ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Improved method of electrical stimulation could help treat damaged nerves
• Synthetic RNA lessens severity of fatal disease
• New medical, research tool possible by probing cell mechanics
• New culprit found in Lou Gehrig's disease
• Future prostate cancer treatments might be guided by math
• Chew gum, lose weight? Hormone that helps people feel 'full' after eating can be delivered into bloodstream orally
• People with early Alzheimer's disease may be more likely to have lower BMI
• New research on body parts' sensitivity to environmental changes
• Hemoglobin A1c testing method fails to identify kids with diabetes, study shows
• Taking bushmeat off the menu could increase child anemia, study finds
• Ulcer-causing bacteria tamed by defect in cell-targeting ability
• Cancer vaccine impact limited unless drug industry focuses on difficult-to-treat tumors, experts say
• New way to boost potency of natural pain relief chemical in body
• Cancer drug cisplatin found to bind like glue in cellular RNA
• Financial incentives to reduce risky health behaviors?
• Key molecules for hearing and balance discovered: Can hearing be restored?
• Does hypertension affect brain capacity?
• Tweaking a gene makes muscles twice as strong: New avenue for treating muscle degeneration in people who can't exercise
• Regeneration after a stroke requires intact communication channels between brain hemispheres
• Key gene function against cell death discovered
• Recipient's immune system governs stem cell regeneration
• Worms reveal secrets of wound-healing response

Improved method of electrical stimulation could help treat damaged nerves Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:41 PM PST A plastic surgery research team and an engineering team have described a new method of nerve stimulation that reduces electrical threshold by 40 percent, compared with traditional functional electrical stimulation therapy.

Synthetic RNA lessens severity of fatal disease Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:41 PM PST Researchers have found that targeting a synthetic molecule to a specific gene could help the severity of the disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) -- the leading genetic cause of infantile death in the world.

New medical, research tool possible by probing cell mechanics Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:40 PM PST Researchers are making progress in developing a system that measures the mechanical properties of living cells, a technology that could be used to diagnose human disease and better understand biological processes.

New culprit found in Lou Gehrig's disease Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:40 PM PST Following a breakthrough identifying a common converging point for all forms of Lou Gehrig's disease, a new finding from the same scientists shines more light on the broken recycling pathway of the brain and spinal cord cells, which leads to the paralysis of ALS. The new study reveals a second faulty gene in the same pathway, offering a clear target for drug therapy.

Future prostate cancer treatments might be guided by math Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:40 PM PST Scientists have designed a first draft of a mathematical model that someday could guide treatment decisions for advanced prostate cancer, in part by helping doctors predict how individual patients will respond to therapy based on the biology of their tumors. These decisions would apply to treatment of cancer that has already spread beyond the prostate gland or that has recurred after initial treatments, such as surgery or radiation.

Chew gum, lose weight? Hormone that helps people feel 'full' after eating can be delivered into bloodstream orally Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:40 PM PST Scientists have demonstrated, for the first time, that a critical hormone that helps people feel "full" after eating can be delivered into the bloodstream orally.

People with early Alzheimer's disease may be more likely to have lower BMI Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:39 PM PST Studies have shown that people who are overweight in middle age are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later than people at normal weight, yet researchers have also found that people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease are more likely to have a lower body mass index (BMI). A current study examines this relationship between Alzheimer's disease and BMI.

New research on body parts' sensitivity to environmental changes Posted: 21 Nov 2011 12:16 PM PST Scientists have shed new light on why some body parts are more sensitive to environmental change than others, work that could someday lead to better ways of treating a variety of diseases, including type 2 diabetes.

Hemoglobin A1c testing method fails to identify kids with diabetes, study shows Posted: 21 Nov 2011 12:15 PM PST In 2009, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended that Hemoglobin A1c be exclusively used for the diagnosis of diabetes in children. The simple test measures longer-term blood sugar levels -- without requiring patients to fast overnight. However, a new study has shown that these tests are not very accurate in children.

