ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Compound reverses symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in mice
• Intake of dietary prenatal folate and other methyl donors in first trimester of pregnancy affects asthma risk in children at age 7
• Sleep Apnea Tied to Hearing Loss in Large Study
• Research explains action of drug that may slow aging, related disease
• Promising new target for gum disease treatment identified
• Broader definition of successful aging explored by researchers
• Added value of local food hubs
• 'Encouraging' period of stable disease suggested in direct injection vaccine treatment of pancreatic cancer
• Chronic insufficient sleep increases obesity, overall body fat in children
• Screen of existing drugs finds compounds active against MERS coronavirus
• Boosting Immune process with IFN-γ helps clear lethal bacteria in cystic fibrosis
• Full serving of protein at each meal needed for maximum muscle health
• Online game helps doctors improve patients' blood pressure faster
• Physical activity can protect overweight women from risk for heart disease
• School-based interventions could benefit children from military families
• Cognitive test can differentiate between Alzheimer's and normal aging
• Pregnant women respond to music with stronger physiological changes in blood pressure
• Engineers build world's smallest, fastest nanomotor: Can fit inside a single cell
• Stem cells as future source for eco-friendly meat
• Reducing residents' work hours may have unintended consequences
• New potential antibody treatment for asthma discovered
• Cigarette smoking, male sex: Risk factors for ocular sarcoidosis
• Elevated blood eosinophil levels are risk factor for asthma exacerbations
• Pine bark substance could be potent melanoma drug
• Better than polygraphs: Brain scanning for evidence
• More than two-thirds of healthy Americans are infected with human papilloma viruses
• National survey on long-term care: Expectations and reality
• E-cigarette use for quitting smoking associated with improved success rates
• Harmful bacteria can linger on airplane seat-back pockets, armrests for days
• Testing paleo diet hypothesis in test tubes: Surprising relationships between diet and hormones that suppress eating
• Little exercise, heavy use of electronic media constitute a significant health risk for children
• Effect of increased blood flow during, after major surgery
• Higher health insurance cost-sharing impacts asthma care for low-income kids
• More activity: Less risk of gestational diabetes progressing to type 2 diabetes
• Optical brain scanner goes where other brain scanners can't
• Border collies chase away beach contamination by chasing away gulls
• Fluoridating water does not lower IQ, study concludes

Compound reverses symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in mice Posted: 20 May 2014 03:46 PM PDT Research in an animal model supports the potential therapeutic value of an antisense compound to treat Alzheimer's disease. The molecule also reduced inflammation in the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory. The article is the second mouse study that supports the potential therapeutic value of an antisense compound in treating Alzheimer's disease in humans.

Intake of dietary prenatal folate and other methyl donors in first trimester of pregnancy affects asthma risk in children at age 7 Posted: 20 May 2014 03:46 PM PDT Maternal intake of dietary methyl donors during the first trimester of pregnancy modulates the risk of developing childhood asthma at age 7, according to a new study. Methyl donors are nutrients involved in a biochemical process called methylation, in which chemicals are linked to proteins, DNA, or other molecules in the body.

Sleep Apnea Tied to Hearing Loss in Large Study Posted: 20 May 2014 12:29 PM PDT Both high and low frequency hearing impairment have been linked with sleep apnea in a new study of nearly 14,000 individuals. "In our population-based study of 13,967 subjects from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, we found that sleep apnea was independently associated with hearing impairment at both high and low frequencies after adjustment for other possible causes of hearing loss," said the lead author.

Research explains action of drug that may slow aging, related disease Posted: 20 May 2014 11:24 AM PDT A proven approach to slow the aging process is dietary restriction, but new research helps explain the action of a drug that appears to mimic that process -- rapamycin. The advance moves science closer to a compound that might slow aging and reduce age-related disease. The lead researcher said that this study "could provide a way not only to increase lifespan but to address some age-related diseases and improve general health."

Promising new target for gum disease treatment identified Posted: 20 May 2014 11:24 AM PDT Researchers have been searching for ways to prevent, half and reverse periodontitis. In a new report, they describe a promising new target: a component of the immune system called complement. The results, the lead researcher said, "provide proof-of-concept that complement-targeted therapies can interfere with disease-promoting mechanisms."

Broader definition of successful aging explored by researchers Posted: 20 May 2014 11:24 AM PDT A broader definition of successful aging could positively influence research, clinical practice and health policy in the United States and China, researchers suggest in a new article. "Successful aging is important for the rapidly growing population of older adults and their families and caregivers," an author notes. "It also is significant for society as a whole, which will bear the burden of unprecedented demands on health and social services. This is one reason we are developing interventions to increase positive aging."

