9 times the risk of developing........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/12/2006 6:11:56 AM)
Parental Time And Childhood ObesityThe fight against obesity in children just got a new weapon, thanks to a multi-year study by researchers from Texas A&M University.
The study found that the amounts and quality of time parents spent with their children has a direct effect on children's rates of obesity, said Dr. Alex McIntosh, lead researcher. McIntosh is professor of sociology with a research appointment from Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
The U.S. Department of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/10/2006 11:58:26 PM)
Genetics Of Successful AgingResearchers have identified genes correlation to reaching age 90 with preserved cognition, as per a research studyreported in the recent issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. The study, which was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh is among the first to identify genetic links to cognitive longevity.
"Successful aging has been defined in a number of ways, however, we focused on individuals who had reached at least 90........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/10/2006 6:48:59 AM)
High Blood Sugar May Cause Cognitive ImpairmentA four-year study of elderly women has found that chronically elevated blood sugar is associated with an increased risk of developing either mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia.
The study was the first to investigate the association over time between glycosylated hemoglobin - a long-term measure of blood sugar - and the risk of cognitive difficulties, and the first to investigate that association in people without diabetes. It........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/9/2006 11:19:16 PM)
Behaviors That Can Lead To Poor HealthAdolescents who feel dissatisfied with their bodies are at higher risk for future binge eating, smoking, poor eating, and decreased physical activity, as per new research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
A study reported in the August 2006 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health found lower levels of body satisfaction among teenagers can predict the use of unhealthy weight control behaviors, which can lead to........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/9/2006 10:28:57 PM)
Teamwork: Where The Weak Help The StrongGroup work is the name of the game in a number of companies. The thinking is that workers will learn more and help each other when they are put into groups composed of people with a variety of expertise. But does this always happen? Some recent research suggests that it may not. at least not always.
"In order to understand how things happen in groups, you need to be aware of the group's hierarchy of status and influence," said Stuart........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/8/2006 9:56:18 PM)
High Blood Pressure Induces Low Fat Metabolism"The heart is the single most energy-consuming organ per weight in the body," says Lisa de las Fuentes, M.D.
Under some conditions this energy-hungry organ is prone to defects in its energy metabolism that contribute to heart disease, according to research published in a recent issue of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology by de las Fuentes and colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Earlier research led by de........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/8/2006 8:38:11 PM)
New Learning StrategyCentral to being human is the ability to adapt: We learn from our mistakes. Previous theories of learning have assumed that the size of learning naturally scales with the size of the mistake. But now biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that people can use alternative strategies: Learning does not necessarily scale proportionally with error.
In so doing, Kurt Thoroughman, Ph.D., assistant professor of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/8/2006 12:20:16 AM)
Best Memorization StrategiesExploring exactly why some individuals' memory skills are better than others has led scientists at Washington University in St. Louis to study the brain basis of learning strategies that healthy young adults select to help them memorize a series of objects. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the scientists uncovered brain regions specifically correlated with the diverse strategies that subjects adopt.
Brenda Kirchhoff,........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/8/2006 12:00:15 AM)
Use The Abdomen To Deliver OxygenScientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have helped develop a technique in animal models for using the abdominal cavity to exchange gas, supplementing the function normally performed by the lungs. The goal is to provide a way to support patients who are on a mechanical ventilator, suffering from reversible lung failure, but who need extra time and support to heal -- beyond what a ventilator can provide -- in order to........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/7/2006 11:45:29 PM)
Why Reassurance Fails in Patients with Unexplained SymptomsOur results show that patients with unclear medical symptoms overestimate the likelihood of medical causes of symptoms. Although in the medical report the doctor rejected most of the mentioned medical explanations for the symptoms, the patients with unclear somatic complaints remembered higher probabilities for these medical explanations. The mean estimates of the somatization patients for the likelihood of medical explanations were about 15%,........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/6/2006 10:32:26 AM)
Easy Route From Nose To BrainIn a continuing effort to find out if the tiniest airborne particles pose a health risk, University of Rochester Medical Center scientists showed that when rats breathe in nano-sized materials they follow a rapid and efficient pathway from the nasal cavity to several regions of the brain, according to a study in the recent issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.
Researchers also saw changes in gene expression that could signal........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/2/2006 11:44:13 PM)
Mapping System For Skin CellsGlobal-positioning system aficionados know that it's possible to precisely define any location in the world with just three geographic coordinates: latitude, longitude and altitude. Now scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that specialized skin cells use a similar mapping system to identify where they belong in the body and how to act once they arrive.
These cellular cornerstones direct embryonic........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/2/2006 11:33:40 PM)
Confusion, Not StressEven though they are trained in CPR, people hesitate to take action when an emergency unfolds in front of them. But the cause, a study has found, is more likely to be confusion than stress.
