Current Events: Health Science
2007-02-03: Decoy Pill Saves Brain Cells, May Lead To Neuroprotective Drugs For Stroke And Alzheimer's Patients Tricking a key enzyme can soothe over-excited receptors in the brain, say neuroscientists, calling this a possible strategy against stroke, Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.
2006-05-25: Purdue Researchers Find 'Switch' For Skeletal-muscle Atrophy Researchers in Purdue University's School of Veterinary Medicine have found atrophy of skeletal muscle in mice could be inhibited with both gene therapy and drug treatment using astemizole (as-TEM-uh-zole), an antihistamine. Atrophy is often caused by muscle disuse, as well as aging and diseases such as cancer.
2006-05-25: Scientists Restore Sight To Chickens With Blinding Disease University of Florida scientists have delivered a gene through an eggshell to give sight to a type of chicken normally born blind. Neuroscientist Sue Semple-Rowland of the University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute poses with a type of Rhode Island Red chicken born blind. Rowland has developed a gene therapy that enables these animals to hatch with their sight intact, which proves in principle that a similar treatment can be developed for an incurable form of blindness in children. The finding, reported Tuesday (May 23) in the online journal Public Library of Science-Medicine, proves in principle that a similar treatment can be developed for an incurable form of childhood blindness.
2006-05-24: Listening To Music Can Reduce Chronic Pain And Depression By Up To A Quarter Listening to music can reduce chronic pain and depression by up to 25 per cent and make people feel more in control and less disabled by their condition.
2006-05-24: Any alcohol in pregnancy may be too much Women who drink even small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children with lower IQs than those who did not consume any alcohol, new research shows.
2006-05-22: 'Super Broccoli' Promises To Help Us Live Longer, Last Longer On Our Shelves A new "Super Broccoli" will: help us live longer, last longer on our shelves, and use much less pesticide and fertilizer.
2006-05-04: Promising Treatment For Huntington's Disease Soon To Be Tested Clinically At the Institut Curie, CNRS and Inserm researchers have shown that cysteamine, which is already used to treat a rare disease called cystinosis, prevents the death of neurons in Huntington’s disease.
2006-04-24: Scientists Make Major Finding On Potential Cure For Type 1 Diabetes An important step toward a potential cure for type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes, has been made by a research team at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI). The team used a combinatorial treatment approach in laboratory mice and found it reversed recent onset type 1 diabetes in the majority of animals tested.PBS's
2006-04-12: New Research Finds Direct Link Between High Cholesterol And Prostate Cancer Researchers from Italy have found what they believe to be the first direct link between high cholesterol levels and prostate cancer.
2006-02-26: Training Benefits Brains In Older People, Counters Aging Factors New research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that training re-ignites key areas of the brain, offsetting some age-related declines and boosting performance.
2006-02-26: Calcium Plus Vitamin-D Supplementation Does An Older Body Good The older the woman, the more likely that consistent use of calcium and vitamin-D supplements plays a role in reducing her risk for osteoporosis, according to the results of a large national clinical trial conducted as part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI).
2006-01-15: People Who Restrict Calories Have 'Younger' Hearts "Eating less, if it is a high-quality diet, will improve your health, delay aging, and increase your chance of living a long, healthy and happy life," said Luigi Fontana, M.D., Ph.D., from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri and the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome, Italy.
2005-12-31: Depression is bad for your heart According to a large-scale study in Sweden, people who have been diagnosed with depression, especially younger patients between 25 and 50 years of age, are at increased risk of developing Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) later in life.
2005-12-23:: Study Links Length Of Chromosome Ends To A Rare Disease Of Stem Cells A Johns Hopkins geneticist and her team have discovered a critical link between the health of stem cells and the length of the chromosome ends (telomeres) within them.
2005-12-07:: Groundbreaking Guidelines Promote Early Detection
Tweleve million Americans suffer from peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Some of the guidelines include: questions & observations that can uncover hidden signs of peripheral arterial disease; a narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the kidney—and a possible cause of poorly controlled high blood pressure or kidney failure; recommendations on when an aneurysm—a weakening and bulging of the arterial wall—should be treated with surgery or catheter-based therapy, as well as when "watchful waiting" is the best course.
2005-11-20: Bush's FDA Ideologues Stop Emergency Contraception: Professor Frederick Sweet's article concerns the recent FDA ruling that denies a safe emergency contraception for American women.
2005-11-13: Research Finds Cigarette Manufacturers Target Youth Market With Candy Flavored Cigarette Brands: New research from the Harvard School of Public Health finds that cigarette makers are targeting young smokers with candy and liqueur-flavored brands that mask the harsh and toxic properties found in tobacco smoke, and in one case, embedding a flavor pellet within the filter.
2005-10-29: Abortion Does Not Raise Risk Of Depression as reported in the British Medical Journal.
2005-10-27: Preparing for a Pandemic Scientific American's new issue considers a highly contagious and lethal strain of influenza which will sweep across all humanity, claiming millions of lives. It may arrive in months or not for years--but the next pandemic is inevitable.
2005-10-27: Natural carbohydrate helps cut blood sugar Scientists have found a messenger inside cells which switch on enzymes that regulate blood sugar; these findings could lead to new drugs to treat type 2 diabetes.
