ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• How the brain controls sleep
• TAK-733 shows challenge of using a promising drug in the human body
• Schizophrenia symptoms linked to features of brain's anatomy?
• Boosting the brain's waste disposal system
• Antiviral favipiravir successfully treats Lassa virus in guinea pigs
• Patients using nurse practitioners are less likely to have avoidable hospital admissions
• Anticancer effects of drugs overestimated by as much as 45 percent in animal models
• Building a better liposome
• Use of e-cigarettes, alternative tobacco products may lead to increased tobacco use
• Study underscores need to assess behavioral sequelae of TBI
• Relaxation response-based program may reduce participants' future use of health services
• Sitting for long periods not bad for health, suggest researchers
• Possible new treatment for neurodegenerative diseases found
• New study has important implications for the design of a protective HIV vaccine
• Noninvasive imaging method looks deeper inside the body to study living brain
• Malaria vaccine provides hope for a general cure for cancer
• Health care, research failing to adapt to US's growing multiracial population
• Ancient human ear-orienting system could yield clues to hearing deficits in infants
• Video conferencing could increase shared decision-making in hospice care
• Scientists find external environment, oxidation greatest threats to DNA
• Bacterium that causes Q fever linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• Listeria can grow on unrefrigerated caramel apples
• Social media content may hold keys to important health information
• Novel imaging study demonstrates how the 'social brain' is functionally impaired in autism spectrum disorder
• Calcium supplements may increase the risk of kidney stone recurrence
• Obesity surgery normalizes brain opioids
• Type 2 diabetes screening needs 'reviewing'
• New field of application for versatile helper
• Smoking habits found to change blood serum concentration of aging-related molecules
• New research sees zebrafish earn their stripes in the fight against Muscular Dystrophy
• No proof that 85 percent of depression treatment apps accredited by NHS actually work
• Advanced care, increased risk
• Extreme weight loss tactics among UK cage fighters prompt alarm and call for action
• Vaccinating children may be cost-effective for tackling flu
• Obesity doesn't protect patients with cardiovascular disease
• What happens when your brain can't tell which way is up?
• Breast cancer drug beats superbug
• Disparities in breast cancer persist across all subtypes, stages
• Researchers develop first animal-free screening platforms to predict toxic kidney injury
• Recreating embryonic development 'in a dish' to study drugs that cause birth defects
• Cell authentication survey shows little progress in a decade
• In females, childhood head injury could lead to alcohol abuse later in life
• HIV drugs provide added benefit of protecting against hepatitis B virus
• Researchers use 'Avatar' experiments to get leg up on locomotion
• Ebola treatment beds prevented 57,000 Ebola cases, 40,000 deaths in Sierra Leone
• Computerized cognitive training improves childhood cancer survivors' attention and memory
• Pumpkin foods may not live up to healthy reputation
• Rsearchers find pathway to cancer-associated muscle weakness
• Scientists uncover four different types of bowel cancer
• Elevated blood-sugar levels in pregnancy tied to baby's heart-defect risk

How the brain controls sleep Posted: 13 Oct 2015 03:27 PM PDT Neuroscientists have discovered a brain circuit that can trigger small regions of the brain to fall asleep or become less alert, while the rest of the brain remains awake. The researchers believe this may help the brain consolidate new memories by coordinating slow waves between different parts of the brain, allowing them to share information more easily.

TAK-733 shows challenge of using a promising drug in the human body Posted: 13 Oct 2015 02:59 PM PDT A new study shows, on one hand, strong activity, and on the other hand, challenging pharmacokinetics of new drug TAK-733 against colorectal cancer.

Schizophrenia symptoms linked to features of brain's anatomy? Posted: 13 Oct 2015 02:59 PM PDT Using advanced brain imaging, researchers have matched certain behavioral symptoms of schizophrenia to features of the brain's anatomy. The findings could be a step toward improving diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.

Boosting the brain's waste disposal system Posted: 13 Oct 2015 01:57 PM PDT Researchers have been investigating the extent to which macrophages, a type of phagocytic immune cell, might be used to eliminate the abnormal protein deposits typically found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Antiviral favipiravir successfully treats Lassa virus in guinea pigs Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:54 PM PDT Favipiravir, an investigational antiviral drug currently being tested in West Africa as a treatment for Ebola virus disease, effectively treated Lassa virus infection in guinea pigs, according to a new study.

