Category: Health Problems

Impoverished female farm workers infected with intestinal parasites known as hookworms saw significant improvements in physical fitness when they were treated with a low-cost deworming drug. The benefits were seen even in those with low level infections, according to a study co-authored by researchers at Yale and the nonprofit company InnovationsCZ. The authors say that

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a protein that is strongly associated with metastatic breast cancer and that could be a target for future therapies. High levels of the protein ZMYND8 are correlated with poor survival in breast cancer patients, said Dr. Weibo Luo, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Pharmacology, and with the

If you’ve ever had a mild concussion, your risk of developing Parkinson’s disease goes up by 56 percent, a new study of more than 300,000 U.S. veterans suggests. “Upwards of 40 percent of adults have had a traumatic brain injury [concussion], so these findings are definitely concerning,” said study author Dr. Raquel Gardner. She is

High blood pressure and prediabetes together may do more harm to the body than either one alone. The first study of its type looking into the association between slightly elevated blood sugar levels and high blood pressure found that prediabetes didn’t increase cardiovascular risk by itself. But when researchers looked at prediabetes paired with high

A compound derived from immune cells treats psoriasis in mice and holds promise for other autoimmune diseases, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The compound suppresses an inflammatory pathway that is overactive in many autoimmune diseases, suggesting that it may be effective against multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis,

People with obesity are more likely to develop a rapid and irregular heart rate, called atrial fibrillation, which can lead to stroke, heart failure and other complications, according to Penn State researchers. Researchers followed a large group of participants, equally divided between people with obesity and without, for eight years. They found that people with

Adolescents and young adults with acute leukemia have a survival advantage if they receive treatment at a pediatric cancer center versus an adult center, according to a new study. The study, published online today in Blood Advances, a journal of the American Society of Hematology, also suggests that treatment at a center affiliated with the

New research from Lund University in Sweden shows that inflammatory, unstable atherosclerotic plaque has a metabolism that differs from that of stable plaque – and is similar to that of cancer cells. Future research will therefore investigate whether cancer drugs could potentially be used to treat cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerotic plaque builds up gradually in the

People of all ages are at risk from diseases brought on by loneliness, new data has revealed. According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics, 2.4m adult British residents – of all ages – suffer from chronic loneliness. That number, combined with research highlighting the medical dangers posed by loneliness, could see the

Researchers from the University of Dundee have identified an enzyme critical for cell division that could potentially be targeted to tip tumours ‘over the edge’ into remission. A team led by Professor Paul Clarke and Dr. Adrian Saurin, from the University’s School of Medicine, discovered that the enzyme USP9X controls the proper timing of cell

Being high in ‘neuroticism’ and low in ‘conscientiousness’ can come at a cost in terms of income a new study has found. These effects were particularly strong for women, who benefited more than men for being conscientious but were penalised more than men for being neurotic. ‘Dark Triad’ & ‘Big Five’ personality traits influence income

A new wave of highly antibiotic resistant superbugs has been found in the Middle East Gulf States, discovered by University of Queensland researchers. UQ Centre for Clinical Research group leader Dr Hosam Zowawi said his team had witnessed rapid growth of the new multi-drug resistant clones – variants of existing superbugs in the Gulf States,

Many chemotherapeutics act by damaging the DNA. Since cancer cells divide more often than most normal cells, they are more sensitive to DNA-damaging agents. One exception are oocytes. To prevent birth defects, they initiate a cellular death program if DNA damage is detected. This process, called apoptosis, is triggered in oocytes by the protein p63.

In preclinical studies using cell models that mimicked liver cells of patients with the rare disease Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), a widely used cholesterol-lowering drug increased a precursor of HDL (high-density lipoprotein), the “good cholesterol,” according to new research published in PLOS ONE from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Decreased HDL

New research, published in Biological Reviews and conducted by researchers from the University of Liverpool and Escola Superior de Ciências da Saúde (Brasília, Brazil) has found some type of cancers unique to humans may be a result of evolutionary accidents. Cancer is a major cause of death worldwide. But humans are not the only species

Every year, health care providers in the United States discover more than 1.6 million lung nodules in patients. Many are “incidentally detected,” meaning they are found during evaluation for an unrelated cause (for example, a chest X-ray after a fall). Although 75 to 85 percent of these incidentally detected nodules turn out to be benign,

The standard of care for kidney cancer patients continues to improve. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval to the combination of two immunotherapy drugs, ipilimumab and nivolumab, for the treatment of metastatic kidney cancer. The results of the large, international clinical trial leading to the approval were just published the prestigious New England

One class of drug used to treat type 2 diabetes may not reduce the risk of death when compared with placebo, suggests new findings. The research, led by scientists from Imperial College London and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, studied three types of diabetes treatment: sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors, glucagon-like

Following a heart attack, the parts of the heart muscle that die do not regenerate into new heart tissue and instead are replaced by scar tissue. Using rodent models, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine are looking for a means to genetically convert this scar tissue into muscle tissue at the cellular level, which could

Most of the roughly 15.5 million cancer survivors in the U.S. receive chemotherapy, and roughly 65 percent develop some degree of the chemotherapy-induced nerve damage known as peripheral neuropathy. Peripheral neuropathy simply means nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord are affected, and symptoms include numbness and tingling in extremities, and in about 30