ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

---

• Text messages helpful in controlling diabetes
• Gender differences in obesity-related mortality revealed
• Scientists take totally tubular journey through brain cells
• Antenatal classes for better mother-baby bonding
• Involving a genetic health care professional may improve quality, reduce unnecessary testing
• Summer season springs cluster headaches into action
• Nurses play critical role in responding to global resurgence of pertussis
• Severe scoliosis linked to rare mutations
• Neural reward response may demonstrate why quitting smoking is harder for some
• Families like practical group wellness program, lose weight
• Scientists find trigger to decode the genome
• Racism in healthcare linked to poor mental health
• Fungal protein found to cross blood-brain barrier
• 12 minutes of exercise improves attention, reading comprehension in low-income adolescents
• Proliferation cues 'natural killer' cells for job change
• Antibodies from desert as guides to diseased cells
• Ipilimumab in advanced melanoma: no added benefit?
• New obesity drug closer than ever
• Transmission of information via proteins could revolutionize drug discovery
• Neurostimulator implanted for epilepsy
• Advanced breast cancer: Benefits of Trastuzumab (Herceptin) outweigh the risk of harm
• New tumor-targeting agent images, treats wide variety of cancers

Text messages helpful in controlling diabetes Posted: 13 Jun 2014 07:51 PM PDT A text message-based self-management intervention improves glycemic control in high risk Latinos with type 2 diabetes, a study shows. The messages in the study focused on healthy nutrition tips, the benefits of physical activity and medication adherence, and requests to check blood sugar and send back results. Two to three messages were sent each day at the beginning of study enrollment, and the frequency tapered off over a six-month period.

Gender differences in obesity-related mortality revealed Posted: 13 Jun 2014 07:51 PM PDT Obesity, which affects more than one-third of Americans, is a chronic disease that can shorten one's life span, but new findings show that its effect on mortality has reduced in recent years among many groups, particularly women. "One of the possibilities our findings suggest, but do not prove, is that advances in medicine, screening procedures and interventions may have reduced the excess mortality associated with Grade 1 obesity; there are yet other explanations, as well," said one researcher.

Scientists take totally tubular journey through brain cells Posted: 13 Jun 2014 12:28 PM PDT Scientists took a molecular-level journey into microtubules, the hollow cylinders inside brain cells that act as skeletons and internal highways, and watched how a protein called tubulin acetyltransferase (TAT) labels the inside of microtubules. The results answer long-standing questions about how TAT tagging works and offer clues as to why it is important for brain health.

Antenatal classes for better mother-baby bonding Posted: 13 Jun 2014 10:05 AM PDT A one-off 3-hour antenatal class called 'Click' provides prospective parents with the knowledge and practical skills to build strong parent-infant bonds, according to new research. The quality of antenatal classes provided in the UK is currently quite variable in terms of length and content; with some receiving nothing, while others attend classes for as much as two hours per week for one month. There is often little or no guidance on the psychological needs of the infant.

Involving a genetic health care professional may improve quality, reduce unnecessary testing Posted: 13 Jun 2014 10:05 AM PDT A new study shows that counseling from a genetic health care provider before genetic testing educates patients and may help reduce unnecessary procedures. Up to 10 percent of cancers are inherited, meaning a person was born with an abnormal gene that increases their risk for cancer.

Summer season springs cluster headaches into action Posted: 13 Jun 2014 10:05 AM PDT Did you know that while most people celebrate the start of summer on June 21, nearly 1 million Americans are facing the debilitating pain of cluster headaches due to Earth's shift towards the sun? It's true. The human biological rhythm is tied into earth's rotation, making individuals who suffer cluster from headaches encounter unrelenting head pain.

Nurses play critical role in responding to global resurgence of pertussis Posted: 13 Jun 2014 10:04 AM PDT Pertussis (whooping cough) is on the increase in the United States and around the world -— and nurses play an essential role in educating parents and patients about the safety and effectiveness of pertussis vaccination, according to a new paper. Caused by infection with Bordetella pertussis bacteria, pertussis has been increasing in recent years. Worldwide, there are an estimated 50 million cases of pertussis and 300,000 deaths. Pertussis is a major cause of death in infants worldwide.

Severe scoliosis linked to rare mutations Posted: 13 Jun 2014 07:17 AM PDT Children with rare mutations in two genes are about four times more likely to develop severe scoliosis than their peers with normal versions of the genes, scientists have found. One to 3 percent of the general population has some mild curvature of the spine. In about one in 10,000 children, scoliosis will produce curvature so pronounced that it requires corrective surgery.

Neural reward response may demonstrate why quitting smoking is harder for some Posted: 12 Jun 2014 02:46 PM PDT For some cigarette smokers, strategies to aid quitting work well, while for many others no method seems to work. Researchers have now identified an aspect of brain activity that helps to predict the effectiveness of a reward-based strategy as motivation to quit smoking. "Our results suggest that... 'at-risk' smokers could potentially be identified prior to a quit attempt and be provided with special interventions designed to increase their chances for success," researchers remarked.

