ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Early depression, anger may taint love life even 20 years later, study shows
• As carbon dioxide levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall, researchers find
• Ticks abundant in New York and region despite cold winter
• Semi-synthetic organism: Scientists create first living organism that transmits added letters in DNA 'alphabet'
• A hydrogel that knows when to go
• Clinicians may be driving racial disparities in health, review finds
• Ability to isolate, grow breast tissue stem cells could speed cancer research
• Psilocybin inhibits the processing of negative emotions in the brain
• Repeated preschool wheeze may set stage for long-term damage in lung function
• Using DNA to build tool that may literally shine light on cancer
• Statistical test increases power of genetic studies of complex disease
• Black male incarceration can compromise research studies
• Surgeons 'light up' GI tract to safely remove gall bladder
• Perceived age, weight discrimination worse for health than perceived racism, sexism
• College kids need to change unhealthy ways
• Low self-rating of social status predicts heart disease risk
• Impulsivity is risk factor for food addiction
• Social workers can help patients recover from mild traumatic brain injuries
• How heart stem cells orchestrate regeneration

Early depression, anger may taint love life even 20 years later, study shows Posted: 07 May 2014 10:27 AM PDT Negative emotions people may have suffered as young adults can have a lasting grip on their couple relationships, well into middle age, research demonstrates. The study followed 341 people for 25 years, and found that negative emotions they may have suffered as young adults can have a lasting grip on their couple relationships, well into middle age. The fact that depression and anger experienced during the teen years clung to people, even through major life events such as child-rearing, marriages and careers was surprising, researchers note.

As carbon dioxide levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall, researchers find Posted: 07 May 2014 10:26 AM PDT Researchers have some bad news for future farmers and eaters: As carbon dioxide levels rise this century, some grains and legumes will become significantly less nutritious than they are today.

Ticks abundant in New York and region despite cold winter Posted: 07 May 2014 10:21 AM PDT Experts explain why tick populations are still high in New York and surrounding areas -- and provide tips about how to avoid ticks and tick bites.

Semi-synthetic organism: Scientists create first living organism that transmits added letters in DNA 'alphabet' Posted: 07 May 2014 10:21 AM PDT Scientists have engineered a bacterium whose genetic material includes an added pair of DNA "letters," or bases, not found in nature; the bacterium's cells can replicate the unnatural DNA bases more or less normally, as long as the molecular building blocks are supplied.

A hydrogel that knows when to go Posted: 07 May 2014 08:47 AM PDT Bioengineers have created a hydrogel that instantly turns from liquid to semisolid at close to body temperature -- and then degrades at precisely the right time. The gel shows potential as a bioscaffold to support the regrowth of bone and other three-dimensional tissues in a patient's body using the patient's own cells to seed the process.

Clinicians may be driving racial disparities in health, review finds Posted: 07 May 2014 07:04 AM PDT Patients from minority ethnic groups in the U.S. may be facing racist attitudes and beliefs that can unintentionally affect their treatment, a review of healthcare providers has found. The world's first review explored interpersonal racism perpetrated by healthcare providers, a key driver of racial disparities in health. Interpersonal racism refers to racist interactions between individuals, rather than internalized or systemic or institutional racism.

Ability to isolate, grow breast tissue stem cells could speed cancer research Posted: 07 May 2014 07:04 AM PDT By carefully controlling the levels of two proteins, researchers have discovered how to keep mammary stem cells -- those that can form breast tissue -- alive and functioning in the lab. The new ability to propagate mammary stem cells is allowing them to study both breast development and the formation of breast cancers.

Psilocybin inhibits the processing of negative emotions in the brain Posted: 07 May 2014 06:57 AM PDT Emotions like fear, anger, sadness, and joy enable people to adjust to their environment and react flexibly to stress and strain and are vital for cognitive processes, physiological reactions, and social behavior. The processing of emotions is closely linked to structures  in the brain, i.e. to what is known as the limbic system. Within this system the amygdala  plays a central role – above all it processes negative emotions like anxiety and fear. If the activity of the amygdala becomes unbalanced, depression and anxiety disorders may develop.

Repeated preschool wheeze may set stage for long-term damage in lung function Posted: 07 May 2014 06:53 AM PDT Children who wheeze are at risk of developing damage that will affect their lung function by the age of 6 years, according to researchers. These appear to be persistent, even if asthma symptoms seem to disappear at least temporarily by school age in several cases. Children with recurrent symptoms that are severe enough to warrant a visit to the emergency department are particularly at risk of seeing their lung function affected.

