Latest Health News

There is yet no straightforward way to determine the optimal dose level and treatment schedules for high-dose radiation therapies such as stereotactic radiation therapy, which is used to treat brain and lung cancer, or for high-dose brachytherapy for prostate and other cancers. Radiation oncologists at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) may have solved the problem by developing a new mathematical model that encompasses all dose levels...

Cigarette smoke shuts off a key enzyme in airways that regulates the body's response to inflammation, according to findings from the University of Alabama at Birmingham published online at Science Express. The UAB researchers say smoke inhibits the enzyme, called Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase (LTA4H), causing it to fail in its job of shutting down white blood cells following a successful response to inflammation. The team says the research study identified a previously unknown substrate of LTA4H called proline-glycine-proline (PGP)...

UCSF researchers have unveiled a prototype model of the first implantable artificial kidney, in a development that one day could eliminate the need for dialysis. The device, which would include thousands of microscopic filters as well as a bioreactor to mimic the metabolic and water-balancing roles of a real kidney, is being developed in a collaborative effort by engineers, biologists and physicians nationwide, led by Shuvo Roy, PhD, in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences...

In a first person paper published in the August 27, 2010 issue of Childhood Obesity, Dr. Melinda Sothern, Director of Health Promotion and Professor of Public Health at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, provides three ways to de-program the 1950s obesity trinity underlying the current obesity epidemic in the United States and protect future generations from its health consequences. "The combination of prenatal tobacco use, infant formula, and frequent pregnancies - i.e...

Scripps Research Institute scientists have identified two proteins with potential to be important targets for research into a wide range of health problems, including pain, deafness, and cardiac and kidney dysfunction. The study was published in Science Express, the advanced, online edition of the journal Science. In the study, the Scripps Research scientists identify two proteins, which they named Piezo1 and Piezo2 from the Greek meaning "pressure," involved in the cellular response to mechanical stimulation...

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), a professional organization of member scientists, opposes the Federal District Court injunction that froze federal funding for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. ARVO is troubled by this barrier to research that has the potential to restore sight and mitigate eye damage. ARVO members investigate hESC therapies for treating diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and corneal disease, along with studies related to eye tissue transplantation, regeneration and engineering...

Sugar, salt, alcohol and a little serendipity led a Northwestern University research team to discover a new class of nanostructures that could be used for gas storage and food and medical technologies. And the compounds are edible. The porous crystals are the first known all-natural metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that are simple to make. Most other MOFs are made from petroleum-based ingredients, but the Northwestern MOFs you can pop into your mouth and eat, and the researchers have. "They taste kind of bitter, like a Saltine cracker, starchy and bland," said Ronald A...

A new study from the University of Arizona shows that people in the midst of a divorce typically reveal how they are handling things - not so much by what they say but how they say it. In fact, data revealed that even complete strangers were able to figure out how people were coping with their emotions using relatively small amounts of information...

Major depression is a common and disabling brain condition marked not only by the presence of depressed mood but also by its effects on sleep, energy, decision-making, memory and thoughts of death or of suicide. Major depression affects 15 million adults in the U.S., and the World Health Organization projects that by 2020, it will be the largest contributor to disability in the world after heart disease. While antidepressants have helped many to recover and resume their lives, only 30 percent of patients will experience full remission with the first medication they use...

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have developed a new animal model for studying hemophilia A, with the goal of eventually treating people with the disorder. Hemophilia A, a hereditary defect that prevents blood from clotting normally, is caused by a variety of mutations in the factor VIII gene...

Female induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, reprogrammed from human skin cells into cells that have the embryonic-like potential to become any cell in the body, retain an inactive X chromosome, stem cell researchers at UCLA have found. The finding could have implications for studying X chromosome-linked diseases such as Rett syndrome, caused by mutations in a gene located on the X chromosome...

One of the big, unsolved problems in explaining how life arose on Earth is a chicken-and-egg paradox: How could the basic biochemicals - such as amino acids and nucleotides - have arisen before the biological catalysts (proteins or ribozymes) existed to carry out their formation? In a paper appearing in the current issue of The Biological Bulletin, scientists propose that a third type of catalyst could have jumpstarted metabolism and life itself, deep in hydrothermal ocean vents...

An international collaboration led by a University of Pennsylvania anthropologist has shown that environmental factors, like temperature and light, play as much of a role in the activity of traditionally nocturnal monkeys as the circadian rhythm that regulates periods of sleep and wakefulness. The study also indicates that when the senses relay information on these environmental factors, it can influence daily activity and, in the case of a particular monkey species, may have even produced evolutionary change...

Queen's researchers have found that people with Parkinson's disease can perform automated tasks better than people without the disease, but have significant difficulty switching from easy to hard tasks. The findings are a step towards understanding the aspects of the illness that affect the brain's ability to function on a cognitive level. "We often think of Parkinson's disease as being a disorder of motor function," says Douglas Munoz, director of the Queen's Centre for Neuroscience Studies and a Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience...

Ten years on, Martin McKee reflects on report placing health system performance rankings firmly on political agenda. Martin McKee, Professor of European Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has contributed one of three commentaries appearing today in the journal Health Policy and Planning, each of which take a different perspective on the World Health Report 2000 on health systems (WHR2000)...

Only about one in every six Americans who have ever been overweight or obese loses weight and maintains that loss, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. While that number is larger than most weight-loss clinical trials report, the majority of Americans are still unable to lose weight and keep it off. Identifying those who lose weight and successfully maintain that loss may aid health professionals in developing approaches to help others maintain weight loss, the researchers say...

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified unique metabolic properties that allow a specific type of stem cell in the body to survive and replicate in low-oxygen environments. In a study published in the September issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, investigators found that the low-oxygen microenvironments that ordinarily deprive and starve other kinds of cells are tolerated by a type of stem cell used as the primary material for bone-marrow transplantation. These cells, called hematopoietic stem cells, are found in marrow and can replicate quickly...

Researchers at The University of Western Ontario have provided the first direct evidence using a biological marker, to show chronic stress plays an important role in heart attacks. Stressors such as job, marital and financial problems have been linked to the increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease including heart attack. But there hasn't been a biological marker to measure chronic stress. Drs...

Robert Webster, an influenza expert, says health authorities worldwide need to remain watchful for possible influenza outbreaks, despite swine flu being much less deadly than people had originally feared. Webster, chairman of the virology and molecular biology department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, says that bird flu remains a possible threat and could be the cause of the next global outbreak...

Under an agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) will provide support for primary and urgent care services in the borough of Braddock, Pennsylvania and neighboring communities through expanded hours and services at the Braddock Family Health Center...