ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Cheaper private health care prices mean more Medicare spending
• Prompt, appropriate medical care for dislocated shoulder injuries
• Restrooms: Not as unhealthy as you might think
• Test for horse meat developed
• Supplemental co-enzyme Q may prevent heart disease in some individuals
• How lungs protect themselves from infection
• Plant used in traditonal Chinese medicine may treat metabolic diseases and obesity
• How early trauma influences behavior
• Clue to why females live longer than males
• Ciliopathies lie behind many human diseases
• Genetic mutation responsible for serious disorder common in Inuit discovered
• New therapeutic strategy for chronic kidney disease
• Revolutionizing genome engineering
• Duality in the human genome
• Gene associated with an aggressive breast cancer uncovered
• Men's sperm quality declines with age, review of 90 studies confirms
• Sleep apnea linked to impaired exercise capacity
• Natural 'high' could avoid chronic marijuana use
• WHACK! Study measures head blows in girls' lacrosse
• Lapses in infection control associated with spread of severe respiratory virus MERS, according to study
• Warning to bariatric surgery patients: Take your supplements, for eye's sake
• Athletes perform better when exposed to subliminal visual cues
• Cold-related asthma attacks predictable with new test
• Some newborns lose weight much faster than previously recognized
• Unhappy hour: Non-drinkers devise strategies to navigate booze-centered work events
• Many people with missing teeth don't need dentures
• Widening wage gap linked to more deaths among black Americans
• High school football players show brain changes after one season, even in absence of concussions
• Imaging shows brain connection breakdown in early Alzheimer's disease
• 3-D printing used to guide human face transplants
• Researchers design model to predict effects of chemical substances on health
• Understanding the Brain's 'Suffocation Alarm'
• Bilingualism delays Alzheimer's manifestation by more than four years
• Causal link between antibiotics, childhood asthma dismissed
• Breast cancer vaccine shows promise in small clinical trial
• HIV drug blocks bone metastases in prostate cancer
• Child treated in U.S. emergency department every 3 minutes for a toy-related injury
• Preoperative interventions improve patient outcomes after cardiac surgery
• Structure of Neuron-Connecting Synaptic Adhesion Molecules Discovered
• Does sleep really shorten when we get older?
• Bitter food but good medicine from cucumber genetics
• Saatchi Bill threatens to undermine Hippocratic Oath, experts say

Cheaper private health care prices mean more Medicare spending Posted: 01 Dec 2014 10:26 AM PST Doctors may be shifting health care services to Medicare when they stand to make money by doing so, though further study is required, researchers report.

Prompt, appropriate medical care for dislocated shoulder injuries Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:53 AM PST Prompt and appropriate treatment of a dislocated shoulder -- when the head of the upper arm bone is completely knocked out of the shoulder socket -- can minimize risk for future dislocations as well as the effects of related bone, muscle and nerve injuries, according to a literature review.

Restrooms: Not as unhealthy as you might think Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:53 AM PST Microbial succession in a sterilized restroom begins with bacteria from the gut and the vagina, and is followed shortly by microbes from the skin. Restrooms are dominated by a stable community structure of skin and outdoor associated bacteria, with few pathogenic bacteria making them similar to other built environments such as your home, researchers report.

Test for horse meat developed Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:53 AM PST A fast, cheap alternative to DNA testing has been developed as a means of distinguishing horse meat from beef. Because horses and cattle have different digestive systems, the fat components of the two meats have different fatty acid compositions. The new method looks at differences in the chemical composition of the fat in the meats, using NMR-based technology.

Supplemental co-enzyme Q may prevent heart disease in some individuals Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:52 AM PST New research involving rats suggests that if you were born at a low birth weight, supplemental co-enzyme Q may lower your risk for heart disease.

How lungs protect themselves from infection Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:52 AM PST Scientists have taken an important step toward a new class of antibiotics aimed at stopping lung infections. They found that a protein found in large airways, called 'SPLUNC1,' binds to lipids critical to defending against bacterial and viral infections, as well as keeping lung tissue flexible and hydrated. This discovery moves SPLUNC1 closer toward becoming a viable therapy.