Added value of local food hubs Posted: 20 May 2014 11:24 AM PDT As the largest purchaser of wholesale produce in Santa Barbara County, UC Santa Barbara's residential dining services provided the perfect avenue for a pilot project incorporating local pesticide-free or certified organic produce into an institutional setting. Residential dining services at UCSB provide about 10,000 meals a day -- 2.5 million meals a year -- so the task could have been daunting. Instead, the organizers started small, adding five or six local and organic items to the salad bar. Scaling up slowly turned out to be key to the project's success.

'Encouraging' period of stable disease suggested in direct injection vaccine treatment of pancreatic cancer Posted: 20 May 2014 11:23 AM PDT The 'first in human' series of vaccine injections given directly into a pancreatic cancer tumor is not only well tolerated, but also suggests an "encouraging" period of stable disease, a study shows. Vaccine therapies are designed to strengthen the body's immune defenses. In a previous study, investigators showed that using a vaccine treatment for bladder and breast cancer tumors in laboratory models resulted in a reversal of the traditional immune blockade, as well as the development of tumor specific immunity throughout the body.

Chronic insufficient sleep increases obesity, overall body fat in children Posted: 20 May 2014 10:43 AM PDT One of the most comprehensive studies of the potential link between reduced sleep and childhood obesity finds compelling evidence that children who consistently received less than the recommended hours of sleep during infancy and early childhood had increases in both obesity and in adiposity or overall body fat at age 7.

Screen of existing drugs finds compounds active against MERS coronavirus Posted: 20 May 2014 10:32 AM PDT Clinicians treating patients suffering from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) currently have no drugs specifically targeted to the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a virus first detected in humans in 2012. To address the urgent need for therapies, screened a set of 290 compounds already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration or far advanced in clinical development for other indications to determine if any might also show potential for working against MERS-CoV.

Boosting Immune process with IFN-γ helps clear lethal bacteria in cystic fibrosis Posted: 20 May 2014 10:32 AM PDT Boosting a key immune process called autophagy with interferon gamma -- IFN-³ -- could help clear a lethal bacterial infection in cystic fibrosis, a new study suggests. The work offers new information about immune function in patients with the disease. Cystic fibrosis is caused by a malfunction in the CFTR gene, which is responsible for transporting chloride and water across cell membranes. In people with the disease, cells that line the passageways of the lungs, pancreas and other organs produce unusually thick and sticky mucus that clogs the airways -- creating an ideal environment for pathogens.

Full serving of protein at each meal needed for maximum muscle health Posted: 20 May 2014 10:32 AM PDT Most Americans eat a diet that consists of little to no protein for breakfast, a bit of protein at lunch and an overabundance of protein at dinner. As long as they get their recommended dietary allowance of about 60 grams, it's all good, right? Not according to new research from a team of scientists led by a muscle metabolism expert.

Online game helps doctors improve patients' blood pressure faster Posted: 20 May 2014 10:32 AM PDT Patients whose doctors and nurses received high blood pressure education in a competitive online game reached their blood pressure goals sooner. The game of emailed questions used 'spaced education,' which sends new information in regular intervals and reinforces the lessons over time. Researchers found that patients of clinicians playing the game lowered their blood pressure to their target level in 142 days compared to 148 days for those who read an online posting.

Physical activity can protect overweight women from risk for heart disease Posted: 20 May 2014 10:28 AM PDT For otherwise healthy middle-aged women who are overweight or obese, physical activity may be their best option for avoiding heart disease, according to a study that followed nearly 900 women for seven years. "Being overweight or obese increases a person's risk for developing conditions such as hypertension, elevated triglyceride levels and elevated fasting glucose levels—all of them risk factors for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.," said the study's lead author.

School-based interventions could benefit children from military families Posted: 20 May 2014 09:35 AM PDT Nearly two million children in the United States have experienced a parent's military deployment. Previous research has shown that these children may be at increased risk for emotional, behavioral and relationship difficulties, yet little is known about how best to address military children's specialized needs. Now, a researcher says school-based interventions could benefit children whose parents have deployed.

Cognitive test can differentiate between Alzheimer's and normal aging Posted: 20 May 2014 09:35 AM PDT A new cognitive test that can better determine whether memory impairments are due to very mild Alzheimer's disease or the normal aging process has been developed by researchers. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease will increase from 5 million in 2014 to as many as 16 million by 2050. Memory impairments and other early symptoms of Alzheimer's are often difficult to differentiate from the effects of normal aging, making it hard for doctors to recommend treatment for those affected until the disease has progressed substantially.

