Tag: Caregiving

Canadian researchers have discovered that covert — or ‘silent’ — strokes are common in seniors after they have elective, non-cardiac surgery and double their risk of cognitive decline one year later. While an overt stroke causes obvious symptoms, such as weakness in one arm or speech problems that last more than a day, a covert

Adults with HIV are more likely to continue life-saving treatments if their primary health care providers show respect, unconditional empathy without judgement and demonstrate an ability to partner with patients in decision making to address their goals, a Rutgers study finds. The systematic review appears in the Joanna Briggs Institute Database of Systematic Reviews and

Stem cell stimulation shows promise as a potential noninvasive stroke treatment, according to research in mice published in JNeurosci. If extended to humans, this technique could greatly improve patients’ quality of life. Ling Wei, Shang Ping Yu, and colleagues at Emory University injected neural stem cells into the brains of mice after a stroke and

More than three decades ago, scientists discovered that a chemical found in a synthetic opioid, MPTP, induced the onset of a form of Parkinson’s disease. In a new study led by scientists from the School of Veterinary Medicine, researchers found that an enzyme in the body can metabolize compounds formed in the brain from alkaloids

Sortilin, which is a protein expressed on the surface of nerve cells, plays a crucial role in pain development in laboratory mice — and in all likelihood in humans as well. This is the main conclusion of the study ‘Sortilin gates neurotensin and BDNF signalling to control peripheral neuropathic pain’, which has just been published

Patients who had their appendix removed were more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those whose appendix remained in place, according to the largest study to address the relationship between the two conditions. The retrospective study involving more than 62 million patient records from 26 health systems will be presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW)

A brain disorder that mimics symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease has been defined with recommended diagnostic criteria and guidelines for advancing future research on the condition. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center and scientists from several National Institutes of Health-funded institutions, in collaboration with international peers, described the newly-named pathway to dementia, Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy,

Worldwide, 50 million people are living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, every 65 seconds someone in the United States develops this disease, which causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. It has been more than 100 years since Alois Alzheimer, M.D., a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist, first reported the

A major compound in soil organic matter degrades chronic wasting disease prions and decreases infectivity in mice, according to a study published November 29 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Judd Aiken of the University of Alberta, and colleagues. Chronic wasting disease is an environmentally transmissible, fatal prion disease affecting free-ranging deer, moose, elk

Much has been written about what happens to mothers hormonally during pregnancy and after, but what about fathers? In a first-of-its-kind study, University of Notre Dame Assistant Professor of Anthropology Lee Gettler and lead author Patty Kuo, visiting assistant professor of psychology, focused on how dads’ biology around the birth of their children relates to

Researchers at King’s College London have discovered a vicious feedback loop underlying brain degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease which may explain why so many drug trials have failed. The study also identifies a clinically approved drug which breaks the vicious cycle and protects against memory-loss in animal models of Alzheimer’s. Overproduction of the protein beta-amyloid is

Someday doctors may prescribe sugar pills for certain chronic pain patients based on their brain anatomy and psychology. And the pills will reduce their pain as effectively as any powerful drug on the market, according to new research. Northwestern Medicine scientists have shown they can reliably predict which chronic pain patients will respond to a

Commonly-prescribed opioid-based painkillers led to harmful side effects tripling in people with dementia. Researchers from the University of Exeter, King’s College London and the University of Bergen are presenting two studies at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2018 (AAIC) highlighting a significant increase in harmful side effects related to the use of commonly prescribed opioid

Patients with persistent facial pain are costing the economy more than £3,000 each per year, new research has revealed. Experts at Newcastle University, UK, say introducing an electronic referral system to speed up diagnosis and treatment is likely to improve quality of life and save money. The team has assessed the hidden costs of people

A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that activating nerve cell receptors along two chemical pathways — one that has previously been linked to how the brain senses “itch” — may improve pain relief when combined with conventional ways to blunt pain using opioid drugs, such as morphine. The study results, published in

A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association summarizes the state-of-the-science of genomic medicine — the study of the health effects of the molecular interactions of a person’s unique genes — for studying cardiovascular traits and disorders and for therapeutic screening. “The promise of genomic medicine is to be able to use a patient’s

In-home rehabilitation, using a telehealth system and supervised by licensed occupational/physical therapists, is an effective means of improving arm motor status in stroke survivors, according to findings presented by University of California, Irvine neurologist Steven C. Cramer, MD, at the recent 2018 European Stroke Organisation Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. “Motor deficits are a major contributor

Are your friends very pain tolerant? Then it is likely that you are as well, provided you are a male. A recent study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain, along with an Editorial Comment by Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, published by De Gruyter, shows that there is a positive correlation between the pain tolerance of

An article published in Nature Medicine with the collaboration of the research group of Dr. Manel Esteller, director of the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), ICREA Researcher and Professor of Genetics of the University of Barcelona, and Drs. Dave Monk and Isidre Ferrer, from the same center, shows

Skyrocketing drug prices and the looming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare are just two of many pressing issues caused by America’s surging baby-boom population, often referred to as the “Silver Tsunami.” What can be done about it? In a recent article published in The Elder Law Journal, Sharona Hoffman, the Edgar A. Hahn Professor