Taking bushmeat off the menu could increase child anemia, study finds Posted: 21 Nov 2011 12:15 PM PST When the dinner menu includes endangered species, human nutritional needs must contend with efforts to manage wildlife resources, according to a new study. Researchers estimate that a loss of access to bushmeat as a source of food would lead to a 29 percent jump in the number of children suffering from anemia.

Ulcer-causing bacteria tamed by defect in cell-targeting ability Posted: 21 Nov 2011 12:15 PM PST Without the ability to swim to their targets in the stomach, ulcer-causing bacteria do not cause the inflammation of the stomach lining that leads to ulcers and stomach cancer, according to a new study.

Cancer vaccine impact limited unless drug industry focuses on difficult-to-treat tumors, experts say Posted: 21 Nov 2011 11:25 AM PST Drug companies currently developing therapeutic cancer vaccines may be determining the cancers they target based on the number of annual cases, not the number of deaths they cause. This approach may limit the patient benefits of such drugs, according to a new University of Michigan report.

New way to boost potency of natural pain relief chemical in body Posted: 21 Nov 2011 11:25 AM PST Researchers have discovered a new means of enhancing the effects of anandamide -- a natural, marijuana-like chemical in the body that provides pain relief.

Cancer drug cisplatin found to bind like glue in cellular RNA Posted: 21 Nov 2011 11:24 AM PST An anti-cancer drug used extensively in chemotherapy binds pervasively to RNA -- up to 20-fold more than it does to DNA, a surprise finding that suggests new targeting approaches might be useful, according to researchers.

Financial incentives to reduce risky health behaviors? Posted: 21 Nov 2011 10:24 AM PST Researchers looked at why financial incentives for patients could be a good thing to change risky health behaviors. They suggest that incentives are likely to be particularly effective at altering "simple" behaviors, e.g., take-up of immunizations, primarily among socially disadvantaged groups.

Key molecules for hearing and balance discovered: Can hearing be restored? Posted: 21 Nov 2011 10:24 AM PST Researchers have identified two proteins that may be the key components of the long-sought after mechanotransduction channel in the inner ear -- the place where the mechanical stimulation of sound waves is transformed into electrical signals that the brain recognizes as sound. A gene-therapy trial based on this research will attempt to restore hearing in deaf mice.

Does hypertension affect brain capacity? Posted: 21 Nov 2011 09:41 AM PST Can the course of dementias and mild cognitive impairment be influenced by diseases and risk factors? Larger numbers of people are affected by mild cognitive impairments and dementia, which means that early detection of possible precursors as well as diagnosis and therapy of risk factors that can actually be influenced are gaining in importance.

Tweaking a gene makes muscles twice as strong: New avenue for treating muscle degeneration in people who can't exercise Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:45 AM PST An international team of scientists has created super-strong, high-endurance mice and worms by suppressing a natural muscle-growth inhibitor, suggesting treatments for age-related or genetics-related muscle degeneration are within reach.

Regeneration after a stroke requires intact communication channels between brain hemispheres Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:40 AM PST Recovery after a stroke depends on the exchange of information between the brain hemispheres.

Key gene function against cell death discovered Posted: 21 Nov 2011 05:56 AM PST Scientists have discovered that two genes (TSC/Tuberin and PRAS40) are extremely important regulators in the development of stem cells: if these genes are switched off, the stem cells do not develop but instead die a programmed cell death.

Recipient's immune system governs stem cell regeneration Posted: 20 Nov 2011 10:47 AM PST A new study describes how different types of immune system T-cells alternately discourage and encourage stem cells to regrow bone and tissue, bringing into sharp focus the importance of the transplant recipient's immune system in stem cell regeneration.

Worms reveal secrets of wound-healing response Posted: 17 Nov 2011 11:03 AM PST The lowly and simple roundworm may be the ideal laboratory model to learn more about the complex processes involved in repairing wounds and could eventually allow scientists to improve the body's response to healing skin wounds, a serious problem in diabetics and the elderly.

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