Pregnant women respond to music with stronger physiological changes in blood pressure Posted: 20 May 2014 09:35 AM PDT Pregnant women, compared to their non-pregnant counterparts, rate music as more intensely pleasant and unpleasant, associated with greater changes in blood pressure, a study has demonstrated. Music appears to have an especially strong influence on pregnant women, a fact that may relate to a prenatal conditioning of the fetus to music.

Engineers build world's smallest, fastest nanomotor: Can fit inside a single cell Posted: 20 May 2014 09:34 AM PDT Engineers have built the fastest, smallest and longest-running nanomotor to date. The nanomotor is capable of drug delivery on a nanoscale. One day, nanomotors could lead to the development of tiny devices that seek out and treat cancer cells.

Stem cells as future source for eco-friendly meat Posted: 20 May 2014 09:34 AM PDT The scientific progress that has made it possible to dream of a future in which faulty organs could be regrown from stem cells also holds potential as an ethical and greener source for meat. So say scientists who suggest that every town or village could one day have its very own small-scale, cultured meat factory.

Reducing residents' work hours may have unintended consequences Posted: 20 May 2014 09:34 AM PDT Medical residents in Canada may work longer hours per shift and per week than their counterparts in Europe, Australia and New Zealand but there is conflicting evidence whether shorter shifts improve patient safety, a new study has found. In fact, reducing medical resident duty hours may have unforeseen consequences and changes must be made carefully to ensure both patient safety and resident well-being, says the lead author.

New potential antibody treatment for asthma discovered Posted: 20 May 2014 09:29 AM PDT Giving a mild allergic asthma patient an antibody, which blocks a specific protein in the lungs, markedly improved asthmatic symptoms such as wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and cough after the allergic asthmatics had inhaled an environmental allergen, a study has found. Individuals with allergic asthma are typically treated with inhaled corticosteroids or bronchodilators. While antibodies are typically reserved for severe asthma, this research can lead to antibody treatment for those who have mild allergic asthma. This study can lead to quality of life improvements for those with allergic asthma that have issues with inhalers or steroid-based medications.

Cigarette smoking, male sex: Risk factors for ocular sarcoidosis Posted: 20 May 2014 09:29 AM PDT Cigarette smoking and male sex are significant risk factors for developing ocular sarcoidosis, according to a new study. Sarcoidosis is a disease in which inflammation produces tiny lumps of cells (called granulomas) in organs throughout the body, most often in the lungs, but also in the eyes, lymph nodes, or skin. Ocular sarcoidosis, which can lead to blindness, affects 25-50% of sarcoidosis patients.

Elevated blood eosinophil levels are risk factor for asthma exacerbations Posted: 20 May 2014 09:29 AM PDT In adults with persistent asthma, elevated blood eosinophil levels may be able to predict which individuals are at increased risk for exacerbations, according to a new study. "Eosinophils are known to be involved in the pathophysiology of asthma, and determining their relationship with asthma exacerbations may allow us to determine in advance which of these patients needs targeted interventions," said the lead author. "In our study, elevated blood eosinophil levels were found to be a risk factor for subsequent exacerbations in adult asthma patients."

Pine bark substance could be potent melanoma drug Posted: 20 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT A substance that comes from pine bark is a potential source for a new treatment of melanoma, according to researchers. Current melanoma drugs targeting single proteins can initially be effective, but resistance develops relatively quickly and the disease recurs. In those instances, resistance usually develops when the cancer cell's circuitry bypasses the protein that the drug acts on, or when the cell uses other pathways to avoid the point on which the drug acts.

Better than polygraphs: Brain scanning for evidence Posted: 20 May 2014 08:57 AM PDT If conventional lie detector machines, polygraphs, have been endlessly debunked and shown not to provide admissible nor even valid evidence, then the 21st Century tool of choice for reading the minds of witnesses and putative criminals may well be the brain scanner. More specifically, the kind of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that can seemingly probe our inner selves and reveal the flow of blood in the different regions of the brain that light up when we lie.

More than two-thirds of healthy Americans are infected with human papilloma viruses Posted: 20 May 2014 08:55 AM PDT 69 percent of healthy American adults are infected with one or more of 109 strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). This is the conclusion of a study that is believed to be the largest and most detailed genetic analysis of its kind. Researchers say that while most of the viral strains so far appear to be harmless and can remain dormant for years, their overwhelming presence suggests a delicate balancing act for HPV infection in the body, in which many viral strains keep each other in check, preventing other strains from spreading out of control.

National survey on long-term care: Expectations and reality Posted: 20 May 2014 07:04 AM PDT The results of a major survey on long-term care in the United States have been released. The study provides much-needed data on how Americans are, or are not, planning for long-term care as policy makers grapple with how to plan for and finance high-quality long-term care in the United States. The survey revealed that Americans 40 or older are counting on their families to provide assistance for them as they age, and that a majority support a variety of policy options for financing long-term care.