Patients using nurse practitioners are less likely to have avoidable hospital admissions Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:54 PM PDT Diabetic patients who got their primary care from nurse practitioners did not have an increase in potentially preventable hospital admissions, new research concludes.

Anticancer effects of drugs overestimated by as much as 45 percent in animal models Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:54 PM PDT Failure to eliminate bias can skew what we think we know about a drug, waste time and money on trials that prove 'futile' and drive up the price of medications. Only 5 percent of agents that show anticancer activity in preclinical development are eventually licensed while in cardiovascular disease, for example, the rate is 20 percent, say experts.

Building a better liposome Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:54 PM PDT Using computational modeling, researchers have come up with a design for a sturdier liposome. Their findings, while theoretical, could provide the basis for efficiently constructing new vehicles for nanodrug delivery.

Use of e-cigarettes, alternative tobacco products may lead to increased tobacco use Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:38 PM PDT The increasing use of alternative tobacco products, such as water pipes and e-cigarettes, by children under the age of 18 is a burgeoning public health crisis, researchers write in a new commentary.

Study underscores need to assess behavioral sequelae of TBI Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:38 PM PDT Rsearchers assessed moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) for frontal behavioral syndromes and cognitive function. Their finding suggest that adding the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale to neuropsychological assessment may yield useful information about the behavioral sequelae of TBI.

Relaxation response-based program may reduce participants' future use of health services Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:37 PM PDT A new study finds that individuals participating in a relaxation-response-focused training program used fewer health care services in the year after their participation than in the preceding year.

Sitting for long periods not bad for health, suggest researchers Posted: 13 Oct 2015 11:40 AM PDT New research has challenged claims that sitting for long periods increases the risk of an early death even if you are otherwise physically active. The study followed more than 5000 participants for 16 years (making it one of the longest follow-up studies in this area of research) and found that sitting, either at home or at work, is not associated with an increased risk of dying.

Possible new treatment for neurodegenerative diseases found Posted: 13 Oct 2015 10:58 AM PDT A well-established anti-epileptic drug could also be used as a treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, report scientists investigating the topic.

New study has important implications for the design of a protective HIV vaccine Posted: 13 Oct 2015 10:58 AM PDT A study describes how the changing viral swarm in an HIV infected person can drive the generation of antibodies able to neutralize HIV strains from across the world. This work has important implications for the design of a protective HIV vaccine, say the researchers.

Noninvasive imaging method looks deeper inside the body to study living brain Posted: 13 Oct 2015 10:55 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated a noninvasive light-based imaging technology enabling study of the living brain and providing a new tool to study how diseases like dementia, Alzheimer's, and brain tumors change brain tissue over time.

Malaria vaccine provides hope for a general cure for cancer Posted: 13 Oct 2015 10:55 AM PDT The hunt for a vaccine against malaria in pregnant women has provided an unexpected side benefit for researchers, namely what appears to be an effective weapon against cancer. The scientists behind the vaccine aim for tests on humans within four years.

Health care, research failing to adapt to US's growing multiracial population Posted: 13 Oct 2015 08:21 AM PDT Health care and research are failing to adapt data collection methods to the growing multiracial population in the US, an author suggests in a new report.

Ancient human ear-orienting system could yield clues to hearing deficits in infants Posted: 13 Oct 2015 08:21 AM PDT Vestigial organs, such as the wisdom teeth in humans, are those that have become functionless through the course of evolution. Now, a psychologist studying vestigial muscles behind the ears in humans has determined that ancient neural circuits responsible for moving the ears, still may be responsive to sounds that attract our attention. Neuroscientists studying auditory function could use these ancient muscles to study positive emotions and infant hearing deficits.

Video conferencing could increase shared decision-making in hospice care Posted: 13 Oct 2015 08:21 AM PDT Shared decision-making, although beneficial, could be enhanced in hospice care, say authors of a new report. The researchers recommend that health care workers employ measures such as video conferencing to help increase the likelihood of shared decision-making between patients and family caregivers.

Scientists find external environment, oxidation greatest threats to DNA Posted: 13 Oct 2015 08:19 AM PDT Forces in the external environmental and oxidation are the greatest threats to an organism's ability to repair damage to its own DNA, new research indicates.

