ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Putting bedbugs to bed forever
• High-fat diet, obesity during pregnancy harms stem cells in developing fetus
• Scrapie could breach the species barrier
• To remove the gallbladder or not: That is the question
• Children's high risk clinic reduces serious illness by 55 percent
• Identifying brain variations to predict patient response to surgery for OCD
• Trends in indoor tanning among U.S. high school students
• The heat is on: Causes of hospitalization due to heat waves identified
• Popular diabetes drug may be safe for patients with kidney disease
• Many patients with gout in England do not receive recommended treatment
• Maternal supplementation with multiple micronutrients compared with iron-folic acid
• Effect of longer, deeper cooling for newborns with neurological condition
• Researchers map paths to cancer drug resistance
• Alternate drug therapy lowers antibodies, researchers find
• Research opens opportunities to develop targeted drug therapy for cardiac arrhythmia
• New standards of care from the American Diabetes Association
• Role of gene mutations involved in more than 75 percent of glioblastomas, melanomas
• This Endoscope Zaps Tumors
• Physical violence linked to stress hormone in women
• Blocking notch pathway leads to new route to hair cell regeneration to restore hearing
• Devising a way to count proteins as they group
• Using no-evidence-of-disease-activity standard for patients with multiple sclerosis
• Startling benefit of cardiology meetings: Outcomes better when cardiologists away?
• Skin patch could help heal, prevent diabetic ulcers, study finds

Putting bedbugs to bed forever Posted: 24 Dec 2014 07:31 AM PST A team of scientists has found a way to conquer the global bedbug epidemic. By lending their own arms for thousands of bed bug bites, they have finally found the solution -- a set of chemical attractants, or pheromones, that lure the bedbugs into traps, and keep them there.

High-fat diet, obesity during pregnancy harms stem cells in developing fetus Posted: 24 Dec 2014 07:31 AM PST Physician-scientists reveal a high-fat diet and obesity during pregnancy compromise the blood-forming, or hematopoietic, stem cell system in the fetal liver responsible for creating and sustaining lifelong blood and immune system function.

Scrapie could breach the species barrier Posted: 24 Dec 2014 07:30 AM PST The pathogens responsible for scrapie in small ruminants (prions) have the potential to convert the human prion protein from a healthy state to a pathological state, researchers have discovered for the first time. In mice models reproducing the human species barrier, this prion induces a disease similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These primary results stress the necessity to reassess the transmission of this disease to humans.

To remove the gallbladder or not: That is the question Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:17 PM PST Gallbladder removal is one of the most common operations performed in older adults. Yet, research suggests that many patients who would benefit most from the surgery don't get it.

Children's high risk clinic reduces serious illness by 55 percent Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:17 PM PST High-risk children with chronic illness who received comprehensive care at a special clinic staffed by physicians and nurse practitioners from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, had a dramatic reduction in serious illnesses, documents a new study. These benefits are the greatest identified to date for medical homes for patients in any age group.

Identifying brain variations to predict patient response to surgery for OCD Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:17 PM PST Identifying brain variations may help physicians predict which patients will respond to a neurosurgical procedure to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder that does not respond to medication or cognitive-behavioral therapies, according to a report.

Trends in indoor tanning among U.S. high school students Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:17 PM PST While indoor tanning has decreased among high school students, about 20 percent of females engaged in indoor tanning at least once during 2013 and about 10 percent of girls frequently engaged in the practice by using an indoor tanning device 10 or more times during the year, according to a research.

The heat is on: Causes of hospitalization due to heat waves identified Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:17 PM PST In the largest and most comprehensive study of heat-related illness to date, researchers have identified a handful of potentially serious disorders that put older Americans at significantly increased risk of winding up in the hospital during periods of extreme heat.

Popular diabetes drug may be safe for patients with kidney disease Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:17 PM PST The most popular treatment for type 2 diabetes, metformin, may be safer for patients with mild to moderate kidney disease than guidelines suggest, according to a new, systematic review of the literature. For 20 years, metformin has been used in the U.S. to lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. Most experts consider it the best first agent to treat blood sugar increases in this disease. Despite its strong safety profile, the FDA has long recommended that metformin not be prescribed to patients with mild to moderate kidney disease due to the risk of lactic acidosis, a potentially serious condition. But those decades-old guidelines have recently been called into question.

Many patients with gout in England do not receive recommended treatment Posted: 23 Dec 2014 01:12 PM PST Among patients in England with gout, only a minority of those with indications to receive urate-lowering therapy were treated according to guideline recommendations, according to a study. Current guidelines recommend urate (a metabolite derived from uric acid)-lowering treatment for patients with more severe gout or accompanying conditions.