E-cigarette use for quitting smoking associated with improved success rates Posted: 20 May 2014 07:04 AM PDT People attempting to quit smoking without professional help are approximately 60 percent more likely to report succeeding if they use e-cigarettes than if they use willpower alone or over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapies such as patches or gum, finds a large survey of smokers. The study surveyed 5,863 smokers between 2009 and 2014 who had attempted to quit smoking without the aid of prescription medication or professional support. 20% of people trying to quit with the aid of e-cigarettes reported having stopped smoking conventional cigarettes at the time of the survey.

Harmful bacteria can linger on airplane seat-back pockets, armrests for days Posted: 20 May 2014 07:04 AM PDT Disease-causing bacteria can linger on surfaces commonly found in airplane cabins for days, even up to a week, according to research. In order for disease-causing bacteria to be transmitted from a cabin surface to a person, it must survive the environmental conditions in the airplane. In this study, MRSA lasted longest (168 hours) on material from the seat-back pocket while E. coli O157:H7 survived longest (96 hours) on the material from the armrest.

Testing paleo diet hypothesis in test tubes: Surprising relationships between diet and hormones that suppress eating Posted: 20 May 2014 06:35 AM PDT By comparing how gut microbes from human vegetarians and grass-grazing baboons digest different diets, researchers have shown that ancestral human diets, so called 'paleo' diets, did not necessarily result in better appetite suppression. The study reveals surprising relationships between diet and the release of hormones that suppress eating.

Little exercise, heavy use of electronic media constitute a significant health risk for children Posted: 20 May 2014 06:34 AM PDT Low levels of physical activity combined with heavy use of electronic media and sedentary behavior are linked to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases already in 6-8 year-old children, a study concludes. The study showed that low levels of physical activity - and unstructured physical activity in particular - are linked to increased risk factors serious health problems. Heavy use of electronic media, and especially watching too much TV and videos, was linked to higher levels of risk factors in children.

Effect of increased blood flow during, after major surgery Posted: 19 May 2014 03:45 PM PDT The use of a cardiac-output guided intervention to improve hemodynamics (blood flow and blood pressure) during and after surgery did not reduce complications and the risk of death after 30 days, compared with usual care. However, when the current results were included in an updated meta-analysis, the intervention was associated with a clinically important reduction in complication rates, according to a study that included high-risk patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery.

Higher health insurance cost-sharing impacts asthma care for low-income kids Posted: 19 May 2014 02:09 PM PDT Parents in low-income families were less likely to delay asthma care for their children or avoid taking their children to see a doctor if they had lower vs. higher levels of health insurance cost-sharing. "The Affordable Care Act will do a great deal to reduce the numbers of the uninsured in the United States. However, having insurance is just the first step toward improved access. Health care is still expensive, and obtaining it is still difficult for many in the United States," one expert concludes.

More activity: Less risk of gestational diabetes progressing to type 2 diabetes Posted: 19 May 2014 02:09 PM PDT Increased physical activity among women who had gestational diabetes mellitus can lower the risk of progression to type 2 diabetes mellitus. The authors examined the role of physical activity, television watching and other sedentary activity, along with changes in these behaviors, in the progression to type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Optical brain scanner goes where other brain scanners can't Posted: 19 May 2014 11:25 AM PDT A brain-scanning technology that tracks what the brain is doing by shining dozens of tiny LED lights on the head has been advanced by new research. The improvement avoids the radiation exposure and bulky magnets the others require. The new optical approach to brain scanning is ideally suited for children and for patients with electronic implants, such as pacemakers, cochlear implants and deep brain stimulators (used to treat Parkinson's disease).

Border collies chase away beach contamination by chasing away gulls Posted: 19 May 2014 10:48 AM PDT Border collies are effective at reducing gull congregation on recreational beaches, resulting in lower E. coli abundance in the sand. Gull droppings may be one source of the indicator bacterium Escherichia coli to beach water, which can lead to swim advisories and beach closings. In addition, gull droppings may contain bacteria with the potential to cause human disease, according to a researcher.

Fluoridating water does not lower IQ, study concludes Posted: 19 May 2014 08:01 AM PDT Fluoridating water does not adversely affects children's mental development and adult IQ, new research concludes. The researchers were testing the contentious claim that exposure to levels of fluoride used in community water fluoridation is toxic to the developing brain and can cause IQ deficits. "Our findings will hopefully help to put another nail in the coffin of the complete canard that fluoridating water is somehow harmful to children's development," researchers noted.

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