A heart attack triggers an acute inflammatory response, followed by resolution of inflammation and wound healing. A severe heart attack, however, can cause chronic and sustained inflammation that leads to heart failure and death. In mouse experiments, University of Alabama at Birmingham scientists now have shown a way to hit an immunological “reset button” that
Enrollment has begun in a Phase 1 clinical trial to test the safety of a new investigational drug designed to treat malaria, as well as its effect on the human body. The first-in-human study is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and
A recent Finnish study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä showed that adolescents with better aerobic fitness have more compliant arteries than their lower fit peers do. The study also suggests that a higher anaerobic threshold is linked to better arterial health. The results were published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Arterial stiffness
A woman goes to the doctor for a mammogram. The result comes back positive. “This doesn’t necessarily mean you have cancer, false positives are common,” her doctor might say. Maybe the patient is also given a pamphlet with some statistics about mortality and survival rates. But the test did come back “positive,” the patient thinks,
Among adolescents and young adults with cancer, social support was the most decisive factor associated with life satisfaction. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings indicate that social support and how young cancer patients process the experience of being ill have far greater importance for their life
Researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University Hospital of Gießen and Marburg, in collaboration with colleagues from Bonn, the Netherlands, and the UK, have analysed what happens in the brain when humans want to voluntarily forget something. They identified two areas of the brain – the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus – whose activity patterns
Jet-air hand dryers in hospital toilets spread more germs than disposable paper towels and should not be used, say researchers. Writing in the Journal of Hospital Infection, they argue that the official guidance about how to prevent bacterial contamination in hospital buildings needs to be strengthened. At the moment, the official Department of Health guidance
An experimental cancer vaccine that boosts the immune system’s ability to fight cancers could work in tandem with other cancer therapies to fight aggressive tumors, scientists reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers demonstrated that adding a molecule called Diprovocim to a vaccine can draw cancer-fighting cells to tumor
Kids with food insecurity, meaning they lack good access to nutritional foods, were more likely to have high blood pressure than kids with secure access to food, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association’s Joint Hypertension 2018 Scientific Sessions. “High blood pressure—even in childhood—matters,” said study author Andrew Michael South, M.D., assistant
The common expression, ‘As easy as breathing,’ is truly misleading. Breathing, as it is performed by higher vertebrates, is a complex biological function involving many types of neurons. It requires chemosensory neurons to sense oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood and motor neurons to control muscle movement. It also needs specialized neurons to
Scott Caplan is a big fan of face time. That’s not FaceTime, the video calling app, but actual face time, the in-person social interaction in which people talk directly with one another the way they have for thousands of years. “The iPhone was introduced in 2007, and that’s when things really started changing because people
Extreme heat has gripped the northern hemisphere in recent months, and the year 2018 is on track to be among the hottest ever recorded. Higher global temperatures are expected to have detrimental effects on our natural environments and our physical health, but what will they do to our mental health? New research from an international
(HealthDay)—Recommendations have been developed by the World Health Organization for treatment intensification in type 2 diabetes. The recommendations were published online Sept. 4 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Gojka Roglic, M.D., and Susan L. Norris, M.D., M.P.H., from the World Health Organization in Switzerland, developed recommendations to provide guidance on medicine selection for treatment
Routine testing for prostate cancer is not recommended for most men because the benefit is small and uncertain and there are clear harms, say a panel of international experts in The BMJ today. But they acknowledge that some men, such as those with a family history of prostate cancer, may be more likely to consider
The brains of professional beatboxers and guitarists respond to music differently when compared to each other and non-musicians, finds a new UCL-led study. The study, published in Cerebral Cortex and funded by Wellcome, sheds light on how learning and making music can affect mental processes. The researchers found that the area of the brain that
It is well-recognized that women are at increased risk of depression during postpartum when hormone levels are changing, but the risk of depression associated with perimenopause—the time right before menopause when female hormones are in decline—remains under-recognized and clinical recommendations on how to diagnose and treat this kind of depression in women have been lacking
The number of osteoporosis medications that promote bone formation are few compared to those that suppress bone resorption. A research group led by Kumamoto University scientists has discovered that the gene SIRT7 is important for bone formation, and has discovered a new mechanism to activate gene functions essential for bone formation. The researchers believe that
(HealthDay)—The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends screening all pregnant women for syphilis infection. These findings form the basis of a reaffirmation recommendation statement published in the Sept. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Using data from seven studies, Jennifer S. Lin, M.D., from Kaiser Permanente Research Affiliates in Portland,
A varied, quality diet could help prevent hospitalizations and even death among patients with heart failure, a new study suggests. Researchers investigating nutritional deficiencies found that people with heart failure who lack seven or more micronutrients had nearly double the risk of dying or being hospitalized than those who didn’t have any or only a
A large genomic analysis has linked certain DNA mutations to a high risk of relapse in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, while other mutations were associated with better outcomes, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of British Columbia. The knowledge could