ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Specialized yoga program could help women with urinary incontinence
• Critical end-stage liver disease discovery made
• Revolutionary 'metamaterial' has potential to reshape neurosurgery
• Primary HPV screening offers important new option for cervical cancer detection, prevention
• Protein crucial for development of biological rhythms in mice identified by researchers
• Study supports safety of antimicrobial peptide-coated contact lenses
• Pregnancy complications may be more common in immigrants from certain regions
• Use of frozen material for fecal transplant successfully treats C. difficile infection
• Breast cancer replicates brain development process
• Memory impairment in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, PTSD, depression: New treatments possible

Specialized yoga program could help women with urinary incontinence Posted: 26 Apr 2014 06:13 AM PDT An ancient form of meditation and exercise could help women who suffer from urinary incontinence, according to a new study. researchers discovered that a yoga training program, designed to improve pelvic health, can help women gain more control over their urination and avoid accidental urine leakage. Men were not included in this study because urinary incontinence in men is often related to problems related to the prostate, which may be less likely to improve with yoga.

Critical end-stage liver disease discovery made Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:23 PM PDT The discovery of an unknown cellular pathway has helped scientists and physicians better understand end-stage liver disease and offers a potential target for new therapeutics that could slow or even reverse the disease's progression. Although cirrhosis of the liver is most commonly associated with alcohol or drug abuse, the condition -- marked by scar tissue replacing healthy liver tissue -- also can result from viral hepatitis, obesity and diabetes, as well as certain inherited diseases.

Revolutionary 'metamaterial' has potential to reshape neurosurgery Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:23 PM PDT The development of graphene -— a highly advanced metamaterial with many unique and varied properties -— may lead to exciting new applications in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases, according to a report. The authors write, "As a surgical specialty that heavily relies on technological innovations, it is expected that neurosurgery will significantly benefit from several graphene-based technological developments in the next decades."

Primary HPV screening offers important new option for cervical cancer detection, prevention Posted: 24 Apr 2014 01:15 PM PDT New options for detecting and preventing cervical cancer have been welcomed recently into the scientific community, including the primary human papillomavirus (HPV) testing recently approved by the FDA. Primary HPV testing does not replace the Pap test, and it is extremely unlikely that doctors will stop using the Pap any time soon. However, FDA approval of primary HPV testing means the HPV test can be used first when screening a woman for cervical cancer.

Protein crucial for development of biological rhythms in mice identified by researchers Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:46 AM PDT A protein essential to the formation of the tiny brain region in mice that coordinates sleep-wake cycles and other so-called circadian rhythms has been identified by researchers. By disabling the gene for that key protein in test animals, the scientists were able to home in on the mechanism by which that brain region, known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN, becomes the body's master clock while the embryo is developing.

Study supports safety of antimicrobial peptide-coated contact lenses Posted: 24 Apr 2014 08:27 AM PDT Contact lenses coated with an antimicrobial peptide could help to lower the risk of contact lens-related infections, reports a study. Studies in animals and now humans support the biocompatibility and safety of lenses coated with the antimicrobial peptide melimine. The authors write, "[T]his study has shown that melimine coated contact lenses can be safely worn by humans without any major side effects."

Pregnancy complications may be more common in immigrants from certain regions Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:24 AM PDT Pregnant immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Caribbean islands may require increased monitoring during pregnancy, according to new research. Researchers found that Sub-Saharan Africans have consistently higher risk of preeclampsia and eclampsia compared to immigrants from other world regions or non-immigrant women from the six countries studied. In some, but not all, of the six countries Latin Americans and Caribbean islanders were also shown to be at higher risk.

Use of frozen material for fecal transplant successfully treats C. difficile infection Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:24 AM PDT A pilot study by Massachusetts General Hospital investigators may lead to greater availability and acceptability of an unusual treatment for a serious medical problem -- use of fecal material from healthy donors to treat recurrent diarrhea caused by the Clostridium difficile bacteria. The researchers report that use of prescreened frozen material from donors unrelated to patients was as successful in curing recurrent C. difficile as was the use of fresh fecal material reported in previous studies.

Breast cancer replicates brain development process Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:23 AM PDT A process that forms a key element in the development of the nervous system may also play a pivotal role in the spread of breast cancer, new research reveals. Understanding these processes is important in understanding cancer metastasis. Although the number of deaths from breast cancer is decreasing, it is still the leading cause of cancer-related death in women because of metastasis.

Memory impairment in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, PTSD, depression: New treatments possible Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:15 AM PDT Neuroscientists are zeroing in with increasing certainty on the notion that nonhuman animals have a particular type of memory known as "source memory," long seen as exclusively human. Researchers were also surprised to discover that this type of memory in their animal subjects, in this case rats, also lasted much longer than memories have been known to last in any nonprimate.

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