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Thursday, April 19, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Health News

ScienceDaily: Top Health News


Kidney stone mystery solved: Why some people are more prone to develop kidney stones

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:35 PM PDT

New research provides evidence to explain why some people are more likely to develop kidney stones than others. Their discovery opens the door to finding effective drug treatments and a test that could assess a person's risk of the condition.

Marijuana use higher in young adult smokers than previously reported

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:35 PM PDT

Half of young adult tobacco smokers also have smoked marijuana in the last 30 days, according to a recent Facebook-based survey, indicating a greater prevalence of marijuana and tobacco co-use among smokers age 18-25 than previously reported.

Lactating tsetse flies models for lactating mammals?

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 01:23 PM PDT

An unprecedented study of intra-uterine lactation in the tsetse fly reveals that an enzyme found in the fly's milk functions similarly in mammals, making the tsetse a potential model for lipid metabolism during mammalian lactation. Better yet, reduced levels of this enzyme led to poor health in offspring, leading the authors to suggest that targeting it could help decrease the tsetse population in Africa and so reduce the incidence of sleeping sickness.

Crime and punishment: Neurobiological roots of modern justice

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT

Neuroscientists have proposed the first neurobiological model for third-party punishment. It outlines a collection of potential cognitive and brain processes that evolutionary pressures could have re-purposed to make this behavior possible.

Non-surgical test for brain cancer

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT

In a breakthrough for the way brain cancer is diagnosed and monitored, researchers have demonstrated that brain tumors can be reliably diagnosed and monitored without surgery. Previously, an accurate non-surgical test to detect brain tumors was unavailable and methods of monitoring a brain tumor's progression or response to treatment were not reliable.

How selective hearing works in the brain: 'Cocktail party effect' explained

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:50 AM PDT

The longstanding mystery of how selective hearing works -- how people can tune in to a single speaker while tuning out their crowded, noisy environs -- has just been solved. Psychologists have known for decades about the so-called "cocktail party effect," a name that evokes the Mad Men era in which it was coined. It is the remarkable human ability to focus on a single speaker in virtually any environment -- a classroom, sporting event or coffee bar -- even if that person's voice is seemingly drowned out by a jabbering crowd.

Scientists regenerate damaged mouse hearts by transforming scar tissue into beating heart muscle

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:50 AM PDT

Scientists have announced a medical breakthrough that one day may help doctors restore hearts damaged by heart attacks -- by converting scar-forming cardiac cells into beating heart muscle.

Joint failures potentially linked to oral bacteria

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 08:20 AM PDT

The culprit behind a failed hip or knee replacements might be found in the mouth. DNA testing of bacteria from the fluid that lubricates hip and knee joints had bacteria with the same DNA as the plaque from patients with gum disease and in need of a joint replacement.

Big doses of vitamin C may lower blood pressure

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 08:18 AM PDT

Taking large doses of vitamin C may moderately reduce blood pressure, according to an analysis of years of research. But the researchers stopped short of suggesting people load up on supplements.

Green-glowing fish provides new insights into health impacts of pollution

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 06:54 AM PDT

Understanding the damage that pollution causes to both wildlife and human health is set to become much easier thanks to a new green-glowing zebrafish. The fish makes it easier than ever before to see where in the body environmental chemicals act and how they affect health. The fluorescent fish has shown that estrogenic chemicals, which are already linked to reproductive problems, impact on more parts of the body than previously thought.

Hair regeneration from adult stem cells

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 06:50 AM PDT

Scientists have demonstrated "functional hair regeneration from adult stem cells." This is a substantial advance in the development of next-generation of "organ replacement regenerative therapies."

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