Category: Health Problems

A new study looks to move doctors and patients closer to earlier and more precise detection of recurrent prostate cancer that would clarify treatment decisions and lead to more confident courses of action and better health outcomes. A multi-center trial registry testing the use of a new imaging tracer—prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) – is

Boosting brain function is key to staving off the effects of aging. And if there was one thing every person should consider doing right now to keep their brain young, it is to add extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) to their diet, according to research by scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at

New biodegradable rods promise to provide better treatment for periodontal disease. Researchers from the Institute of Pharmacy at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have re-combined an already approved active ingredient and filed for a patent for their invention together with two Fraunhofer Institutes from Halle. The innovation would spare patients from having many side effects.

A shift in surgical practice over the last decade towards the earlier removal of a type of slow-growing but ultimately fatal brain tumor has led to dramatic improvements in survival and seizure control for patients, a study at UCLH and UCL has found. Patients with low-grade gliomas (LGGs) had a 50 percent chance of dying

Your heart beats faster, your palms sweat and part of your brain called the Heschl’s gyrus lights up like a Christmas tree. Chances are, you’ve never thought in such a detailed way about what happens to your brain and body when you listen to music. But it’s a question that has puzzled scientists for decades:

Researchers recently produced an algorithm that could guess whether heart patients had lived or died from their condition within a year. By looking at data from a test of the heart’s electrical activity known as an electrocardiogram or ECG, the algorithm successfully predicted patient survival in 85% of cases. But its developers couldn’t explain how

Two-thirds (68%) of Indigenous people living off reserve in Canada have excellent mental health, according to a nationally representative study conducted by the University of Toronto and Algoma University. “These findings underline the incredible strength and resiliency of Indigenous people. Most previous research has focused solely on deficits. In contrast, our findings show that despite

When insulin is secreted from beta cells in the pancreas to control glucose levels in the blood stream, GABA is also released from the cells to calm them so that the cells can prepare for the next pulse of insulin secretion. Having a stable insulin level is key to the functioning of a healthy pancreas.

A collaboration between the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) and multiple clinical research institutes has led to an exciting discovery in cancer research. The multi-disciplinary team, led by GRIDD’s Dr. Alexandre Cristino and Professor Maher Gandhi from Mater Research and including researchers from the Translational Research Institute, discovered a new mechanism in which the

Parents usually know their child better than anyone, and if a parent suspects something is wrong, it probably is. That was the case for Dan and Laura Wallenberg from Columbus, Ohio. EV Wallenberg was just 5 months old when they noticed that their daughter wasn’t eating normally. They scheduled a visit with her pediatrician. “I

Researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and University of Salento, both in Lecce, Italy, and Harvard Medical School in Boston have developed a new light-based method to capture and pinpoint the epicenter of neural activity in the brain. The approach, described in Nature Methods, lays the foundation for novel ways to map connections across

Advanced bowel cancer cells have very few “molecular flags” on their surface, helping to explain why they may be hard for the immune system to detect, a new study has shown. Molecules on the surface of tumor cells, arising from faults in their DNA, help the immune system pick them out as cancerous—enabling immune cells

When the electronic health record is programmed to automatically flag and create orders for patients needing cancer screenings, doctors are significantly more likely to order them, a new Penn Medicine study shows. However, the study showed that the other part of the equation—patients following through on those screenings—was unaffected by the increase in orders. “Cancer

Narcissists, like sharks, get a bad press. Both are generally seen as menacing, negative forces to be feared and avoided. But as any biologist will tell you, sharks play a vital role in the marine ecosystem. And it may be that narcissists also have a necessary part to play in human society. This of course,

Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed an economic model to quantify the benefits of treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD), the leading cause of blindness in western countries. Their work signals a step forward in the way ophthalmologists audit their practices to define the worth of modern treatments both to patients

The California wildfires that have burned thousands of acres and driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes this fall have left many residents emotionally exhausted. A woman who lost her home in the Santa Rosa fires two years ago, and just recently had to evacuate from her temporary apartment, told NPR that the

Every year, more than 59,000 people around the world die of rabies and there remains no cheap and easy vaccine regimen to prevent the disease in humans. Now, researchers report in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases that adding a specific immune molecule to a rabies vaccine can boost its efficacy. Previous studies have suggested that the

AstraZeneca and MSD (Merck) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted acceptance to file status of its application for the MEK inhibitor selumetinib, for use in patients with plexiform neurofibromas, a common manifestation in the disease neurofibromatosis type one (NF1). The FDA’s acceptance of the application is a major milestone

Contrary to the previous data, a Finnish study clarifies that smoking and high blood pressure do not protect from death in patients suffering from subarachnoid hemorrhage, the most lethal stroke subtype. In fact, subarachnoid hemorrhage kills smokers and hypertensive individuals even before they reach hospitals, and therefore, previous studies that did not include these deaths

Directly after birth, the immune system completes production of a subtype of antibody-producing immune cells, B-1, that are to last for a lifetime. No more B1 cells are formed after that point. However, these cells are self-reactive—they produce not only antibodies against foreign substances, but also against the body’s own substances, and it is unclear