A study conducted by several researchers surveyed 1,243 lay people trained in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) who took part in a clinical trial. Most of them said they experienced low stress levels when faced with responding to a person in medical........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/1/2006 11:28:14 PM)
Study Frames Depression Treatment PuzzlePublished in the August 2006 edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the study used electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements to demonstrate an association between eventual clinical outcome and regional changes in brain activity during a placebo lead-in phase prior to antidepressant treatment.
The findings suggest that factors such as patient beliefs and expectations, doctor-patient relationships, or treatment history help complete the........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/1/2006 7:07:50 AM)
An Eye-opening Look At AnesthesiaRaise your hand if you are more afraid of the prospect of general anesthesia than of surgery itself. If you raised your hand, you are not alone, according to the newest faculty member at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).
Dr. Emery N. Brown, who explores what happens to the brain during anesthesia, began a dual appointment as professor of health sciences and technology and professor of computational........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 7/31/2006 10:32:47 PM)
Malignant Melanoma Secretes Embryo Protein A Northwestern University research group has discovered that aggressive melanoma cells secrete Nodal, a protein that is critical to proper embryo formation.
An article describing this research was published recently in the advanced online issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
The researchers identified the potent and highly unstable embryonic growth factor by injecting aggressive melanoma cells into developing zebrafish embryos, which........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 7/31/2006 6:52:22 AM)
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Hearing loss and high-speed dental toolsAfter 36 years in private dental practice, Fred Kreutzer, D.M.D., began struggling to hear. It's been five years since he retired from his practice and Kreutzer now wears hearing aids in both ears. Eventhough he has a family history of hearing loss, he believes the high-speed tools he worked with eight hours a day for so a number of years may have played a role in his hearing troubles. "I think if you listen to any high-pitched noise for any........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/14/2006 10:13:26 PM)
Simplified Treatment Of HIV InfectionA preliminary study indicates that using a single boosted protease inhibitor instead of the standard regimen of 3 drugs for maintenance therapy may be an effective treatment for select patients with HIV infection, according to a study in the August 16 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.
Susan Swindells, M.B.B.S., of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, presented the findings of the study today at a JAMA media briefing at........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/13/2006 5:59:53 PM)
Herceptin Effective Even With Low HER-2 LevelsNorthwestern University and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare scientists have discovered that the monoclonal antibody Herceptin (trastuzumab) used in combination with certain cancer chemotherapies effectively treats breast cancer tumors that produce low or undetectable amounts of the HER-2 oncogene but overexpress the growth factor heregulin (HRG), an activator of the HER-2 cancer oncoprotein. Increased levels of HER-2 are linked to poor patient........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/12/2006 6:27:18 AM)
Advances In Bipolar Disorder TreatmentA new care model for bipolar disorder tested in veterans across the nation reduced their manic episodes and improved their quality of life, according to research led by a psychiatrist with the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Brown Medical School.
The randomized, controlled trial also showed that the model did not add to the treatment costs for bipolar disorder, which affects nearly 6 million American adults a year. Results........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/11/2006 12:04:09 AM)
Predictors Of Breast CancerBreast cancer researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified a number of activity patterns in the genes of individual tumors that make them biologically different from others. These findings could provide valuable clinical information such as how likely the tumors are to be invasive, how well they might respond to different treatments and how likely they are to recur or spread.
Currently, doctors treating........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/10/2006 7:07:25 AM)
Never marrieds has highest risk of early deathPeople who never marry have the greatest chance of an earlier death, reveals a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The findings are based on national census and death certification data, involving almost 67,000 adults in the USA between 1989 and 1997.
In 1989, almost one in two of the sample were married, and almost one in 10 were widowed. Around 12% were divorced and 3% were separated. Of the remainder, 5% were........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/10/2006 7:02:50 AM)
Assessment Of Aggressive Boys' NeedsA decision support system, in form of a checklist with 20 risk- and need factors, complements clinical evaluation of boys between the ages of six and twelve with behavioural problems, as per new research from Karolinska Institutet.
Prolonged aggressive and disruptive behaviour in childhood is a strong risk marker for criminality and mental health problems in adulthood. Early identification of boys with increased risk of problems in the........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/9/2006 11:40:52 PM)
Antioxidants against tick-borne illnessFor hikers, campers and others who enjoy the outdoors, summer can bring concerns about tick bites and related illnesses such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Researchers are investigating the role that antioxidants -- alpha-lipoic acid and potentially others like green tea and vitamins C and E, for example might play in preventing or treating the deadly rickettsia bacteria.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, part of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/9/2006 10:18:58 PM)
Social Stresses OverlookedWhen thinking about the well-being of older adults, most people focus on medical care, but mental health care is a growing, pressing concern for older adults and their families. "At least one in five older adults suffer from a mental disorder and experts in geriatric mental health anticipate an 'unprecedented explosion' of older adults with disabling mental disorder," says Enola K. Proctor, Ph.D., a mental health care expert and professor of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/8/2006 10:01:06 PM)
Exploring Alzheimer's CausesSome people live to be 100 without falling victim to Alzheimer's disease. Li-Huei Tsai, who joined MIT this spring as Picower Professor of Neuroscience, wants to know why.
