ScienceDaily: Top Health News

---

• New understanding of asthma development: Transmission of respiratory viruses in utero
• Knee bracing can 'significantly' reduce pain of kneecap osteoarthritis, study suggests
• Slow walking speed linked with premature death in kidney disease patients
• High-salt diet and ulcer bug combine to increase risk of cancer
• Topical use of arthritis drug provides relief for dry eye disease, study suggests
• New research holds promise for treatments for a range of women's health issues
• Nanoparticles found in everyday items can inhibit fat storage: Gold nanoparticles accelerate aging
• Community gardens may produce more than vegetables
• Risk factor for depression can be 'contagious'
• Child's counting comprehension may depend on objects counted, study shows
• Smoking from hookah not a harmless alternative to cigarettes
• Cold winters freezing out breast cancer treatment
• Ethnicity may influence antibody genes: Immunity-related DNA sections could vary depending on ethnicity
• Learning disabilities affect up to 10 percent of children
• Three mutations at BRCA1 gene responsible for breast and ovarian hereditary cancer identified
• Outpatients, hospital patients face growing, but different problems with antibiotic resistance
• First steps of synapse building is captured in live zebra fish embryos
• Anesthesia increases success rates of turning breech babies, reduces delivery costs
• Experts examine Mediterranean diet's health effects for older adults
• Bursts of brain activity may protect against Alzheimer's disease
• More efforts needed to regulate dietary supplements, experts urge
• Big boost in drug discovery: New use for stem cells identifies a promising way to target ALS
• Learned helplessness in flies and the roots of depression
• 'Health MOT' programme could uncover 440,000 new diabetes, heart or kidney patients per year
• Study to treat deadly form of thyroid cancer shows promise
• Hologram-like 3-D brain helps researchers decode migraine pain
• High levels of glutamate in brain may kick-start schizophrenia: Implications for early diagnosis and new treatment strategies
• Toxic protein made in unusual way may explain brain disorder
• Stem cell senescence drives aging, study suggests
• Scientists throw new light on DNA copying process
• Role-playing game brings new life to a 'dead' language
• Increased brain activity predicts future onset of substance use
• Researchers abuzz over caffeine as 'cancer-cell killer'
• From mice to humans, comfort is being carried by mom
• Teens' brains are more sensitive to rewarding feedback from peers
• New computational model can predict breast cancer survival
• Scientists reveal natural process that blocks viruses
• Mindfulness therapy might help veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder
• Inpatients who have STEMI heart attacks more likely to die than outpatients

New understanding of asthma development: Transmission of respiratory viruses in utero Posted: 18 Apr 2013 06:40 PM PDT The most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children, respiratory syncytial virus, can be transferred during pregnancy to an unborn baby, according to new research.

Knee bracing can 'significantly' reduce pain of kneecap osteoarthritis, study suggests Posted: 18 Apr 2013 06:39 PM PDT Wearing a knee brace has been shown to "significantly improve the pain and symptoms" of a type of osteoarthritis affecting the kneecap, according to a new study.

Slow walking speed linked with premature death in kidney disease patients Posted: 18 Apr 2013 06:39 PM PDT Kidney disease patients who have slower walking speed on physical performance tests seem to be more burdened by their disease than patients who perform well on lower extremity physical performance tests, according to a new study. The findings indicate that measuring lower extremity physical performance may capture a complex set of skeletal muscle and neurologic impairments that develop in CKD patients and substantially affect their survival.

High-salt diet and ulcer bug combine to increase risk of cancer Posted: 18 Apr 2013 01:23 PM PDT Numerous epidemiologic studies have shown that a diet high in salt is associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer. Now researchers have shown that high dietary salt combined with infection by the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori greatly increases the risk of cancer.

Topical use of arthritis drug provides relief for dry eye disease, study suggests Posted: 18 Apr 2013 01:23 PM PDT An estimated nine million people in the United State alone suffer from significant dry eye disorder. Researchers have shown that topical anakinra (Kineret; Amgen Inc.), a recombinant version of human IL-1Ra approved for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, significantly reduced dry eye symptoms.

New research holds promise for treatments for a range of women's health issues Posted: 18 Apr 2013 01:23 PM PDT Natural lubricants play an important role in health, including helping prevent osteoarthritis in joints. Much is still unknown about their role and function in other areas of the body. Researchers for the first time have discovered that the surface of the eye produces "lubricin," the same substance that protects the joints, and have explained its role in this sensory organ.

Nanoparticles found in everyday items can inhibit fat storage: Gold nanoparticles accelerate aging Posted: 18 Apr 2013 01:21 PM PDT An increase in gold nanoparticles can accelerate aging and wrinkling, slow wound healing and cause the onset of diabetes.