Using DNA to build tool that may literally shine light on cancer Posted: 07 May 2014 06:53 AM PDT DNA has been used by researchers to develop a tool that detects and reacts to chemical changes caused by cancer cells and that may one day be used to deliver drugs to tumor cells. The researchers' nanosensor measures pH variations at the nanoscale -- how acidic or alkaline it is. Many biomolecules, such as enzymes and proteins, are strongly regulated by small pH changes. These changes affect in turn biological activities such as enzyme catalysis, protein assembly, membrane function and cell death. There is also a strong relation between cancer and pH.

Statistical test increases power of genetic studies of complex disease Posted: 07 May 2014 06:53 AM PDT The power of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to detect genetic influences on human disease can be substantially increased using a statistical testing framework. Despite the proliferation of GWAS, the associations found so far have largely failed to account for the known effects of genes on complex disease -- the problem of "missing heritability." Standard approaches also struggle to find combinations of multiple genes that affect disease risk in complex ways (known as genetic interactions). The new framework enhances the ability to detect genetic associations and interactions by taking advantage of data from other genomic studies of the same population.

Black male incarceration can compromise research studies Posted: 06 May 2014 04:07 PM PDT Federal restrictions on including prisoners in medical research have negatively impacted research involving black men, who are disproportionately imprisoned, according to a study. Because individuals who are already in ongoing studies must be dropped if they are incarcerated, this compromises the ability of researchers to examine racial disparities in health outcomes studies.

Surgeons 'light up' GI tract to safely remove gall bladder Posted: 06 May 2014 04:05 PM PDT A green fluorescent dye is helping surgeons perform robotic gall bladder surgery more safely. The surgeons in a recently published study used near-infrared light to make the indocyanine green dye light up, allowing them to better see the biliary tract. Injury to the bile duct is rare -- only 0.3 percent of the nearly 600,000 cholecystectomies performed in the U.S. annually -- but it can cause severe complications to patients. Surgeons are increasingly performing the gall bladder surgery robotically -- for better ergonomics, visualization and placement of surgical instruments.

Perceived age, weight discrimination worse for health than perceived racism, sexism Posted: 06 May 2014 04:05 PM PDT Perceived age and weight discrimination, more than perceived race and sex discrimination, are linked to worse health in older adults, according to new research. "Our previous research showed that perceived discrimination based on body weight was associated with risk of obesity. We wanted to see whether this association extended to other health indicators and types of discrimination," said lead author of the study.

College kids need to change unhealthy ways Posted: 06 May 2014 01:13 PM PDT A new study has found that the majority of college students are engaging in unhealthy behaviors that could increase their risk of cancer later on. A shocking 95 percent of college students fail to eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables (five or more servings a day), and more than 60 percent report not getting enough physical activity (three or more days of vigorous exercise for at least 20 minutes or five or more days of moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes a week).

Low self-rating of social status predicts heart disease risk Posted: 06 May 2014 12:18 PM PDT How a person defines their own socioeconomic standing (SES) within their community can help predict their risk of cardiovascular disease, but only among Whites, not Blacks, finds a recent study. "We know objective measures of SES like income, education, and occupation and how that influences cardiovascular disease risk can be 'measured' by an outsider, but we wondered about the influence when a person evaluates their own social standing, even as they struggle to meet basic needs," says lead study author.

Impulsivity is risk factor for food addiction Posted: 06 May 2014 11:21 AM PDT Have you ever said to yourself that you would only have a handful of potato chips from the bag then, minutes later, realized you ate the whole thing? A recent study shows that this type of impulsive behavior might not be easily controlled -- and could be a risk factor in the development of food addiction and eating disorders as a result of cellular activities in the part of the brain involved with reward.

Social workers can help patients recover from mild traumatic brain injuries Posted: 06 May 2014 11:21 AM PDT A 20-minute conversation with a social worker has the potential to significantly reduce the functional decline of those diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury. More than a million people are treated for mild traumatic brain injuries in U.S. hospitals and emergency rooms each year. Yet few receive appropriate psychological and social follow-up care that can make the difference in whether or not they fully recover.

How heart stem cells orchestrate regeneration Posted: 06 May 2014 10:01 AM PDT Investigators – whose previous research showed that cardiac stem cell therapy reduces scarring and regenerates healthy tissue after a heart attack in humans – have identified components of those stem cells responsible for the beneficial effects. In a series of laboratory and lab animal studies, researchers found that exosomes, tiny membrane-enclosed "bubbles" involved in cell-to-cell communication, convey messages that reduce cell death, promote growth of new heart muscle cells and encourage the development of healthy blood vessels.

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