Plant used in traditonal Chinese medicine may treat metabolic diseases and obesity Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:52 AM PST New research shows that a component found in in the plant, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, may inhibit the development of metabolic disorders by stopping the activation of NLRP3, a protein involved in the disease process. Specifically, the researchers identified isoliquiritigenin as having the ability to attenuate high-fat, diet-induced obesity, type 2 diabetes and hepatic steatosis in mice.

How early trauma influences behavior Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:51 AM PST Traumatic and stressful events during childhood increase the risk to develop psychiatric disorders, but to a certain extent, they can also help better deal with difficult situations later in life. Researchers have studied this phenomenon in mice to learn how these effects could be transmitted to the next generation.

Clue to why females live longer than males Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:51 AM PST Male flies die earlier than their female counterparts when forced to evolve with the pressures of mate competition and juvenile survival. The results could help researchers understand the mechanisms involved in aging.

Ciliopathies lie behind many human diseases Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:51 AM PST Growing interest in cilia, which are finger-like organelles that extend from the bodies of individual cells, has revealed their role in a number of human ailments. As a result of cilia's presence in a wide variety of cells, defects in them cause diverse human diseases that warrant further study.

Genetic mutation responsible for serious disorder common in Inuit discovered Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:51 AM PST The cause for a disorder common in Inuit people that prevents the absorption of sucrose, causing gastrointestinal distress and failure to thrive in infants, has been discovered by researchers. The study identified a genetic mutation responsible for the disorder, called congenital sucrose-isomaltase deficiency.

New therapeutic strategy for chronic kidney disease Posted: 01 Dec 2014 09:50 AM PST Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects at least one in four Americans who are older than 60 and can significantly shorten lifespan. Yet the few available drugs for CKD can only modestly delay the disease's progress towards kidney failure. Now, a team has found an aspect of CKD's development that points to a promising new therapeutic strategy.

Revolutionizing genome engineering Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:34 AM PST Genome engineering with the RNA-guided CRISPR-Cas9 system in animals and plants is changing biology. It is easier to use and more efficient than other genetic engineering tools, thus it is already being applied in laboratories all over the world just a few years after its discovery. This rapid adoption and the history of the system are the core topics of a new review paper.

Duality in the human genome Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:34 AM PST Human genomes are extraordinarily individual -- a challenge for personalized medicine. Results of a new study show that most genes can occur in many different forms within a population: On average, about 250 different forms of each gene exist. The researchers found around four million different gene forms just in the 400 or so genomes they analysed. This enormous diversity means that over half of all genes in an individual, around 9,000 of 17,500, occur uniquely in that one person -- and are therefore individual in the truest sense of the word.

Gene associated with an aggressive breast cancer uncovered Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:34 AM PST A biomarker that is strongly associated with triple negative breast cancer, a highly aggressive carcinoma that often has early relapse and metastasis following chemotherapy, has been found by researchers. The newly identified biomarker, a gene called RASAL2, provides a target for developing new therapeutics designed to treat this often deadly disease.

Men's sperm quality declines with age, review of 90 studies confirms Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:34 AM PST Conflicting evidence about the extent to which men's semen quality declines with age -- likely lowering their fertility -- is being cleared up by new research that has collated and reviewed data from 90 previous studies from around the world.

Sleep apnea linked to impaired exercise capacity Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:32 AM PST Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with impaired exercise capacity, which is an indicator of increased cardiovascular risk, a new study shows. Results show that the predicted peak oxygen uptake, a measure of aerobic physical fitness, was significantly lower in people with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea than in controls. Further analysis found that sleep apnea severity alone explained 16.1 percent of this variability.

Natural 'high' could avoid chronic marijuana use Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:32 AM PST Replenishing the supply of a molecule that normally activates cannabinoid receptors in the brain could relieve mood and anxiety disorders and enable some people to quit using marijuana, a new study suggests.