Community gardens may produce more than vegetables Posted: 18 Apr 2013 01:21 PM PDT People who participate in community gardening have a significantly lower BMIs —- as well as lower odds of being overweight or obese -— than do their non-gardening neighbors, according to a new study.

Risk factor for depression can be 'contagious' Posted: 18 Apr 2013 12:44 PM PDT A new study with college roommates shows that a particular style of thinking that makes people vulnerable to depression can actually "rub off" on others, increasing their symptoms of depression six months later.

Child's counting comprehension may depend on objects counted, study shows Posted: 18 Apr 2013 12:44 PM PDT Psychologists have found that use of certain objects for counting have mixed results with preschoolers, particularly if those objects are rich in perceptual detail (bright and shiny).

Smoking from hookah not a harmless alternative to cigarettes Posted: 18 Apr 2013 12:43 PM PDT Smoking tobacco through a hookah is a pastime gaining popularity among the college crowd, but many of them mistakenly believe that using the fragrant water pipe is less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

Cold winters freezing out breast cancer treatment Posted: 18 Apr 2013 11:23 AM PDT For women diagnosed with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, tamoxifen is an essential drug used in treatment and prevention. Currently, tamoxifen is used in a one-size-fits-all approach where the same dose is prescribed for every patient. New research has found that in addition to patient-specific genetic factors, lack of exposure to vitamin D during the long winter months affects the body's ability to metabolize the drug.

Ethnicity may influence antibody genes: Immunity-related DNA sections could vary depending on ethnicity Posted: 18 Apr 2013 11:23 AM PDT Cracking the DNA code for a complex region of the human genome has helped scientists chart new territory in immunity research. They have discovered that a good number of our antibody genes and, potentially, what they fight off actually vary from person to person. After completely sequencing the immensely repetitive DNA in the human genome's immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus, they have also found ethnicity may influence immunity.

Learning disabilities affect up to 10 percent of children Posted: 18 Apr 2013 11:23 AM PDT Up to 10 percent of the population are affected by specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism, translating to 2 or 3 pupils in every classroom, according to a new review.

Three mutations at BRCA1 gene responsible for breast and ovarian hereditary cancer identified Posted: 18 Apr 2013 10:41 AM PDT Researchers conducted a functional and structural study of seven missense variants of the BRCA1 gene concluding that three of these variants are pathogenic, linked to the risk of suffering breast or ovarian cancer.

Outpatients, hospital patients face growing, but different problems with antibiotic resistance Posted: 18 Apr 2013 10:41 AM PDT A new study concludes that problems with antibiotic resistance faced by outpatients may be as bad as those in hospitalized patients, and that more studies of outpatients are needed -- both to protect their health and to avoid inappropriate or unnecessary drug use.

First steps of synapse building is captured in live zebra fish embryos Posted: 18 Apr 2013 10:41 AM PDT Using spinning disk microscopy on barely day-old zebra fish embryos, scientists have gained a new window on how synapse-building components move to worksites in the central nervous system.

Anesthesia increases success rates of turning breech babies, reduces delivery costs Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:57 AM PDT A new study shows anesthesia is cost-effective in turning breech babies because it increases the likelihood the procedure will work.

Experts examine Mediterranean diet's health effects for older adults Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:57 AM PDT According to a new study, a baseline adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower risk of hyperuricemia, defined as a serum uric acid concentration higher than 7mg/dl in men and higher than 6mg/dl in women.

Bursts of brain activity may protect against Alzheimer's disease Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:57 AM PDT Scientists have found that bursts of electrical pulses applied to the brain can manipulate the balance of two proteins crucial to the development of Alzheimer's disease. It represents a major advance in understanding how not only genetic mutations but also physiological mechanisms affect the development of the disease.

More efforts needed to regulate dietary supplements, experts urge Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:49 AM PDT Dietary supplements accounted for more than half the Class 1 drugs recalled by the US Food and Drug Administration from 2004-12, meaning they contained substances that could cause serious health problems or even death, a new study has found.

Big boost in drug discovery: New use for stem cells identifies a promising way to target ALS Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:49 AM PDT Using a new stem-cell based drug screening technology with the potential to reinvent and greatly reduce the cost of the way new pharmaceuticals are developed, researchers have found a compound more effective in protecting the neurons killed in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- Lou Gehrig's disease -- than two drugs that failed in human clinical trials after hundreds of millions of dollars had been invested in them.

Learned helplessness in flies and the roots of depression Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:48 AM PDT When faced with impossible circumstances beyond their control, animals, including humans, often hunker down as they develop sleep or eating disorders, ulcers, and other physical manifestations of depression. Now, researchers show that the same kind of thing happens to flies.

