Category: Health Problems

Immunization with beneficial bacteria can have long-lasting anti-inflammatory effects on the brain, making it more resilient to the physical and behavioral effects of stress, according to new research by University of Colorado Boulder scientists. The findings, if replicated in clinical trials could ultimately lead to new probiotic-based immunizations to protect against posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Researchers from Drexel University College of Medicine and the University of Texas at Austin improved respiratory function in rodents with spinal cord injuries after successfully transplanting a special class of neural cells, called V2a interneurons. Their results, published this week in the Journal of Neurotrauma, indicate that these lab-grown cells have the potential to one

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have developed new cell-based technologies which could help improve understanding of the muscle-wasting disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and test potential drugs for the disease. DMD is a genetic disorder causing muscle degeneration and weakness, caused by an absence of the protein dystrophin. DMD usually affects only boys,

New technologies have been likened, famously, to magic. At first, even the few who understand how they work have a tendency to sit back and marvel. Soon, flaws and limitations are detected and the invention process begins again, resulting, almost always, in improvements. Today a team led by Professor Adam Kepecs at Cold Spring Harbor

Managing type 1diabetes during the first two decades of life is challenging. Insulin requirements change along with the stages of life —- childhood, puberty, young adulthood, and beyond. But a 20-year longitudinal study conducted by researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School identifies clear predictors of rising A1C levels in young persons, as

One of the main risk factors for non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), the most common cancer worldwide, is solar ultraviolet radiation. A new Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology study has found that different outdoor professions carry different risks for NMSC. In the study of 563 participants (47% women) consisting of 348 outdoor

Heart attacks are more likely to kill you in the winter than in the summer, according to new research presented at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester today. Cardiologists at Leeds General Infirmary compared information from 4,056 people who received treatment for a heart attack in four separate years, and found the most severe

Diabetes affects more than 400 million individuals worldwide. In what is becoming a paradigm shift, researchers have begun to find that the disease may result in part through pancreatic beta cells losing their functional identity and shutting down their ability to release the blood sugar-lowering hormone, insulin. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology

In a viral haemorrhagic disease where up to 40% of people developing it die, it is remarkable that doctors still do not agree whether the only recognised treatment, an antiviral drug called ribavirin, makes a difference. In a new Cochrane Review a team of authors at LSTM, along with colleagues in London, The Philippines and

Scientists have uncovered a completely new way to make cancers sensitive to treatment—by targeting antenna-like structures on cells. Their study found that drug-resistant cancer cells have more and longer antennae than those which are killed by treatment. Blocking the growth of antennae reactivated a range of cancer treatments that had stopped working, the team at

Gender can have an influence on psychotherapy. This is backed up by the latest analysis and long-term research carried out by the director of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Science BA-degree programme at Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Krems (KL Krems). The results show that gender identity affects the emotions of both patients and

After a series of bank robberies that took place in the US in 2014, police arrested Steve Talley. He was beaten during the arrest and held in maximum security detention for almost two months. His estranged ex-wife identified him as the robber in CCTV footage and an FBI facial examiner later backed up her claims.

Clinical trial results presented today at a prestigious cancer meeting in Chicago show substantial increased survival rates for pancreatic cancer patients who received a four-drug chemotherapy combination known as mFOLFIRINOX after surgery. Pancreatic cancer is typically very aggressive, with only approximately eight per cent of people surviving beyond five years after diagnosis, even after surgery

Researchers have developed an artificial tissue in which human blood stem cells remain functional for a prolonged period of time. Scientists from the University of Basel, University Hospital Basel, and ETH Zurich have reported their findings in the scientific journal PNAS. In the bone marrow, several billion blood cells are formed each day. This constant

Genetic mutations in blood cells that have made their way into tumors could be red herrings that mislead physicians looking for genetic changes in tumors that are helping to drive the cancer. This finding is significant because physicians could make misinformed treatment decisions. At the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting this week,

Having a stressful job is associated with a higher risk of a heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation, according to research published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) journal. The most stressful jobs are psychologically demanding but give employees little control over the work situation—for example, assembly

Our ability to remember past events develops rapidly in the first couple of years of life, but it’s not clear exactly how this happens. Researchers at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis have now been able to carry out functional MRI brain scans of sleeping toddlers, and show for

Human immune cells in blood can be converted directly into functional neurons in the laboratory in about three weeks with the addition of just four proteins, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found. The dramatic transformation does not require the cells to first enter a state called pluripotency but instead occurs through

Interfering with inflammatory signals produced by heart muscle cells might someday provide novel therapeutic strategies for atrial fibrillation, according to an international team of researchers who have published their findings in the journal Circulation. “Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart arrhythmia, and it is particularly observed in the elderly human population, which is growing

Preschool irritability and concurrent irritability were uniquely associated with aberrant patterns of reward-related brain connectivity, highlighting the importance of developmental timing of irritability for brain function, finds a study published in the June 2018 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). “Irritability is one of the most frequent