WHACK! Study measures head blows in girls' lacrosse Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:32 AM PST As debate increases about whether female lacrosse players should wear headgear, a new study reports measurements of the accelerations that stick blows deliver to the head. The study also measured the dampening effect of various kinds of headgear.

Lapses in infection control associated with spread of severe respiratory virus MERS, according to study Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:30 AM PST Little is known about the often fatal virus known as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), but researchers have identified gaps in infection control as a major culprit in all eleven published cases involving healthcare-associated transmission of the virus.

Warning to bariatric surgery patients: Take your supplements, for eye's sake Posted: 01 Dec 2014 08:30 AM PST Obese patients who have undergone bariatric surgery to shed weight should take the supplements prescribed to them to protect their eyes. Taking in too little Vitamin A, in particular, could in some cases actually cause night blindness, dry eyes, corneal ulcers, and in extreme cases total blindness. Researchers reviewed what little research there currently is on the occurrence of eye conditions following bariatric surgery.

Athletes perform better when exposed to subliminal visual cues Posted: 01 Dec 2014 07:04 AM PST Athletes who are exposed to subliminal visual cues when they are participating in endurance exercise will perform significantly better, a study has demonstrated. Subliminal visual cues are words, pictures or symbols which are unidentifiable in someone's conscious.

Cold-related asthma attacks predictable with new test Posted: 01 Dec 2014 07:01 AM PST People who have asthma generally suffer worse with colds caused by rhinoviruses than other people do. There are also asthmatics and patients with the severe lung condition COPD in whom the cold virus can trigger serious flare-ups of their condition. A team of researchers has now discovered how this risk group can be filtered out using a blood test.

Some newborns lose weight much faster than previously recognized Posted: 01 Dec 2014 07:00 AM PST A new study is the first to detail the weight loss patterns of exclusively breastfed newborns. The investigators have captured their findings in an online tool that is the first of its kind to help pediatricians determine whether exclusively breastfed newborns have lost too much weight in the first days of life.

Unhappy hour: Non-drinkers devise strategies to navigate booze-centered work events Posted: 01 Dec 2014 07:00 AM PST From holiday parties to happy hours, social events with co-workers often revolve around alcohol, which can put non-drinkers in an awkward position. A new study shows that tensions in these environments lead non-drinkers to develop techniques to fit in socially without taking a drink.

Many people with missing teeth don't need dentures Posted: 01 Dec 2014 07:00 AM PST The latest research challenges current thinking on whether many people with tooth loss really need dentures, and the findings have major implications for public dental health resources and costs for patients.

Widening wage gap linked to more deaths among black Americans Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:06 AM PST Income inequality matters for everyone, but it matters differently for different groups of people, concludes the authors of a new study. Researchers linked greater gaps in wealth to more deaths among black Americans, but fewer deaths among white Americans.

High school football players show brain changes after one season, even in absence of concussions Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:06 AM PST Some high school football players exhibit measurable brain changes after a single season of play even in the absence of concussion, according to a new study.

Imaging shows brain connection breakdown in early Alzheimer's disease Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:06 AM PST Changes in brain connections visible on MRI could represent an imaging biomarker of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. As many as 5 million Americans are affected, a number expected to grow to 14 million by 2050.

3-D printing used to guide human face transplants Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:06 AM PST Researchers are using computed tomography and 3-D printing technology to recreate life-size models of patients' heads to assist in face transplantation surgery, according to a new study.

Researchers design model to predict effects of chemical substances on health Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:05 AM PST The analysis of drugs, natural products, and chemical substances found in the environment allows the identification of the chemical fragments responsible for a therapeutic or deleterious effect on human health. This knowledge may be valuable for the design of drugs with fewer secondary effects, for associating diseases, and for identifying new uses for drugs currently on the market.