'Health MOT' programme could uncover 440,000 new diabetes, heart or kidney patients per year Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:48 AM PDT Researchers believe a new health MOT-style program for over-40s is likely to uncover more diabetes, kidney or heart patients than expected.

Study to treat deadly form of thyroid cancer shows promise Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:48 AM PDT A combination of therapies may prove to be a promising advance for the treatment of anaplastic thyroid cancer based on results of a phase I clinical trial, say researchers. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is one of the deadliest of all cancers. Nearly all patients diagnosed with this cancer die from it, and life expectancies are measured in weeks to a few months.

Hologram-like 3-D brain helps researchers decode migraine pain Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:46 AM PDT Wielding a joystick and wearing special glasses, a pain researcher rotates and slices apart a large, colorful, 3-D brain floating in space before him.

High levels of glutamate in brain may kick-start schizophrenia: Implications for early diagnosis and new treatment strategies Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:46 AM PDT An excess of the brain neurotransmitter glutamate may cause a transition to psychosis in people who are at risk for schizophrenia. The findings suggest a potential diagnostic tool for identifying those at risk for schizophrenia and a possible glutamate-limiting treatment strategy to prevent or slow progression of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

Toxic protein made in unusual way may explain brain disorder Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:43 AM PDT A bizarre twist on the usual way proteins are made may explain mysterious symptoms in the grandparents of some children with mental disabilities. The discovery may lead to better treatments for older adults with a recently discovered genetic condition called Fragile X-associated Tremor Ataxia Syndrome.

Stem cell senescence drives aging, study suggests Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:43 AM PDT Declining levels of the protein BubR1 occur when both people and animals age, and contribute to cell senescence or deterioration, weight loss, muscle wasting and cataracts.

Scientists throw new light on DNA copying process Posted: 18 Apr 2013 07:43 AM PDT Scientists have thrown new light on the way breakdowns in the DNA copying process inside cells can contribute to cancer and other diseases.

Role-playing game brings new life to a 'dead' language Posted: 18 Apr 2013 07:42 AM PDT In one Latin class, students learn Latin playing heroes from Graeco-Roman myth — bringing a 'dead' language to life through a role-playing game. The application of game theory in the classroom can be used to teach any foreign language.

Increased brain activity predicts future onset of substance use Posted: 18 Apr 2013 07:01 AM PDT Do people get caught in the cycle of overeating and drug addiction because their brain reward centers are over-active, causing them to experience greater cravings for food or drugs? In a unique prospective study scientists tested this theory, called the reward surfeit model. The results indicated that elevated responsivity of reward regions in the brain increased the risk for future substance use, which has never been tested before prospectively with humans.

Researchers abuzz over caffeine as 'cancer-cell killer' Posted: 18 Apr 2013 07:01 AM PDT Scientists are using caffeine and fruit flies to pinpoint genetic pathways that guide DNA repair in cancer cells.

From mice to humans, comfort is being carried by mom Posted: 18 Apr 2013 06:59 AM PDT There is a very good reason mothers often carry their crying babies, pacing the floor, to help them calm down. New research shows that infants experience an automatic calming reaction upon being carried, whether they are mouse or human babies.

Teens' brains are more sensitive to rewarding feedback from peers Posted: 17 Apr 2013 01:50 PM PDT Teenagers are risk-takers -- they're more likely than children or adults to experiment with illicit substances, have unprotected sex, and drive recklessly. But research shows that teenagers have the knowledge and ability to make competent decisions about risk. So what explains their risky behavior? Scientists argue that this risky behavior may reflect the unique effect of peer influence on the still-developing teenage brain.

New computational model can predict breast cancer survival Posted: 17 Apr 2013 01:48 PM PDT Researchers have developed a new computational model that is highly predictive of breast cancer survival and, they hope, perhaps all cancers.

Scientists reveal natural process that blocks viruses Posted: 17 Apr 2013 10:07 AM PDT The human body has the ability to ward off viruses by activating a naturally occurring protein at the cellular level, setting off a chain reaction that disrupts the levels of cholesterol required in cell membranes to enable viruses to enter cells. The findings hold promise for the development of therapies to fight a variety of viral infections.

Mindfulness therapy might help veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder Posted: 17 Apr 2013 10:00 AM PDT A new study shows that veterans with PTSD who completed a mindfulness-based group treatment plan showed a significant reduction in symptoms as compared to patients who underwent treatment as normal.

Inpatients who have STEMI heart attacks more likely to die than outpatients Posted: 17 Apr 2013 08:39 AM PDT A new study finds that patients who suffer a STEMI heart attack while hospitalized are 10 times more likely to die than patients who suffer a STEMI outside the hospital.

You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Top Health News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610