Families like practical group wellness program, lose weight Posted: 12 Jun 2014 10:24 AM PDT Many children are obese these days, but what can be done about it? Research-proven treatments for obesity rely on regular one-on-one meetings with a trained health coach. So these "behavioral" treatments are seldom available outside of research studies in specialty medical centers. But now, a researcher and pediatrician has found that it's feasible and acceptable to give this same kind of behavioral treatment to groups of families in primary care.

Scientists find trigger to decode the genome Posted: 12 Jun 2014 09:13 AM PDT An important trigger that dictates how cells change their identity and gain specialized functions has been decoded by scientists. The scientists have found out how embryonic stem cell fate is controlled which will lead to future research into how cells can be artificially manipulated. "We believe that our research will help to make regenerative medicine more effective and reliable because we'll be able to gain control and manipulate cells -- thus our understanding of the regulatory events within a cell shed light on how to decode the genome," concluded the lead author.

Racism in healthcare linked to poor mental health Posted: 12 Jun 2014 07:49 AM PDT Experiencing racism in health settings may have a stronger negative influence on the mental health of Aboriginal Australians than experiencing racism anywhere else, a survey has found. Racism in health settings may discourage patients to seek access to health services and other resources that protect and promote health.

Fungal protein found to cross blood-brain barrier Posted: 12 Jun 2014 07:49 AM PDT In a remarkable series of experiments on a fungus that causes cryptococcal meningitis, a deadly infection of the membranes that cover the spinal cord and brain, investigators have isolated a protein that appears to be responsible for the fungus' ability to cross from the bloodstream into the brain.

12 minutes of exercise improves attention, reading comprehension in low-income adolescents Posted: 12 Jun 2014 07:49 AM PDT 12 minutes of exercise can improve attention and reading comprehension in low-income adolescents, suggesting that schools serving low-income populations should work brief bouts of exercise into their daily schedules.

Proliferation cues 'natural killer' cells for job change Posted: 12 Jun 2014 06:52 AM PDT Why would already abundant 'natural killer' cells proliferate even further after subduing an infection? It's been a biological mystery for 30 years. But now scientists have an answer: After proliferation, the cells switch from marshaling the immune response to calming it down. The findings illuminate the functions of a critical immune system cell important for early defense against disease induced by viral infection.

Antibodies from desert as guides to diseased cells Posted: 12 Jun 2014 06:52 AM PDT Nanoparticles are considered a promising approach in detecting and fighting tumor cells. The method has, however, often failed because the human immune system recognizes and rejects them before they can fulfill their function. Researchers have developed nanoparticles that bypass the body's defense system and find the diseased cells. This procedure uses fragments from an antibody that only occurs in camels and llamas.

Ipilimumab in advanced melanoma: no added benefit? Posted: 12 Jun 2014 06:51 AM PDT Two addenda did not change the result of the dossier assessment examining the effects of Ipilimumab in advanced melanoma. The results on which the drug manufacturer based its conclusions have methodological problems and are not informative.

New obesity drug closer than ever Posted: 12 Jun 2014 06:51 AM PDT Obesity and diabetes are among the fastest growing health problems in the world, and the hunt is in for a pill that can fight the problem. Now a research team has come up with a smart tool that will speed up the scientific hunting process, and we may be one step closer to a pill against obesity.

Transmission of information via proteins could revolutionize drug discovery Posted: 12 Jun 2014 06:50 AM PDT The existence of information highways that connect and correlate distant sites within a single protein have been discovered by researchers. Their article furthers a key theoretical field for drug discovery, as it would allow the discovery of many more drug binding sites in proteins of biomedical interest.

Neurostimulator implanted for epilepsy Posted: 12 Jun 2014 05:59 AM PDT A recently FDA-approved device that uses electric stimulation of the brain to treat adult epilepsy patients whose seizures have not responded to medication has been implanted by an American hospital.

Advanced breast cancer: Benefits of Trastuzumab (Herceptin) outweigh the risk of harm Posted: 12 Jun 2014 05:59 AM PDT In women with advanced (or metastatic) breast cancer, treatment with the breast cancer drug Trastuzumab (Herceptin) is associated with prolonged survival but also increases the risk of developing heart problems, a new systematic review shows. However, the review concludes that more women benefit from use of Trastuzumab than are harmed.

New tumor-targeting agent images, treats wide variety of cancers Posted: 11 Jun 2014 11:36 AM PDT A new class of tumor-targeting agents can seek out and find dozens of solid tumors, even illuminating brain cancer stem cells that resist current treatments, researchers report. What's more, years of animal studies and early human clinical trials show that this tumor-targeting, alkylphosphocholine (APC) molecule can deliver two types of "payloads" directly to cancer cells: a radioactive or fluorescent imaging label, or a radioactive medicine that binds and kills cancer cells.

You are subscribed to email updates from Health & Medicine News -- ScienceDaily To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610