Understanding the Brain's 'Suffocation Alarm' Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:04 AM PST Panic disorder is a severe form of anxiety in which the affected individual feels an abrupt onset of fear, often accompanied by profound physical symptoms of discomfort. Scientists have known from studying twins that genes contribute to the risk of panic disorder, but very little is known about which specific genes are involved. Two of the most common and terrifying symptoms of this severe anxiety are a sense of shortness of breath and feelings of suffocation. One theory exists that panic disorder involves an overly sensitive "suffocation alarm system" in the brain that evolved to protect us from suffocating, and that panic attacks result when this alarm gets triggered by signals of impending suffocation like rising carbon dioxide levels.

Bilingualism delays Alzheimer's manifestation by more than four years Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:04 AM PST The symptoms of Alzheimer disease (AD) manifest themselves about four to five years later in bilinguals as opposed to monolinguals. In bilinguals, the disease onset was estimated at the age of 77, while in monolinguals, this was at the age of 73.

Causal link between antibiotics, childhood asthma dismissed Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:04 AM PST Researchers have dismissed previous claims that there is a link between the increased use of antibiotics in society and a coinciding rise in childhood asthma. The study includes half a million children and shows that exposure to antibiotics during pregnancy or early in life does not appear to increase the risk of asthma.

Breast cancer vaccine shows promise in small clinical trial Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:03 AM PST A breast cancer vaccine is safe in patients with metastatic breast cancer, results of an early clinical trial indicate. Preliminary evidence also suggests that the vaccine primed the patients' immune systems to attack tumor cells and helped slow the cancer's progression.

HIV drug blocks bone metastases in prostate cancer Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:03 AM PST Although prostate cancer can be successfully treated in many men, when the disease metastasizes to the bone, it is eventually lethal. The receptor CCR5, targeted by HIV drugs, is also key in driving prostate cancer metastases, suggesting that blocking this molecule could slow prostate cancer spread.

Child treated in U.S. emergency department every 3 minutes for a toy-related injury Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:03 AM PST In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have found that an estimated 3,278,073 children were treated in United States emergency departments from 1990 through 2011 for a toy-related injury. Children of different ages face different hazards from toys, the lead investigator said. Children younger than 3 years of age are at particular risk of choking on small toys and small parts of toys. During the study period, there were more than 109,000 cases of children younger than 5 swallowing or inhaling "foreign bodies," the equivalent of almost 14 cases per day.

Preoperative interventions improve patient outcomes after cardiac surgery Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:03 AM PST Implementing a readiness bundle of preoperative interventions was associated with reduced risk of mortality and morbidity, shorter intubation times and shorter hospital stays for urgent patients after CABG surgery, a study has demonstrated.

Structure of Neuron-Connecting Synaptic Adhesion Molecules Discovered Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:00 AM PST A research team has found the three-dimensional structure of synaptic adhesion molecules, which orchestrate synaptogenesis. The research findings also propose the mechanism of synapses in its initial formation.

Does sleep really shorten when we get older? Posted: 01 Dec 2014 06:00 AM PST As we age, the quality of our sleep gets gradually worse. People who were able to sleep deeply all night in their twenties become increasingly likely to wake up in the night in their forties. This is a common change to sleeping patterns that can happen to anyone as a result of aging, and is not abnormal. As we enter old age, our sleep becomes even lighter and we wake up frequently during our sleep. In a new article, an author reviews sleeping and aging, and gives some advice.

Bitter food but good medicine from cucumber genetics Posted: 27 Nov 2014 06:23 PM PST High-tech genomics and traditional Chinese medicine come together as researchers identify the genes responsible for the intense bitter taste of wild cucumbers. Taming this bitterness made cucumber, pumpkin and their relatives into popular foods, but the same compounds also have potential to treat cancer and diabetes, researchers say.

Saatchi Bill threatens to undermine Hippocratic Oath, experts say Posted: 27 Nov 2014 06:22 PM PST The Medical Innovation Bill tabled by Lord Saatchi and currently making its way through the UK's House of Lords "strikes at the heart of evidence-based medicine" and risks "opening the door to the use of less proven, or unproven, approaches such as complementary or alternative medicine", according to a new Editorial.

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