ScienceDaily: Top Health News

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• Brain size may determine whether you are good at keeping friends
• Embryonic stem cells shift metabolism in cancer-like way upon implanting in uterus
• Home alone: Depression highest for those living alone
• Beta cell stress could trigger the development of type 1 diabetes
• Getting the dirt on immunity: Scientists show evidence for hygiene hypothesis
• A new shortcut for stem cell programming
• What we don't talk about when we don't talk about sex
• Prenatal exposure to combustion-related pollutants and anxiety, attention problems in young children
• Stress management for breast cancer patients may affect disease course
• Unexpected discovery reveals a new mechanism for how the cerebellum extracts signal from noise

Brain size may determine whether you are good at keeping friends Posted: 24 Mar 2012 11:55 AM PDT Researchers are suggesting that there is a link between the number of friends you have and the size of the region of the brain -- known as the orbital prefrontal cortex -- that is found just above the eyes. A new study shows that this brain region is bigger in people who have a larger number of friendships.

Embryonic stem cells shift metabolism in cancer-like way upon implanting in uterus Posted: 23 Mar 2012 05:55 PM PDT When an embryo implants in the uterus, the low-oxygen environment provokes some of its cells to shift to a sugar-busting metabolism. In cancer cells, the same shift releases fuel and materials for rapid tumor growth and division. In the embryo, the shift prepares for dramatic growth and formation of layers that later become organs. The researchers also saw a mitochondrial downshift linked to aging and disease controlling normal embryonic development. It may protect cells that later become eggs or sperm from oxidant damage.

Home alone: Depression highest for those living alone Posted: 22 Mar 2012 09:12 PM PDT The number of people living on their own has doubled, over the last three decades, to one in three in the UK and US. New research shows that the risk of depression, measured by people taking antidepressants, is almost 80% higher for those living alone compared to people living in any kind of social or family group. For women a third of this risk was attributable to sociodemographic factors, such as lack of education and low income. For men the biggest contributing factors included poor job climate, lack of support at the work place or in their private lives, and heavy drinking.

Beta cell stress could trigger the development of type 1 diabetes Posted: 22 Mar 2012 12:15 PM PDT In type 1 diabetes (T1D), pancreatic beta cells die from a misguided autoimmune attack, but how and why that happens is still unclear. Now, scientists have found that a specific type of cellular stress takes place in pancreatic beta cells before the onset of T1D, and that this stress response in the beta cell may in fact help ignite the autoimmune attack.

Getting the dirt on immunity: Scientists show evidence for hygiene hypothesis Posted: 22 Mar 2012 11:21 AM PDT Medical professionals have suggested that the hygiene hypothesis explains the global increase of allergic and autoimmune diseases in urban settings. However, neither biologic support nor a mechanistic basis for the hypothesis has been directly demonstrated. Until now.

A new shortcut for stem cell programming Posted: 22 Mar 2012 10:15 AM PDT Scientists have succeeded in directly generating brain stem cells from the connective tissue cells of mice.

What we don't talk about when we don't talk about sex Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT Results of a national survey of US obstetrician-gynecologists regarding communication with patients about sex confirm that too often doctors aren't having "the talk" with their patients. The study found that only 40 percent of those surveyed routinely ask questions to assess for sexual problems or dysfunction. Far fewer, 29 percent, routinely ask patients about satisfaction with their sexual lives and 28 percent routinely confirm a patient's sexual orientation.

Prenatal exposure to combustion-related pollutants and anxiety, attention problems in young children Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT Mothers' exposure during pregnancy to a class of air pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) can lead to behavioral problems in their children. PAH are released to air during incomplete combustion of fossil fuel such as diesel, gasoline, coal, and other organic material. The study is the first report of associations between child attentional and behavioral problems among school-age children and two complementary measures of prenatal PAH exposure.

Stress management for breast cancer patients may affect disease course Posted: 21 Mar 2012 10:20 AM PDT Researchers have shown that a stress management program tailored to women with breast cancer can alter tumor-promoting processes at the molecular level. The new study is one of the first to link psychological intervention with genetic expression in cancer patients.

Unexpected discovery reveals a new mechanism for how the cerebellum extracts signal from noise Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:15 AM PDT New research has demonstrated the novel expression of an ion channel in Purkinje cells -- specialized neurons in the cerebellum, the area of the brain responsible for movement.

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