ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Energy squeeze: Squeezing silicone polymers produces chemical energy but raises doubts about implant safety
• Atomic view of a histone chaperone
• Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery
• Lifestyle choices made in your 20s can impact your heart health in your 40s
• Holding a mirror to brain changes in autism
• Cocoa may enhance skeletal muscle function
• Effects of environmental toxicants reach down through generations
• Tortoise and the hare: New drug stops rushing cancer cells, slow and steady healthy cells unharmed
• R-loops break down gene silencing
• Artificial 'womb' unlocks secrets of early embryo development
• Drugs: 'New' does not always mean 'better'
• Parkinson's disease stopped in animal model: Molecular 'tweezers' break up toxic aggregations of proteins
• New high definition fiber tracking reveals damage caused by traumatic brain injury
• How the body senses a range of hot temperatures
• Diabetes risk from sitting around
• Training can improve memory and increase brain activity in mild cognitive impairment
• Should we play hide-and-go-seek with our children's vegetables?
• New pathway found for regulation of blood vessel growth in cancer
• Molecule's role in cancer suggests new combination therapy
• Increased fertility rate for IVF patients achieved by new equipment design
• Aspirin may counteract potential trans fat-related stroke risk in older women
• New possibilities for immune suppression through cyclic plant peptides

Energy squeeze: Squeezing silicone polymers produces chemical energy but raises doubts about implant safety Posted: 02 Mar 2012 04:39 PM PST Scientists turned to squeezed polymers and free radicals in a search for new energy sources. They found both promise and problems. The researchers demonstrated that radicals from compressed polymers generate significant amounts of energy that can power chemical reactions in water. They also discovered that a silicone polymer commonly used in medical implants releases a large quantity of harmful free radicals when the polymer is under only a moderate amount of pressure.

Atomic view of a histone chaperone Posted: 02 Mar 2012 04:38 PM PST Researchers have gained insights into the function of a member of a family of specialized proteins called histone chaperones. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography, they have determined the 3-D structure and interactions of the histone chaperone Rtt106 down to the atomic details.

Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery Posted: 02 Mar 2012 04:37 PM PST A new power scheme for cardiac pacemakers turns to an unlikely source: vibrations from heartbeats themselves.

Lifestyle choices made in your 20s can impact your heart health in your 40s Posted: 02 Mar 2012 10:24 AM PST Maintaining a healthy lifestyle from young adulthood into your 40s is strongly associated with low cardiovascular disease risk in middle age, according to a new study.

Holding a mirror to brain changes in autism Posted: 02 Mar 2012 10:23 AM PST Impaired social function is a cardinal symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).  One of the brain circuits that enable us to relate to other people is the "mirror neuron" system. This brain circuit is activated when we watch other people, and allows our brains to represent the actions of others, influencing our ability to learn new tasks and to understand the intentions and experiences of other people. This mirror neuron system is impaired in individuals with ASD and better understanding the neurobiology of this system could help in the development of new treatments.

Cocoa may enhance skeletal muscle function Posted: 02 Mar 2012 10:22 AM PST A small clinical trial found that patients with advanced heart failure and type 2 diabetes showed improved mitochondrial structure after three months of treatment with epicatechin-enriched cocoa. Epicatechin is a flavonoid found in dark chocolate.

Effects of environmental toxicants reach down through generations Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:18 AM PST Scientists have now demonstrated that a variety of environmental toxicants can have negative effects on not just an exposed animal but the next three generations of its offspring. The animal's DNA sequence remains unchanged, but the compounds change the way genes turn on and off -- the epigenetic effect, according to molecular biologists. The researchers saw females reaching puberty earlier, increased rates in the decay and death of sperm cells and lower numbers of ovarian follicles that later become eggs.

Tortoise and the hare: New drug stops rushing cancer cells, slow and steady healthy cells unharmed Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:18 AM PST The American Cancer Society estimates that 44,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed this year and that 37,000 people will die from the disease. These are not strong odds. A new drug, rigosertib, allows pancreatic cancer cells to rush through replication -- and then stops them cold, killing them in in the middle of a step called M phase. Healthy cells that don't rush are unharmed.

