ScienceDaily: Top Health News

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• Long-term consequences for those suffering traumatic brain injury
• Gene therapy reprograms scar tissue in damaged hearts into healthy heart muscle
• Shifting the balance between good fat and bad fat
• Pioneering research on Type 2 diabetes
• Pronunciation of 's' sounds impacts perception of gender, researcher finds
• Physicians call for change in cancer tissue handling
• Rainfall, brain infection linked in sub-Saharan Africa
• Why good resolutions about taking up a physical activity can be hard to keep
• Consumers judge their risk of catching an illness by the cost of the cure
• How prostate cancer therapies compare by cost and effectiveness
• Pesticides and Parkinson's: Further proof of a link uncovered
• Induction of adult cortical neurogenesis by an antidepressant
• Breast milk contains more than 700 species of bacteria, Spanish researchers find

Long-term consequences for those suffering traumatic brain injury Posted: 04 Jan 2013 12:51 PM PST Researchers studying the long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) using rat models, have found that, overtime, TBI results in progressive brain deterioration characterized by elevated inflammation and suppressed cell regeneration. However, therapeutic intervention, even in the chronic stage of TBI, may still help prevent cell death.

Gene therapy reprograms scar tissue in damaged hearts into healthy heart muscle Posted: 04 Jan 2013 12:51 PM PST A cocktail of three specific genes can reprogram cells in the scars caused by heart attacks into functioning muscle cells, and the addition of a gene that stimulates the growth of blood vessels enhances that effect, said researchers.

Shifting the balance between good fat and bad fat Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:37 AM PST Researchers have a new theory about what causes the body to store more fat and burn less energy in obesity -- a protein called p62. According to a new study, when p62 is missing in fat, the body's metabolic balance shifts -- inhibiting "good" brown fat, while favoring "bad" white fat. These findings indicate that p62 might make a promising target for new therapies aimed at obesity.

Pioneering research on Type 2 diabetes Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:37 AM PST While legions of medical researchers have been looking to understand the genetic basis of disease and how mutations may affect human health, one group of biomedical researchers is studying the metabolism of cells and their surrounding tissue, to ferret out ways in which certain diseases begin. This approach, which includes computer modeling, can be applied to Type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases, among others.

Pronunciation of 's' sounds impacts perception of gender, researcher finds Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:37 AM PST A person's style of speech -- not just the pitch of his or her voice -- may help determine whether the listener perceives the speaker to be male or female, according to a researcher who studied transgender people transitioning from female to male.

Physicians call for change in cancer tissue handling Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:36 AM PST Physicians say that traditional specimen handling methods threaten to slow the benefits of using genetic sequencing to diagnose and treat cancer. Routine freezing of tissue would retain its genetic coding while preserving it for future analysis.

Rainfall, brain infection linked in sub-Saharan Africa Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:36 AM PST The amount of rainfall affects the number of infant infections leading to hydrocephalus in Uganda, according to a team of researchers who are the first to demonstrate that these brain infections are linked to climate.

Why good resolutions about taking up a physical activity can be hard to keep Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:36 AM PST Physical inactivity is a major public health problem that has both social and neurobiological causes. According to the results of a new survey the French have put "taking up a sport" at the top of their list of good resolutions for 2013.

Consumers judge their risk of catching an illness by the cost of the cure Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:34 AM PST Consumers make irrational inferences about their health risks based on the price of their medicine.

How prostate cancer therapies compare by cost and effectiveness Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:34 AM PST The most comprehensive retrospective study ever conducted comparing how the major types of prostate cancer treatments stack up to each other in terms of saving lives and cost effectiveness have been reported.

Pesticides and Parkinson's: Further proof of a link uncovered Posted: 04 Jan 2013 07:14 AM PST Researchers have found a link between Parkinson's disease and the pesticide Benomyl, whose toxicological effects still linger in the environment, 10 years after it was banned by the EPA. More important, the research suggests the way this pesticide does its damage may occur in other people with Parkinson's, even for those who were not exposed to this pesticide.

Induction of adult cortical neurogenesis by an antidepressant Posted: 04 Jan 2013 07:14 AM PST The production of new neurons in the adult normal cortex in response to the antidepressant, fluoxetine, is reported in a new study.

Breast milk contains more than 700 species of bacteria, Spanish researchers find Posted: 04 Jan 2013 05:31 AM PST Researchers have traced the bacterial microbiota map in breast milk and identified the species of microbes taken from breast milk by infants. The study has revealed a larger microbial diversity than originally thought: more than 700 species. The breast milk received from the mother is one of the factors determining how the bacterial flora will develop in the newborn baby. The study reveals that the milk of overweight mothers or those who put on more weight than recommended during pregnancy contains a lesser diversity of species.

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