Bacterium that causes Q fever linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma Posted: 13 Oct 2015 08:09 AM PDT The bacterium that causes Q fever, an infectious disease that humans contract from animals, is associated with an increased risk of lymphoma, according to a study.

Listeria can grow on unrefrigerated caramel apples Posted: 13 Oct 2015 08:08 AM PDT Caramel apples punctured with dipping sticks and left unrefrigerated over the course of a couple of weeks may harbor a bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes, according to a study.

Social media content may hold keys to important health information Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:38 AM PDT Language used in everyday social media posts may have a strong connection to an individual's health. In the first study of its kind, the new results suggest that not only are many adult Facebook and Twitter users willing to share their social media data and medical data for research purposes, but that by building a language databank, it may be possible to link social media content to health outcomes.

Novel imaging study demonstrates how the 'social brain' is functionally impaired in autism spectrum disorder Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:37 AM PDT Brain areas linked to social behaviors are both underdeveloped and insufficiently networked in youths with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to study participants without ASD, a team of scientists has found.

Calcium supplements may increase the risk of kidney stone recurrence Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:36 AM PDT Calcium supplements may increase the risk of kidney stone recurrence, according to a new study.

Obesity surgery normalizes brain opioids Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:32 AM PDT Researchers have revealed how obesity surgery recovers opioid neurotransmission in the brain. Obesity surgery provides an effective means for rapid weight loss, and the research also shows that obesity surgery also normalizes brain circuits triggering pleasurable sensations when eating.

Type 2 diabetes screening needs 'reviewing' Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:32 AM PDT 'Multi-step' programs in diabetes screening lead to more people responding to screening invitations and the number of those needing a final test for a definite diagnosis being reduced, suggest authors of a new report.

New field of application for versatile helper Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:31 AM PDT In Alzheimer's disease proteins clump together to long fibrils causing the death of nerve cells. Small heat shock proteins can counteract this effect. Scientists, therefore, hope to deploy them as agents in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Using the example of a small heat shock protein, researchers have now uncovered how the protein interacts with other proteins.

Smoking habits found to change blood serum concentration of aging-related molecules Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:31 AM PDT The average life span of smokers is more than 10 years shorter than that of non-smoker, and it is said that smoking is a factor which accelerates aging. However, the details of the mechanism which accelerates aging due to smoking has not, to date, been clear.

New research sees zebrafish earn their stripes in the fight against Muscular Dystrophy Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:31 AM PDT New research has demonstrated a new method for observing the behavior of the protein Dystrophin in a living animal cell, in real-time. This breakthrough may provide a key to understanding how to treat the genetic disease, Muscular Dystrophy.

No proof that 85 percent of depression treatment apps accredited by NHS actually work Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:25 AM PDT There is no proof that 85 percent of the depression apps currently recommended by the NHS for patients to manage their condition actually work, say experts.

Advanced care, increased risk Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:24 AM PDT Patients with trauma, stroke, heart attack and respiratory failure who were transported by basic life support ambulances had lower mortality than patients who were transported by advanced life support ambulances, shows a new study.

Extreme weight loss tactics among UK cage fighters prompt alarm and call for action Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:24 AM PDT UK cage fighters are indulging in potentially dangerous behaviors in a bid to lose large amounts of weight in the shortest possible time before a fight, reveal doctors in a snapshot survey of preferred slimming tactics.

Vaccinating children may be cost-effective for tackling flu Posted: 13 Oct 2015 07:24 AM PDT Extending flu vaccine administration to UK children may be a cost-effective way to reduce disease burden in the general population, according to research. The study, which was part of the evidence used by the UK to add a pediatric component to its influenza immunization program, finds that the most cost-effective option is extending the vaccination program covering high risk and elderly individuals, to 5- to 16-year-old children.

Obesity doesn't protect patients with cardiovascular disease Posted: 13 Oct 2015 06:54 AM PDT Why is it that study after study shows obese or overweight people with cardiovascular disease outliving their normal weight counterparts? Would this phenomenon, referred to as the obesity paradox, hold up when approached within different parameters? Now researchers say no: obesity is harmful, not helpful, to someone with cardiovascular disease, according to new research.

What happens when your brain can't tell which way is up? Posted: 13 Oct 2015 06:54 AM PDT The Spaceflight Effects on Neurocognitive Performance: Extent, Longevity, and Neural Bases (NeuroMapping) study is examining changes in both brain structure and function and determining how long it takes to recover after returning from space.

