ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Whole exome sequencing identifies cause of metabolic disease
• Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging and neurodegenerative diseases
• A lonely heart can make you sick: Middle aged divorced women vulnerable to contracting HIV
• Regular use of vitamin and mineral supplements could reduce the risk of colon cancer, study suggests
• Schooling protects refugee children from disease
• Placebo effect: New study shows how to boost the power of pain relief, without drugs
• Warfarin and aspirin are similar in heart failure treatment, study suggests
• Rare mutations may help explain aneurysm in high-risk families
• Coughing and other respiratory symptoms improve within weeks of smoking cessation
• New hope for patients with brain tumors
• New drug doesn't improve disability among stroke patients, researchers find
• Clopidogrel with aspirin doesn't prevent more small strokes, may increase risk of bleeding and death, researchers report
• New device performs better than old for removing blood clots, research shows
• Preference for fatty foods may have genetic roots
• Lower levels of sunlight exposure link to allergy and eczema in children, study suggests
• New procedure repairs severed nerves in minutes, restoring limb use in days or weeks
• New technology to tackle treatment-resistant cancers
• Schizophrenia: When hallucinatory voices suppress real ones, new electronic application may help
• Can immune cells from healthy people pulverize cancer?
• Breastfeeding linked to improved lung function at school-age, especially with asthmatic mothers
• Malaria kills nearly twice as many people than previously thought, but deaths declining rapidly
• Triglyceride levels predict stroke risk in postmenopausal women
• Rituximab possible treatment option for patients with primary biliary cirrhosis
• Food poisoning: Understanding how bacteria come back from the 'dead'
• Potential new treatment identified for leishmaniasis
• Gene regulator in brain's executive hub tracked across lifespan
• A zap of cold plasma reduces harmful bacteria on raw chicken
• Massage is promising for muscle recovery: Researchers find 10 minutes reduces inflammation
• Blood test accurately distinguishes depressed patients from healthy controls

Whole exome sequencing identifies cause of metabolic disease Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:26 PM PST Sequencing a patient's entire genome to discover the source of his or her disease is not routine, but geneticists are getting close. A case report shows how researchers can combine a simple blood test with an "executive summary" scan of the genome to diagnose a severe glycosylation disorder.

Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging and neurodegenerative diseases Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:09 PM PST One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain.

A lonely heart can make you sick: Middle aged divorced women vulnerable to contracting HIV Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:09 PM PST Newly divorced middle aged women are more vulnerable to contract HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to new research, because they tend to let their guard down with new sexual partners and avoid using protection since they are not afraid of getting pregnant.

Regular use of vitamin and mineral supplements could reduce the risk of colon cancer, study suggests Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:15 AM PST Could the use of vitamin and mineral supplements in a regular diet help to reduce the risk of colon cancer and protect against carcinogens? A study published in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology found that rats given regular multivitamin and mineral supplements showed a significantly lower risk of developing colon cancer when they were exposed to carcinogens.

Schooling protects refugee children from disease Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:15 AM PST Refugee children have scant access to medical care and are particularly vulnerable to disease. Fresh research results show that just a few hours of schooling a week may have a pronounced positive impact on their health not only in childhood but later in life when they achieve adulthood.

Placebo effect: New study shows how to boost the power of pain relief, without drugs Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:15 AM PST Placebos reduce pain by creating an expectation of relief. Distraction -- say, doing a puzzle -- relieves it by keeping the brain busy. But do they use the same brain processes? Neuromaging suggests they do. When applying a placebo, scientists see activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. That's the part of the brain that controls high-level cognitive functions like working memory and attention -- which is what you use to do that distracting puzzle.

Warfarin and aspirin are similar in heart failure treatment, study suggests Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:14 AM PST In the largest and longest head-to-head comparison of two anti-clotting medications, warfarin and aspirin were similar in preventing deaths and strokes in heart failure patients with normal heart rhythm, according to new research.

Rare mutations may help explain aneurysm in high-risk families Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:14 AM PST An innovative approach to genome screening has provided clues about rare mutations that may make people susceptible to brain aneurysms, predisposing them to brain bleeds, according to preliminary research.

Coughing and other respiratory symptoms improve within weeks of smoking cessation Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:11 AM PST If the proven long-term benefits of smoking cessation are not enough to motivate young adults to stop smoking, a new study shows that 18- to 24-year olds who stop smoking for at least two weeks report substantially fewer respiratory symptoms, especially coughing.

New hope for patients with brain tumors Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:11 AM PST In the United States, each year, approximately 10,000 patients are affected by recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. Now, a novel investigational device – available only at clinical trial sites – is offering new hope to these patients.

New drug doesn't improve disability among stroke patients, researchers find Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:33 AM PST A new drug that showed promise in animal studies and an early clinical trial didn't improve disability among stroke patients, according to new research.

Clopidogrel with aspirin doesn't prevent more small strokes, may increase risk of bleeding and death, researchers report Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:33 AM PST The anti-blood clot regimen that adds the drug clopidogrel (Plavix) to aspirin treatment is unlikely to prevent recurrent strokes and may increase the risk of bleeding and death in patients with subcortical stroke, according to new research.