Maternal supplementation with multiple micronutrients compared with iron-folic acid Posted: 23 Dec 2014 01:12 PM PST In Bangladesh, daily maternal supplementation of multiple micronutrients compared to iron-folic acid before and after childbirth did not reduce all-cause infant mortality to age 6 months, but did result in significant reductions in preterm birth and low birth weight, according to a study.

Effect of longer, deeper cooling for newborns with neurological condition Posted: 23 Dec 2014 01:12 PM PST Among full-term newborns with moderate or severe hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (damage to cells in the central nervous system from inadequate oxygen), receiving deeper or longer duration cooling did not reduce risk of neonatal intensive care unit death, compared to usual care, according to a study.

Researchers map paths to cancer drug resistance Posted: 23 Dec 2014 01:11 PM PST Key events that prompt certain cancer cells to develop resistance to otherwise lethal therapies have been identified by researchers. By mapping the specific steps that cells of melanoma, breast cancer and a blood cancer called myelofibrosis use to become resistant to drugs, the researchers now have much better targets for blocking those pathways and keeping current therapies effective.

Alternate drug therapy lowers antibodies, researchers find Posted: 23 Dec 2014 01:11 PM PST A novel pre-operative drug therapy reduces antibodies in kidney patients with greater success than with traditional methods, with the potential to increase the patients' candidacy for kidney transplantation and decrease the likelihood of organ rejection. These are the findings of a three-year clinical trial.

Research opens opportunities to develop targeted drug therapy for cardiac arrhythmia Posted: 23 Dec 2014 01:11 PM PST Biomedical engineers have discovered that for one important channel in the heart, the membrane voltage not only causes the channel to open, but also determines the properties of the electrical signals.

New standards of care from the American Diabetes Association Posted: 23 Dec 2014 01:11 PM PST The American Diabetes Association is recommending a less stringent diastolic blood pressure target for people with diabetes and that all people with diabetes take either moderate or high doses of statins, in keeping with recent changes to guidelines for cardiovascular risk management enacted by the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association.

Role of gene mutations involved in more than 75 percent of glioblastomas, melanomas Posted: 22 Dec 2014 02:04 PM PST For the first time, mutations that destabilize a DNA structure that turns a gene off have been discovered by researchers. The mutations occur at four sites in the hTERT promoter in more than 75 percent of glioblastomas and melanomas.

This Endoscope Zaps Tumors Posted: 22 Dec 2014 02:03 PM PST To examine internal organs, doctors often use a tube with light and a tiny camera attached to it. The device, called an endoscope, helps detect cancer and other illnesses. It may soon serve another purpose: zapping tumors. The biomedical advancement, which is under development, could make chemotherapy more efficient, reduce its side effects and improve how doctors treat some of the most deadly forms of cancer.

Physical violence linked to stress hormone in women Posted: 22 Dec 2014 01:55 PM PST A new study links physical violence against women by male partners to a disruption of a key steroid hormone that opens the door potentially to a variety of negative health effects.

Blocking notch pathway leads to new route to hair cell regeneration to restore hearing Posted: 22 Dec 2014 01:54 PM PST Blocking the Notch pathway, known to control the elaborate hair cell distribution in the inner ear, plays an essential role that determines cochlear progenitor cell proliferation capacity, researchers report. The finding could lead to hearing restoration.

Devising a way to count proteins as they group Posted: 22 Dec 2014 01:54 PM PST A new study reports on an innovative theoretical methodology to solve 'the counting problem,' which is key to understanding how proteins group and perform their vital functions within the human body.

Using no-evidence-of-disease-activity standard for patients with multiple sclerosis Posted: 22 Dec 2014 01:54 PM PST Maintaining 'no-evidence-of-disease-activity' was difficult over time for many patients with multiple sclerosis but the measure may help gauge a patient's long-term prognosis, according to a study.

Startling benefit of cardiology meetings: Outcomes better when cardiologists away? Posted: 22 Dec 2014 01:50 PM PST High-risk patients with certain acute heart conditions are more likely to survive than other similar patients if they are admitted to the hospital during national cardiology meetings, when many cardiologists are away from their regular practices.

Skin patch could help heal, prevent diabetic ulcers, study finds Posted: 22 Dec 2014 01:50 PM PST Researchers knew that a drug administered to remove iron from the blood could also overcome diabetic interference with blood vessel formation, but finding the right way to deliver it for this use was the challenge.

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