ScienceDaily: Top Health News

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• Salad at high school concession stands!?
• Years of High School Football not linked to Neurocognitive Decline, study suggests
• Contagious yawning a mystery: May not be linked to empathy after all
• Do you know whether this story was written by a human?
• Genes may thwart seniors' exercise gains
• Blood poisoning increases the risk of blood clots, new research shows
• Link between diabetes, pancreatic cancer found
• Bone lengthening technique proves useful in patients with cleft palate
• New approach to chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment
• New cell line should accelerate embryonic stem cell research
• Older adults: Build muscle and you'll live longer
• Drivers with hemianopia fail to detect pedestrians, study shows
• Critical role of one gene to our brain development
• Blood test identifies brain damage from concussion in ice hockey
• Patients with schizophrenia have impaired ability to imitate, brain mapping confirms
• Mindfulness-based meditation helps teenagers with cancer
• Emotion detectors could make driving safer
• New stroke research combines brain stimulation, gait training
• Body's fatty folds may help fight kidney failure
• Stroke survivors may lose month of healthy life for 15-minute delay in treatment
• Husband's health, attitude loom large for happy long-term marriages
• Vitamin D hypothesis challenged: Some racial disparities in childbirth more environmental than genetic
• Reversible mechanism that increases muscle elasticity discovered
• Immune cells need each other to combat deadly lung-invading fungus
• Purified fish oils could help treat rare disease affecting newborn babies

Salad at high school concession stands!? Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:22 PM PDT Is there something that can be done to improve the healthfulness of high school concession stand food, and preserve the profits they generate? According to this new study the answer is yes! This study shows that if you give people healthy foods they will buy them and be more satisfied, one of the authors said.

Years of High School Football not linked to Neurocognitive Decline, study suggests Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:20 PM PDT As more parents consider whether it's safe for adolescents to play football, a new study of high school players found no link between years of play and any decline in neurocognitive function. The study suggests that the risks of sport-related brain injuries are relatively low.

Contagious yawning a mystery: May not be linked to empathy after all Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:18 PM PDT While previous studies have suggested a connection between contagious yawning and empathy, new research finds that contagious yawning may decrease with age and is not strongly related to variables like empathy, tiredness and energy levels. Contagious yawning is a well-documented phenomenon that occurs only in humans and chimpanzees in response to hearing, seeing or thinking about yawning.

Do you know whether this story was written by a human? Posted: 14 Mar 2014 01:41 PM PDT A recent study investigates how readers perceive computer-generated news articles.  The advent of new technologies has always spurred questions about changes in journalism -- how it is produced and consumed. A recent development which has come to the fore in the digital world is software-generated content. A recent article investigates how readers perceive automatically produced news articles vs. articles which have been written by a journalist.

Genes may thwart seniors' exercise gains Posted: 14 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT The ACE I/D gene and how its variations -- the ID, DD, and II genotypes -- cause some seniors' to lose out on the benefits of exercise, new research shows. These findings suggest that the ACE I/D genotype may be a significant factor in how well seniors respond to exercise. This insight could be used to develop more effective, individualized, and senior-friendly exercise recommendations for improving physical function and preventing in disability.

Blood poisoning increases the risk of blood clots, new research shows Posted: 14 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT The world's largest study of the correlation between blood poisoning and the risk of blood clots is underway. In recent years there has been a growing level of interest for the correlation between the risk of blood clots and infections such as blood poisoning. The researchers hope that the new knowledge can be utilized to ensure better prevention and earlier treatment.

Link between diabetes, pancreatic cancer found Posted: 14 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT There is an association between pancreatic cancer and diabetes, new research indicates. While the numbers of pancreatic cancer in the population are relatively low, the study suggests a screening program should be considered. "The priority on screening should be on patients with new-onset diabetes but can later be expanded to long-standing diabetic patients," concluded the lead author.

Bone lengthening technique proves useful in patients with cleft palate Posted: 14 Mar 2014 08:13 AM PDT A technique called distraction osteogenesis can create increased length of the upper jaw in patients with cleft lip and palate deformities, report researchers. In this technique, hardware is placed to gradually "stretch" bone in the desired direction. The researchers studied the bone-lengthening approach because the maxilla often regresses toward its original position after standard surgical advancement techniques.

New approach to chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment Posted: 14 Mar 2014 08:13 AM PDT A novel and unique approach to treating Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), a form of blood cancer that often requires repeated chemotherapy treatments to which it grows resistant, as been developed by scientists. Unlike other novel therapies that have shown promise in the treatment of CLL, this approach is unique because it does not directly target proteins within the B-cell receptor pathway, but instead uses novel model systems that reverse the pro-survival effects of the microenvironment.

New cell line should accelerate embryonic stem cell research Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:51 AM PDT A new line of human embryonic stem cells that have the ability to develop into a far broader range of tissues than most existing cell lines has been created by researchers. The cells, called naïve embryonic stem cells, normally appear at the earliest stages of embryonic development. They retain the ability to turn into any of all the different types of cells of the human body -- a capacity called "pluripotency."

Older adults: Build muscle and you'll live longer Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:51 AM PDT The more muscle mass older Americans have, the less likely they are to die prematurely, new research shows. The findings add to the growing evidence that overall body composition -- and not the widely used body mass index, or BMI -- is a better predictor of all-cause mortality. "In other words, the greater your muscle mass, the lower your risk of death," said the study's co-author. "Thus, rather than worrying about weight or body mass index, we should be trying to maximize and maintain muscle mass."

Drivers with hemianopia fail to detect pedestrians, study shows Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:50 AM PDT A diagnosis of hemianopia, or blindness in one-half of the visual field in both eyes as the result of strokes, tumors or trauma often means the end of driving. Researchers set out to determine the extent to which people with hemianopia can compensate for the lost vision when driving, with a long term goal of developing and evaluating devices and training that will assist them to drive more safely. The findings suggest that the scanning patterns employed by some drivers with hemianopia may be insufficient for safe driving.

