ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Alzheimer's drug candidate may be first to prevent disease progression, mouse study suggests
• Brain's failure to appreciate others may permit human atrocities
• Magnetic stimulation of brain may help some stroke patients recover
• Brain-heart link may explain sudden death in Rett syndrome
• Heart drug may be effective for managing certain cancers, study suggests
• Cigarette and alcohol use at historic low among teens
• Human proteins that may fuel HIV/AIDS transmission identified
• Follow your nose: Compared to Neanderthals, modern humans have a better sense of smell
• Antioxidant has potential in the Alzheimer's fight
• Simple test to help diagnose bowel and pancreatic cancer could save thousands of lives
• Microbial contamination found in orange juice squeezed in bars and restaurants, Spanish study suggests
• Caffeine study shows sport performance increase
• Endangered orangutans offer a new evolutionary model for early humans
• 'Pep talk' can revive immune cells exhausted by chronic viral infection
• Potential explanation for mechanisms of associative memory
• Healing serious bone injuries faster than ever before

Alzheimer's drug candidate may be first to prevent disease progression, mouse study suggests Posted: 14 Dec 2011 01:21 PM PST A new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer's disease, based on the findings of a new study.

Brain's failure to appreciate others may permit human atrocities Posted: 14 Dec 2011 01:21 PM PST It may be that a person can become callous enough to commit human atrocities because of a failure in the part of the brain that's critical for social interaction. A new study suggests this function may disengage when people encounter others they consider disgusting.

Magnetic stimulation of brain may help some stroke patients recover Posted: 14 Dec 2011 01:20 PM PST Imagine waking up and being unable to see or recognize anything on the left side of your body. This condition, called hemispatial neglect, is common after a stroke that occurs on the right side of the brain. The current treatment of attention and concentration training using computer and pencil-and-paper tasks is inadequate.

Brain-heart link may explain sudden death in Rett syndrome Posted: 14 Dec 2011 11:47 AM PST Poets might scoff at the notion that heart and brain are closely related, but scientists say a genetic defect that affects the brain can stop a heart. In a new study, researchers found that heart problems that occur in nearly 20 percent of children with Rett syndrome, a neurological disorder, originate because the Rett gene is lost in nerve cells -- not in heart muscle cells.

Heart drug may be effective for managing certain cancers, study suggests Posted: 14 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST Researchers have identified a new mechanism that could potentially explain why the body's immune system sometimes fails to eliminate cancer. The new findings shed light on the possible cause of immune resistance in cancer cells, and indicate that nitroglycerin, a relatively safe and low-cost drug used for more than a century to treat angina, may be effective for managing certain cancers.

Cigarette and alcohol use at historic low among teens Posted: 14 Dec 2011 09:59 AM PST Cigarette and alcohol use by eighth, 10th and 12th-graders are at their lowest point since the Monitoring the Future survey began polling teenagers in 1975, according to this year's survey results. However, this positive news is tempered by a slowing rate of decline in teen smoking as well as continued high rates of abuse of other tobacco products (e.g., hookahs, small cigars, smokeless tobacco), marijuana and prescription drugs.

Human proteins that may fuel HIV/AIDS transmission identified Posted: 14 Dec 2011 09:58 AM PST Scientists have discovered new protein fragments in semen that enhance the ability of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to infect new cells -- a discovery that one day could help curb the global spread of this deadly pathogen.

Follow your nose: Compared to Neanderthals, modern humans have a better sense of smell Posted: 14 Dec 2011 07:18 AM PST High-tech medical imaging techniques were recently used to access internal structures of fossil human skulls. Researchers used sophisticated 3-D methods to quantify the shape of the basal brain as reflected in the morphology of the skeletal cranial base. Their findings reveal that the human temporal lobes, involved in language, memory and social functions as well as the olfactory bulbs are relatively larger in Homo sapiens than in Neanderthals.

Antioxidant has potential in the Alzheimer's fight Posted: 14 Dec 2011 06:48 AM PST A new study has shown that an antioxidant can delay the onset of all the indicators of Alzheimer's disease, including cognitive decline. The researchers administered an antioxidant compound called MitoQ to mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's.

Simple test to help diagnose bowel and pancreatic cancer could save thousands of lives Posted: 14 Dec 2011 06:48 AM PST A simple online calculator could offer family GPs a powerful new tool in tackling two of the most deadly forms of cancer, say researchers.

Microbial contamination found in orange juice squeezed in bars and restaurants, Spanish study suggests Posted: 14 Dec 2011 06:46 AM PST Scientists have analyzed fresh orange juice squeezed by machines in catering establishments. They have confirmed that 43% of samples exceeded the acceptable enterobacteriaceae levels laid down by legislation. The researchers recommend that oranges are handled correctly, that juicers are washed properly and that the orange juice is served immediately rather than being stored in metal jugs.

Caffeine study shows sport performance increase Posted: 14 Dec 2011 06:45 AM PST Caffeine combined with carbohydrate could be used to help athletes perform better on the field, according to new research.

Endangered orangutans offer a new evolutionary model for early humans Posted: 13 Dec 2011 05:33 PM PST Studying how the orangutans cope with a harsh environment may offer a glimpse into what early human ancestors faced, new research suggests.

'Pep talk' can revive immune cells exhausted by chronic viral infection Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:02 PM PST Chronic infections by viruses such as HIV or hepatitis C eventually take hold because they wear the immune system out, a phenomenon immunologists describe as exhaustion. Yet exhausted immune cells can be revived after the introduction of fresh cells that act like coaches giving a pep talk, researchers have found.

Potential explanation for mechanisms of associative memory Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:00 PM PST Researchers have discovered that a chemical compound in the brain can weaken the synaptic connections between neurons in a region of the brain important for the formation of long-term memories. The findings may also provide a potential explanation for the loss of memory associated with Alzheimer's.

Healing serious bone injuries faster than ever before Posted: 13 Dec 2011 06:21 AM PST A human-made package filled with nature's bone-building ingredients delivers the goods over time and space to heal serious bone injuries faster than products currently available, researchers have found.

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