ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Pediatric anesthetic risk: Ketamine may damage children's learning ability and memory
• A constitutional right to health care: Many countries have it, but not the U.S.
• Haste and waste on neuronal pathways
• Evolutionary forensics used on hepatitis C virus outbreak
• Cheaper anti-cancer drug as effective as expensive drug in treating most common cause of blindness in older adults
• Alternative target for breast cancer drugs
• Heart failure: new treatment option makes heart 'softer'
• Eating eggs is not linked to high cholesterol in adolescents, study suggests
• COPD increases risk of developing cerebral microbleeds
• Joint custody? Overnights away from home affect children's attachments
• Moving more may lower stroke risk
• Recommended calorie information on menus does not improve consumer choices
• Weight loss drug helps curb cocaine addictions
• Thwarting protein production slows cancer cells' malignant march
• Biochemical mapping helps explain who will respond to antidepressants

Pediatric anesthetic risk: Ketamine may damage children's learning ability and memory Posted: 19 Jul 2013 07:49 AM PDT Recent studies have found that anesthesia drugs have neurotoxicity on the developing neurons, causing learning and memory disorders and behavioral abnormalities. Ketamine is commonly used in pediatric anesthesia. A clinical retrospective study found that children under 3 years old who received a long-time surgery, or -- because of surgery -- require ketamine repeatedly, exhibited learning and memory disorders and behavioral abnormalities when they reached school-age.

A constitutional right to health care: Many countries have it, but not the U.S. Posted: 19 Jul 2013 07:49 AM PDT More than half of the world's countries have some degree of a guaranteed, specific right to public health and medical care for their citizens written into their national constitutions. The United States is one of 86 countries whose constitutions do not guarantee their citizens any kind of health protection. That's the finding of a new study that examines the level and scope of constitutional protection of specific rights to public health and medical care.

Haste and waste on neuronal pathways Posted: 19 Jul 2013 07:45 AM PDT Researchers were able to measure the speed of neuronal signal conduction along segments of single axons in neuronal cultures by using a high-resolution electrical method. The bioengineers are now searching for plausible explanations for the large conduction speed variations.

Evolutionary forensics used on hepatitis C virus outbreak Posted: 19 Jul 2013 05:39 AM PDT The rapid molecular evolution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been used to help incriminate the source of an outbreak in two Spanish hospitals in the late nineties. The evolutionary techniques used also helped separate those who were infected by the person in question from those infected elsewhere during the same time period.

Cheaper anti-cancer drug as effective as expensive drug in treating most common cause of blindness in older adults Posted: 19 Jul 2013 05:39 AM PDT An anti-cancer drug has been proven to be equally as effective in treating the most common cause of blindness in older adults as a more expensive drug specifically formulated for this purpose.

Alternative target for breast cancer drugs Posted: 19 Jul 2013 05:39 AM PDT Scientists have identified higher levels of a receptor protein found on the surface of human breast tumor cells that may serve as a new drug target for the treatment of breast cancer. The results show that elevated levels of the protein Ret, which is short for "Rearranged during transfection", are associated with a lower likelihood of survival for breast cancer patients in the years following surgery to remove tumors and cancerous tissue.

Heart failure: new treatment option makes heart 'softer' Posted: 19 Jul 2013 05:39 AM PDT Heart failure with concomitant pulmonary hypertension is a growing health problem with a high mortality rate, above all in older people. Cardiologists have now demonstrated the effectiveness of a substance that sticks to the so-called nitric oxide pathway and makes the heart "softer". This demonstrably ensures a clearly improved quality of life. Heart failure is regarded as a "new" common disease; according to expert estimates, in Austria there are around 250,000 people suffering from this condition.

Eating eggs is not linked to high cholesterol in adolescents, study suggests Posted: 19 Jul 2013 05:39 AM PDT Although in the late 20th century it was maintained that eating more than two eggs a week could increase cholesterol, in recent years experts have begun to refute this myth. Now, a new study has found that eating more eggs is not associated with higher serum cholesterol in adolescents, regardless of how much physical activity they do.

COPD increases risk of developing cerebral microbleeds Posted: 19 Jul 2013 05:36 AM PDT Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with an increased risk of developing cerebral microbleeds, according to a new study.

Joint custody? Overnights away from home affect children's attachments Posted: 19 Jul 2013 05:36 AM PDT In joint custody arrangements, infants who spent overnights away from their mothers had less attachment to their mothers, a new study shows.

Moving more may lower stroke risk Posted: 18 Jul 2013 01:15 PM PDT Here's yet another reason to get off the couch: new research findings suggest that regularly breaking a sweat may lower the risk of having a stroke.

Recommended calorie information on menus does not improve consumer choices Posted: 18 Jul 2013 01:15 PM PDT Researchers recently put menu labels to the test by investigating whether providing diners with recommended calorie intake information along with the menu items caloric content would improve their food choices. The study showed that recommended calorie intake information did not help consumers use menu labeling more effectively.

Weight loss drug helps curb cocaine addictions Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:25 AM PDT The drug topiramate, typically used to treat epilepsy and more recently weight loss, may also help people addicted to both cocaine and alcohol use less cocaine, particularly heavy users, researchers report.

Thwarting protein production slows cancer cells' malignant march Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:24 AM PDT Protein production or translation is tightly coupled to a highly conserved stress response —- the heat shock response and its primary regulator, heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) —- that cancer cells rely on for survival and proliferation, according to researchers. In mouse models of cancer, therapeutic inhibition of translation interrupts HSF1's activity, dramatically slowing tumor growth and potentially rendering drug-resistant tumors responsive to other therapies.

Biochemical mapping helps explain who will respond to antidepressants Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:07 AM PDT Researchers have identified biochemical changes in people taking antidepressants – but only in those whose depression improves. These changes occur in a neurotransmitter pathway that is connected to the pineal gland, the part of the endocrine system that controls the sleep cycle, suggesting an added link between sleep, depression and treatment outcomes.

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