Breast cancer drug beats superbug Posted: 13 Oct 2015 06:54 AM PDT Researchers have found that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen gives white blood cells a boost, better enabling them to respond to, ensnare and kill bacteria in laboratory experiments. Tamoxifen treatment in mice also enhances clearance of the antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogen MRSA and reduces mortality.

Disparities in breast cancer persist across all subtypes, stages Posted: 13 Oct 2015 06:53 AM PDT Minority women were more likely to have aggressive subtypes of breast cancer and were more likely to receive non-guideline concordant treatment when compared with non-Hispanic white women, says a new report.

Researchers develop first animal-free screening platforms to predict toxic kidney injury Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:11 PM PDT Researchers have developed the first animal-free screening platforms capable of predicting the toxic effects of compounds on the human kidney accurately.

Recreating embryonic development 'in a dish' to study drugs that cause birth defects Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:11 PM PDT Researchers, for the first time, have recreated two key processes essential for fetal formation in vitro. The team has not only controlled the differentiation of stem cells into other cell types, but they have also demonstrated the successful migration of these transformed cells.

Cell authentication survey shows little progress in a decade Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:10 PM PDT A new survey of almost 450 biomedical researchers from every major stakeholder group (e.g., academia, industry) shows little has changed in cell line authentication and culture practices in the past decade—practices that contribute to irreproducible research, and delays and increased costs of drug discovery, report scientists.

In females, childhood head injury could lead to alcohol abuse later in life Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:09 PM PDT Girls who suffer a concussive bump on the head in childhood could be at increased risk for abusing alcohol as adults, a new study suggests. The research in mice found that females with a mild closed-head brain injury were more likely to misuse alcohol later in life and associate drinking with reward and pleasure. This effect was not seen in males.

HIV drugs provide added benefit of protecting against hepatitis B virus Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:09 PM PDT In a study involving 2,400 men who have sex with men who were also enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, researchers report that men with HIV who were treated effectively with HIV therapy — defined as no detectable HIV virus in the blood — were the least likely (80 percent less likely) to get infected with HBV over a median follow-up of approximately 9.5 years

Researchers use 'Avatar' experiments to get leg up on locomotion Posted: 12 Oct 2015 02:45 PM PDT Results of a biomechanical study of leg motion could be used to create robotic devices to assist human locomotion, setting the stage for merging human and machine, say scientists.

Ebola treatment beds prevented 57,000 Ebola cases, 40,000 deaths in Sierra Leone Posted: 12 Oct 2015 02:45 PM PDT The introduction of thousands of Ebola treatment beds by the UK and Sierra Leone governments and NGOs prevented an estimated 57,000 Ebola cases and 40,000 deaths in Sierra Leone. However, had the beds been introduced just one month earlier, an additional 12,500 cases could have prevented.

Computerized cognitive training improves childhood cancer survivors' attention and memory Posted: 12 Oct 2015 02:45 PM PDT Computer-based cognitive training is as effective as medication for improving working memory and attention in childhood cancer survivors with cognitive deficits, suggests a new study.

Pumpkin foods may not live up to healthy reputation Posted: 12 Oct 2015 12:41 PM PDT Pumpkin products proliferate this time of year -- and not just for traditional pies and breads, but for whimsical goodies that may not live up to the pumpkin's healthy reputation. But one expert is warning that just because it's pumpkin, doesn't mean it's healthy.

Rsearchers find pathway to cancer-associated muscle weakness Posted: 12 Oct 2015 08:57 AM PDT Cancer researchers have discovered how cancer-induced bone destruction causes skeletal muscle weakness. They found that inhibiting TGF-?, a growth factor released from bone during cancer-induced bone destruction, improved muscle function in mouse models of human cancers.

Scientists uncover four different types of bowel cancer Posted: 12 Oct 2015 08:57 AM PDT Bowel cancer can be divided up into four distinct diseases, each with its own set of biological characteristics, a major new study reports. The research could allow doctors to treat each type of bowel cancer differently - and drive the design of distinct sets of targeted drugs for each type.

Elevated blood-sugar levels in pregnancy tied to baby's heart-defect risk Posted: 12 Oct 2015 08:57 AM PDT Pregnant women with elevated blood-sugar levels are more likely to have babies with congenital heart defects, even if their blood sugar is below the cutoff for diabetes, according to a new study.

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