Amyloid beta or Abeta (a protein fragment that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer's patients) is a telltale sign of the disease, which affects 4 million Americans, most over age 65. Normally, the body manages to break down and eliminate these fragments, but in the........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/8/2006 9:38:02 PM)
System To Put Wastewater To WorkIn the midst of the worldwide energy crisis, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have been continuing their work on a microbial fuel cell that generates electricity from wastewater. Advances in the design of this fuel cell in the last year have increased the power output by a factor of 10 and future designs, already in the minds of the researchers, hope to multiply that power output by 10 times again. If that goal can be achieved,........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/8/2006 12:31:56 AM)
more effective smoking cessationResults of a new imaging study, supported in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, show that the nicotine received in just a few puffs of a cigarette can exert a force powerful enough to drive an individual to continue smoking. Scientists observed that the amount of nicotine contained in just one puff of a cigarette can occupy about 30 percent of the brain's most common type of nicotine receptors,........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/8/2006 12:12:48 AM)
Surprise Finding For Stretched DNAMost of us are familiar with the winding staircase image of DNA, the repository of a biological cell's genetic information. But few of us realize just how tightly that famous double helix is wound. Stretched to its full length, a single molecule of human DNA extends more than three feet, but, when wound up inside the nucleus of a cell, that same molecule measures about one millionth of an inch across. Biologists have long believed that as a........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/7/2006 11:40:38 PM)
Broad Talk Illuminates GeneticsFor decades, researchers have been teasing out the secrets of the human genome, hoping to learn more about what makes the body function and why things sometimes go wrong.
Now, researchers are on the brink of identifying genes that play a major role in a variety of diseases, thanks to recent rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology, as per Dr. David Altshuler, director of the program in medical and population genetics at the Broad........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/6/2006 12:00:01 AM)
Race Affects Type 2 Diabetes TreatmentAfrican Americans may be less likely than whites to take their medicine for Type 2 diabetes as it is prescribed, a new study suggests.
The researchers found that adherence rates were as much as 12 percent lower among black people when compared to whites.
"That's an unacceptable difference, particularly because African Americans tend to have higher rates of diabetes and disease-related complications," said Rajesh Balkrishnan, a study........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/3/2006 11:59:13 PM)
Core Verbal Autopsy ProceduresThe increasing importance of VA is reflected in the growing number of meta-analyses of VA-based datasets on child mortality from demographic surveillance sites and special studies [4–6,45], all of which make the case for standardized procedures. The procedures presented here are the product of over a decade of application, trial, assessment, and refinement, and have considerable commonalities with other forms in the public domain.
The main........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/2/2006 8:27:04 PM)
Abnormal Cortical Development after Premature BirthNowadays, many children who are born prematurely can be expected to survive. However, children who are born very prematurely have a high chance of having brain damage that leads to delayed development compared with children of the same age but who were not born prematurely. This delay continues into school age at least and is worse in boys than in girls. Although some children have large obvious areas of brain damage, shown on brain scans, most........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/1/2006 8:22:53 PM)
Curry And Onions May Prevent Colon CancerA small but informative clinical trial by Johns Hopkins scientists shows that a pill combining chemicals found in turmeric, a spice used in curries, and onions reduces both the size and number of precancerous lesions in the human intestinal tract.
In the study, published in the recent issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, five patients with an inherited form of precancerous polyps in the lower bowel known as familial adenomatous........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/1/2006 6:54:26 AM)
Higher Blood Pressure Associated with Decline in Walking AbilityDecline in lower limb function is common in older people, and worsening gait is associated with increased risk of dementia and death. However, factors contributing to gait difficulties in older persons are not well understood. A study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center suggests that higher blood pressure may be one factor associated with a decline in walking ability in later life. The research, by Dr. Raj Shah and colleagues at........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/1/2006 6:49:32 AM)
HIV hides from drugsUC Davis researchers have discovered that the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS, is able to survive efforts to destroy it by hiding out in the mucosal tissues of the intestine. They also found that HIV continues to replicate in the gut mucosa, suppressing immune function in patients being treated with antiretroviral therapy--even when blood samples from the same individuals indicated the treatment was working. Results of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/31/2006 6:57:24 AM)
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