R-loops break down gene silencing Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:17 AM PST Researchers have figured out how the human body keeps essential genes switched "on" and silences the vast stretches of genetic repeats and "junk" DNA.

Artificial 'womb' unlocks secrets of early embryo development Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:15 AM PST Pioneering work has helped reveal for the first time a vital process in the development of the early mammalian embryo.

Drugs: 'New' does not always mean 'better' Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:15 AM PST Cases in which a newly approved drug is more effective than the cheaper alternatives already available are the exceptions rather than the rule.

Parkinson's disease stopped in animal model: Molecular 'tweezers' break up toxic aggregations of proteins Posted: 02 Mar 2012 07:14 AM PST Researchers have used specific molecular "tweezers" they developed to break-up aggregates of toxic proteins that are thought to cause Parkinson's disease. For the first time, they stopped progression of the disease in a living animal model.

New high definition fiber tracking reveals damage caused by traumatic brain injury Posted: 02 Mar 2012 05:32 AM PST A powerful new imaging technique called High Definition Fiber Tracking will allow doctors to clearly see for the first time neural connections broken by traumatic brain injury and other disorders, much like X-rays show a fractured bone, according to researchers. HDFT could provide an objective way of identifying brain injury, predicting outcome and planning rehabilitation.

How the body senses a range of hot temperatures Posted: 02 Mar 2012 05:32 AM PST The winter sun feels welcome, but not so a summer sunburn. Research over the past 20 years has shown that proteins on the surface of nerve cells enable the body to sense several different temperatures.

Diabetes risk from sitting around Posted: 02 Mar 2012 05:29 AM PST A new study has found that women who stay seated for long periods of time every day are more prone to developing type 2 diabetes, but that a similar link wasn't found in men.

Training can improve memory and increase brain activity in mild cognitive impairment Posted: 01 Mar 2012 03:09 PM PST If someone has trouble remembering where the car keys or the cheese grater are, new research shows that a memory training strategy can help. Memory training can even re-engage the hippocampus, part of the brain critical for memory formation, the results suggest. The techniques used in the study were shown to work in people with mild cognitive impairment.

Should we play hide-and-go-seek with our children's vegetables? Posted: 01 Mar 2012 03:09 PM PST Pass the peas please! How often do we hear our children say this? According to a recent survey of adolescents, only 21 percent of our children eat the recommended five or more fruits and vegetables per day. So not very many children are asking their parents to "pass the peas," and parents are resorting to other methods to get their children to eat their vegetables.

New pathway found for regulation of blood vessel growth in cancer Posted: 01 Mar 2012 11:38 AM PST Researchers have identified a new function for a gene that normally prevents the development of cancer. Scientists had known that the gene, which encodes a protein called p14 ARF, works inside the cell to control proliferation and division. A team has discovered that p14 ARF also regulates tumor-induced angiogenesis, the process by which growing cancers attract new blood vessels.

Molecule's role in cancer suggests new combination therapy Posted: 01 Mar 2012 11:33 AM PST Researchers have found that a molecule found at elevated levels in cancer cells seems to protect them from the "cell-suicide" that is usually triggered by chemotherapy or radiation.

Increased fertility rate for IVF patients achieved by new equipment design Posted: 01 Mar 2012 05:43 AM PST A novel system for processing embryos during IVF treatment has been shown to significantly improve the chances of pregnancy -- by more than a quarter.

Aspirin may counteract potential trans fat-related stroke risk in older women Posted: 01 Mar 2012 05:41 AM PST Older women whose diets include a substantial amount of trans fats are more likely than their counterparts to suffer an ischemic stroke, a new study shows. However, the risk of stroke associated with trans fat intake was lower among women taking aspirin.

New possibilities for immune suppression through cyclic plant peptides Posted: 01 Mar 2012 05:39 AM PST Scientists have decoded a mechanism in cyclic plant peptides, known as cyclotides, from the family of coffee plants (Rubiaceae) that could open up new possibilities for immune suppression.

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