Critical role of one gene to our brain development Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:50 AM PDT A gene linked to intellectual disability is critical to the earliest stages of the development of human brains, new research has confirmed. An international research team explains in a new paper how mutations in USP9X are associated with intellectual disability. These mutations, which can be inherited from one generation to the next, have been shown to cause disruptions to normal brain cell functioning.

Blood test identifies brain damage from concussion in ice hockey Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:36 AM PDT Half way into last year's season, 35 of 288 players in the Swedish Hockey League had already had a concussion. Researchers who surveyed all of the players in the league's 12 clubs, have now developed a method that can show just an hour after the injury how severe the concussion is, if there is a risk of long-term symptoms and about when the player can return to the game.

Patients with schizophrenia have impaired ability to imitate, brain mapping confirms Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:35 AM PDT A brain-mapping study of patients with schizophrenia has found that areas associated with the ability to imitate are impaired, providing new support for the theory that deficits in this basic cognitive skill may underlie the profound difficulty with social interactions that characterize the disorder. According to psychologists, imitation is something that we all do whenever we learn a new skill, whether it is dancing or how to behave in specific social situations.

Mindfulness-based meditation helps teenagers with cancer Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:26 PM PDT Mindfulness-based meditation could lessen some symptoms associated with cancer in teens, according to the results of a clinical trial intervention. Mindfulness-based meditation focuses on the present moment and the connection between the mind and body. Adolescents living with cancer face not only the physical symptoms of their condition, but also the anxiety and uncertainty related to the progression of the disease, the anticipation of physical and emotional pain related to illness and treatment, the significant changes implied in living with cancer, as well as the fear of recurrence after remission

Emotion detectors could make driving safer Posted: 13 Mar 2014 02:30 PM PDT Technology now allows us to read facial expressions and identify which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, or suspicion. This is very useful in video game development, medicine, marketing, and, perhaps less obviously, in driver safety. We know that in addition to fatigue, the emotional state of the driver is a risk factor.

New stroke research combines brain stimulation, gait training Posted: 13 Mar 2014 02:29 PM PDT A researcher will test whether brain stimulation combined with gait training can improve patients' ability to walk after a stroke. People 50 or older who have had a stroke will be enrolled in the study and receive gait-training on a treadmill. The treatment group will receive transcranial direct current stimulation prior to gait training. Electrical stimulation will be administered in combination with motor training of the ankle, as a major problem for people trying to walk after stroke is an inability to flex the ankle on their affected side.

Body's fatty folds may help fight kidney failure Posted: 13 Mar 2014 02:29 PM PDT In a new study, it was observed that in rats with kidney disease, functioning of the kidney improved when the organ was fused with the omentum, a fatty fold of tissue that lies close to the kidney and is a rich source of stem cells. The findings suggest that stem cells from a chronic kidney disease patient's own omentum may help heal diseased kidneys without the need for an outside source of cells.

Stroke survivors may lose month of healthy life for 15-minute delay in treatment Posted: 13 Mar 2014 01:45 PM PDT Every 15-minute delay in delivering a clot-busting drug after stroke robs survivors of an average month of healthy life. Streamlining the time from symptom onset to clot-busting treatment by just one minute means one less day of disability for a survivor. While all stroke patients benefit from faster treatment, younger patients seem to gain more benefit than older patients.

Husband's health, attitude loom large for happy long-term marriages Posted: 13 Mar 2014 01:44 PM PDT A husband's agreeable personality and good health appear crucial to preventing conflict among older couples who have been together a long time, according to a study. The report found that such characteristics in wives play less of a role in limiting marital conflict, perhaps because of different expectations among women and men in durable relationships.

Vitamin D hypothesis challenged: Some racial disparities in childbirth more environmental than genetic Posted: 13 Mar 2014 12:42 PM PDT A new study investigating racial disparities in birth outcomes shows that contrary to some theories, vitamin D is unlikely to play a role in differences in preterm birth and low birth weight between African-Americans and whites. "For years there has been this hypothesis that African-Americans have worse birth outcomes because they have more melanin in their skin which reflects the sun and therefore lowers levels of Vitamin D," said the study's author. "But in examining the relationship between ultraviolet exposure and birth outcomes nationwide, there was no evidence to support this."

Reversible mechanism that increases muscle elasticity discovered Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:31 AM PDT A new form of mechanical memory that adjusts the elasticity of muscles to their history of stretching has been discovered. Using highly sensitive atomic force microscopes, the researchers detected a chemical reaction that increases the elasticity of muscle proteins. Crucially, this reaction targets molecules that have been exposed to a stretching force. This finding changes our understanding of how muscles respond to stretching and may lead to new treatments of muscle disorders.

Immune cells need each other to combat deadly lung-invading fungus Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:25 AM PDT Although long recognized as an essential defense against the lung-invading fungus Asperfillus fumigatus, Neutrophils actually require a little help from fellow immune cells, according to a study. The work suggests that although neutrophils alone may contain the fungus initially (these cells are the first on the scene), they need help from inflammatory monocytes for sustained control of infection.

Purified fish oils could help treat rare disease affecting newborn babies Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:27 AM PDT A rare and potentially lethal disease of newborn babies whose bodies make too much insulin may be treatable with fish oils, according to researchers. The disease, called congenital hyperinsulinism, means that the infant's brain is starved of blood sugar which can lead to brain damage or long-term disability. But by giving the children purified fish oils similar to those used to treat some heart attack patients, alongside standard medical treatment, their blood sugar levels improve, the researchers have reported.

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