New device performs better than old for removing blood clots, research shows Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:33 AM PST An experimental blood clot-removing device outperformed the FDA-approved MERCI; retriever device, according to new research.

Preference for fatty foods may have genetic roots Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:33 AM PST A preference for fatty foods has a genetic basis, according to researchers, who discovered that people with certain forms of the CD36 gene may like high-fat foods more than those who have other forms of this gene.

Lower levels of sunlight exposure link to allergy and eczema in children, study suggests Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:33 AM PST Increased exposure to sunlight may reduce the risk of both food allergies and eczema in children, according to a new scientific study.

New procedure repairs severed nerves in minutes, restoring limb use in days or weeks Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:24 AM PST Scientists believe a new procedure to repair severed nerves could result in patients recovering in days or weeks, rather than months or years. The team used a cellular mechanism similar to that used by many invertebrates to repair damage to nerve axons.

New technology to tackle treatment-resistant cancers Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:20 AM PST Free-flowing cancer cells have been mapped with unprecedented accuracy in the bloodstream of patients with prostate, breast and pancreatic cancer, using a brand new approach, in an attempt to assess and control the disease as it spreads in real time through the body, and solve the problem of predicting response and resistance to therapies. In comparison to a previous generation of systems, the researchers state their test showed a significantly greater number of high-definition circulating tumour cells (HD-CTCs), in a higher proportion of patients, by using a computing-intensive method that enables them to look at millions of normal cells and find the rare cancer cells among them.

Schizophrenia: When hallucinatory voices suppress real ones, new electronic application may help Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:20 AM PST When a patient afflicted with schizophrenia hears inner voices something is taking place inside the brain that prevents the individual from perceiving real voices. A simple electronic application may help the patient learn to shift focus.

Can immune cells from healthy people pulverize cancer? Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:18 AM PST Immune cells from healthy individuals can be the new immune cure for cancer. This treatment can kill cancer cells without destroying neighboring cells. The hope is to eradicate cancer for ever.

Breastfeeding linked to improved lung function at school-age, especially with asthmatic mothers Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:14 AM PST Breastfeeding is associated with improved lung function at school age, particularly in children of asthmatic mothers, according to a new study.

Malaria kills nearly twice as many people than previously thought, but deaths declining rapidly Posted: 02 Feb 2012 05:17 PM PST Malaria is killing more people worldwide than previously thought -- 1.2 million -- but the number of deaths has fallen rapidly as efforts to combat the disease have ramped up, according to new research. Researchers say that deaths from malaria have been missed by previous studies because of the assumption that the disease mainly kills children under age five.

Triglyceride levels predict stroke risk in postmenopausal women Posted: 02 Feb 2012 01:45 PM PST The traditional risk factors for stroke – such as high cholesterol – are not as accurate at predicting risk in postmenopausal women as previously thought. Instead, researchers say doctors should refocus their attention on triglyceride levels to determine which women are at highest risk of suffering a devastating and potentially fatal cardiovascular event.

Rituximab possible treatment option for patients with primary biliary cirrhosis Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:17 PM PST An open-label study of rituximab, a monoclonal antibody for human CD20, was shown to be safe in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis who had an incomplete response to the standard ursodeoxycholic acid therapy. Rituximab was successful in reducing the level of alkaline phosphatase -- a protein used to measure liver injury, according to the new study.

Food poisoning: Understanding how bacteria come back from the 'dead' Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:12 PM PST Salmonella remains a serious cause of food poisoning, in part due to its ability to thrive and quickly adapt to the different environments in which it can grow. New research has taken a detailed look at what Salmonella does when it enters a new environment, which could provide clues to finding new ways of reducing transmission through the food chain and preventing human illness.

Potential new treatment identified for leishmaniasis Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:12 PM PST Researchers have identified fexinidazole as a possible, much-needed, new treatment for the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis.

Gene regulator in brain's executive hub tracked across lifespan Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:11 PM PST Scientists have tracked the activity, across the lifespan, of an environmentally responsive regulatory mechanism that turns genes on and off in the brain's executive hub. Genes implicated in schizophrenia and autism are among those in which regulatory activity peaks during an environmentally-sensitive critical period in development. The mechanism, called DNA methylation, abruptly switches from off to on within the human brain's prefrontal cortex during this pivotal transition from fetal to postnatal life.

A zap of cold plasma reduces harmful bacteria on raw chicken Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:07 PM PST A new study demonstrates that plasma can be an effective method for killing pathogens on uncooked poultry.

Massage is promising for muscle recovery: Researchers find 10 minutes reduces inflammation Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:32 PM PST Researchers have discovered a brief 10-minute massage helps reduce inflammation in muscle. As a non-drug therapy, massage holds the potential to help not just bone-weary athletes but those with inflammation-related chronic conditions, such as arthritis or muscular dystrophy. While massage is well accepted as a therapy for relieving muscle tension and pain, the researchers delved deeper to find it also triggers biochemical sensors that can send inflammation-reducing signals to muscle cells.

Blood test accurately distinguishes depressed patients from healthy controls Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:09 AM PST The initial assessment of a blood test to help diagnose major depressive disorder indicates it may become a useful clinical tool. Researchers report that analyzing levels of nine biomarkers accurately distinguished patients diagnosed with depression from control participants without significant false-positive results.

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