2005-10-22: Questions linger in U.S. CJD cases More unanswered questions about the safety of American beef.
2005-10-11: Eating Fish Associated With Slower Cognitive Decline Consuming fish at least once a week was associated with a 10 percent per year slower rate of cognitive decline in elderly people.
2005-10-10: A glass of red wine a day keeps the doctor away Cabernet Sauvignon, followed closely by Petit Syrah and Pinot Noir, reduces production of LDL cholesterol (also know as the "bad" cholesterol), boosts high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the good cholesterol) and reduces blood clotting. Grape juice has similar benefits but does little to lower LDL cholesterol.
2005-10-06: Even Moderate Caloric Restriction Lowers Cancer Risk In Mice A study by the National Cancer Institute dated April 23 that moderate caloric restriction reduced by 60 percent the number of precancerous intestinal polyps in mice at high risk of gastrointestinal cancers. Animals eating as much as they wanted of a diet high in olive oil, fruits and vegetables had a third fewer polyps than control mice.
2005-10-06: Low-cost Alternative Drugs Can Help Patients With Problems Controlling Blood PressureScientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have found that two inexpensive Diuretics, or "water pills," amiloride and spironolactone, may help many patients who continue to have high blood pressure despite taking standard blood pressure medications.
2005-10-04: Can Pomegranates Prevent Prostate Cancer? Pomegranate juice, say researchers at University of Wisconsin Medical School, shows major promise to combat prostate cancer. 2005-10-04: Insulin Resistance in the Offspring of Parents with Type 2 Diabetes. Author, Wagenmakers, discusses the paper by Petersen and colleagues on insulin resistance in young lean individuals and its association with reduced phosphate transport into muscle cells and impaired mitochondrial energy generation in muscle.
2005-09-14: U.S. death rates show dramatic decrease U.S. death rates reportedly decreased 32 percent between 1970 and 2002, with the largest decreases recorded for heart disease and stroke.
2005-09-11: Fatty Acids: Good for the Brain and Alzheimer's Disease In a paper appearing online on September 8 in advance of print publication of the October 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nicolas Bazan and colleagues from Louisiana State University identify a specific mechanism by which DHA is neuroprotective in AD.
2005-09-07: MS 101 is a primer (text and video available) on multiple sclerosis from Frederick Munschauer III, MD State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Vincent F. Macaluso, MD MS Infusion Center, Great Neck, New York.
2005-09-04: Physical Fitness Cuts Men's Heart Disease Risk In Half, New Queen's Study Shows Being physically fit can cut in half their risk of heart disease – even when their cholesterol rates are high.
2005-08-28: Scientists Find That Protein Controls Aging By Controlling Insulinl: Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that a protein, called Klotho, prolongs life in mice by controlling insulin. Therapies based on this hormone could prove to be a way to extend life or slow its effects.
2005-08-28: Placebo effect not just psychological: A University of Michigan study suggests just believing a medicine will relieve pain is enough to prompt one's brain to release its own natural painkillers.
2005-08-15: Type-2 insulin resistance studied: Yale scientists say they've uncovered new clues about development of insulin resistance in type-2 diabetics and why such patients easily gain weight.
2005-08-11: Lifestyle And Diet May Stop Or Reverse Prostate Cancer Progression: This University of California study has shown that men that simply altered their lifestyle were able to inhibit prostate tumor growth in vitro by 70 percent. Participants were placed on a vegan diet consisting primarily of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes supplemented with soy, vitamins and minerals. They also participated in moderate aerobic exercise, yoga/meditation, and a weekly support group session.
2005-08-11: Nasal spray clears Alzheimer’s brain plaques: A new nasal vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease has cleared plaques from the brains of affected mice and will be tested in humans in 2006.
2005-08-11: Killer Flu: The 1918 or Spanish Flu killed between 30 and 40 million people compared to 15 million killed from WWI. This interesting PBS show traces the origin of the flu and shows how the war contributed to it being spread. For more information also look at The 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Also, see Wikipedia's Spanish Flu.
2005-07-19: Whatever Happened to Polio? The Smithsonian Institute presents an engaging look at Polio, one of the most notorious diseases of the 20th century. On 1955/04/12, Jonas Salk, using March of Dimes donations from millions of people, announced a vaccine to prevent polio.
2005-05-11: Soft Drink Consumption May Increase Risk of Childhood Obesity: American children consume one-third of their daily calories from nutrient-poor, energy-dense snack foods, which makes nutritional deficiencies another area of concern. Children seem to be choosing soft drinks or sweetened fruit drinks instead of milk, which can decrease their levels of protein, calcium, zinc, and vitamins A and C.., see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050511103429.htm. Routine Procedure During Childbirth Provides No Benefits, Study Review Finds According to a systematic review of existing studies, to appear in the May 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the surgical procedure known as an episiotomy, performed in up ... > Full Story 2005-05-07: Long Live the Mammals: Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle genetically engineered mice to overexpress a gene responsible for making the antioxidant called catalase, directing it into the mitochronia. The results showed a 14% increase in life span, see Antioxidant Redirection.
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