ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Key to new antibiotics could be deep within isolated cave
• Serious complication of gastrointestinal procedure can be avoided with single dose medication
• Head injuries often impair medical decision-making skills
• Achilles heel of dengue virus identified: Target for future vaccines
• New pregnancy risk for babies and moms: Overweight moms with moderately high blood sugar raise health risk
• Powerful sequencing technology decodes DNA folding pattern
• 'Brain-only' mutation causes epileptic brain size disorder
• Fragile X syndrome can be reversed in adult mouse brain
• Distinct brain cells recognize novel sights
• Newly approved treatment for acid reflux disease available
• Trouble coping with the unfamiliar as you age? Blame your white matter
• Feral pigs can carry nasty bacteria that can be transmitted to people
• Gene switches do more than flip 'on' or 'off': Can exhibit much more complex binding behavior
• New insights into when beach sand may become unsafe for digging and other contact
• Exploring the risk and rewards of stem cell products
• Possible cause of movement defects in spinal muscular atrophy identified
• Timing pregnancy an important health concern for women
• Stem cells from pelvic bone may preserve heart function
• Grid-based computing to fight neurological disease
• Skin and umbilical cord cells turned directly into nerve cells
• Possible origin of chronic lymphatic leukemia identified

Key to new antibiotics could be deep within isolated cave Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:54 PM PDT Researchers discovered a remarkable prevalence of antibiotic resistance bacteria isolated from Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, one of the deepest and largest caves in the world and a place isolated from human contact for more than four million years.

Serious complication of gastrointestinal procedure can be avoided with single dose medication Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:52 PM PDT A serious complication of ERCP, a procedure commonly used to diagnose and treat problems of the bile and pancreatic ducts, may be eliminated with a single dose medication.

Head injuries often impair medical decision-making skills Posted: 11 Apr 2012 01:15 PM PDT A traumatic brain injury can negatively affect a patient's medical decision-making ability at a time when patients or their families must make myriad complex decisions, say researchers. The severity of the injury directly corresponds to the amount of impairment, according to findings. Patients with mild TBI showed little impairment one month after injury, while those with more severe injury were significantly impaired.

Achilles heel of dengue virus identified: Target for future vaccines Posted: 11 Apr 2012 11:43 AM PDT This study for the first time shows what dengue virus region the immune system of humans target when they are fighting off the virus.

New pregnancy risk for babies and moms: Overweight moms with moderately high blood sugar raise health risk Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT Pregnant women who are overweight with moderately elevated blood sugar are at a higher risk of bad pregnancy outcomes than previously known. Their risk is higher than pregnant women who are obese with normal blood sugar or pregnant women who have gestational diabetes and a normal weight.

Powerful sequencing technology decodes DNA folding pattern Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT Using a powerful DNA sequencing methodology, researchers have now investigated the three-dimensional structure of DNA folds in the nucleus of a chromosome. The findings provide scientists with a greater understanding about the basic principles of DNA folding and its role in gene regulation.

'Brain-only' mutation causes epileptic brain size disorder Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:20 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a mutation limited to brain tissue that causes hemimegalencephaly, a condition where one half of the brain is enlarged and dysfunctional, leading to intellectual disability and severe epilepsy. The research has broad significance as a potential model for other complex neuropsychiatric diseases that may also be caused by "brain-only" mutations.

Fragile X syndrome can be reversed in adult mouse brain Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:20 AM PDT A recent study finds that a new compound reverses many of the major symptoms associated with Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited intellectual disability and a leading cause of autism. The paper describes the exciting observation that the FXS correction can occur in adult mice, after the symptoms of the condition have already been established.

Distinct brain cells recognize novel sights Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:20 AM PDT The brain's ability to learn to recognize objects plays out in the inferior temporal cortex. A new study offers a possible explanation of how two classes of neurons play distinct roles to help that happen.

Newly approved treatment for acid reflux disease available Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT A newly approved device to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is now available.

Trouble coping with the unfamiliar as you age? Blame your white matter Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT A brain-mapping study has found that people's ability to make decisions in novel situations decreases with age and is associated with a reduction in the integrity of two specific white-matter pathways.

Feral pigs can carry nasty bacteria that can be transmitted to people Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT A new study shows that, for the first time since testing began several years ago, feral pigs in North Carolina have tested positive for Brucella suis, an important and harmful bacteria that can be transmitted to people.

Gene switches do more than flip 'on' or 'off': Can exhibit much more complex binding behavior Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT Scientists have found that transcription factors don't act like an 'on-off' switch, but instead can exhibit much more complex binding behavior.

New insights into when beach sand may become unsafe for digging and other contact Posted: 11 Apr 2012 09:05 AM PDT With summer days at the beach on the minds of millions of winter-weary people, a new study provides health departments with information needed to determine when levels of disease-causing bacteria in beach sand could pose a risk to children and others who dig or play in the sand.

Exploring the risk and rewards of stem cell products Posted: 11 Apr 2012 07:28 AM PDT Scientists have developed a road map that could help guide researchers, stem cell product manufacturers, treating physicians and patients through the complex maze of imagining, creating and developing stem cell products and using them to treat disease.

Possible cause of movement defects in spinal muscular atrophy identified Posted: 11 Apr 2012 07:27 AM PDT An abnormally low level of a protein in certain nerve cells is linked to movement problems that characterize the deadly childhood disorder spinal muscular atrophy, new research in animals suggests.

Timing pregnancy an important health concern for women Posted: 11 Apr 2012 07:26 AM PDT A new article highlights the importance of a woman's ability to time her childbearing. The author asserts that contraception is a means of health promotion and women who work with their health care providers to ensure they are healthy prior to conceiving can minimize their risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

Stem cells from pelvic bone may preserve heart function Posted: 11 Apr 2012 07:24 AM PDT A clinical trial is evaluating the use of stem cells from the pelvic bone marrow to improve heart function. Patients' own stem cells may preserve heart muscle function after a heart attack.

Grid-based computing to fight neurological disease Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:41 AM PDT Grid computing, long used by physicists and astronomers to crunch masses of data quickly and efficiently, is making the leap into the world of biomedicine. Researchers have networked hundreds of computers to help find treatments for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's. They are calling their system the 'Google for brain imaging.'

Skin and umbilical cord cells turned directly into nerve cells Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:40 AM PDT Until recently, the production of pluripotent "multipurpose" stem cells from skin cells was considered to be the ultimate new development. In the meantime, it has become possible to directly convert cells of the body into one another -- without the time-consuming detour via a pluripotent intermediate stage. However, this method has so far been rather inefficient. Scientists have now developed the method to the point that it can be used for biomedical applications.

Possible origin of chronic lymphatic leukemia identified Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:40 AM PDT Up until now the causes of the development of chronic lymphatic leukemia, the most common form of cancer of the blood in Europe, have been unknown. At present a cure is not possible. Medical researchers have now however discovered a lead on the origin of this disease.

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