Why seizures occur with alcohol withdrawal
Epileptic seizures are the most dramatic and prominent aspect of the "alcohol withdrawal syndrome" that occurs when a person abruptly stops a long-term or chronic drinking habit. Scientists have shown that the flow of calcium ions into brain cells via voltage-gated calcium channels plays an important role in the generation of alcohol withdrawal seizures, because blocking this flow suppresses these seizures. But do the changes in calcium........Go to the Neurology news blog (Added on 10/19/2009 7:12:46 AM)
Exercise after your radiation therapyExercise is a key factor in improving both memory and mood after whole-brain radiation therapys in rodents, as per data presented by Duke University researchers at the Society for Neuroscience meeting.
"This is the first demonstration that exercise can prevent a decline in memory after whole-brain radiation therapy," said lead researcher and graduate student Sarah Wong-Goodrich of the Duke Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 10/19/2009 7:05:38 AM)
New chromosomal abnormality identified in leukemiaScientists identified a new chromosomal abnormality in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that appears to work in concert with another mutation to give rise to cancer. This latest anomaly is especially common in children with Down syndrome.
The findings have already resulted in new diagnostic tests and potential tools for tracking a patient's response to therapy. The research, led by researchers from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital,........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 10/19/2009 6:52:49 AM)
Metals could form an effective treatment against cancerDrugs made using unusual metals could form an effective therapy against colon and ovary cancer, including malignant cells that have developed immunity to other drugs, as per research at the University of Warwick and the University of Leeds.
The study, reported in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, showed that a range of compounds containing the two transition metals Ruthenium and Osmium, which are found in the same part of the periodic........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 10/19/2009 6:46:59 AM)
Girls aware of HPV vaccine's benefitsContrary to concerns that the human papillomavirus vaccine might promote promiscuity, a national survey of girls and young women observed that the majority of respondents did not believe the HPV vaccine protected them against other sexually transmitted infections.
The study, conducted by University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Chicago researchers, appears online and in the recent issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health
The........Go to the Infectious disease blog (Added on 10/15/2009 5:39:16 PM)
Misuse of antibiotics not the only cause of resistanceThe perception that antibiotic resistance is primarily the undesirable consequence of antibiotic abuse or misuse is a view that is simplistic and inaccurate, as per a recent report by the American Academy of Microbiology. The reasons behind the spread of resistance are much more complex, including appropriate antibiotic use, lack of proper sanitation and hygiene, and even the environment.
The report, "Antibiotic Resistance: An Ecological........Go to the Infectious disease blog (Added on 10/15/2009 5:31:40 PM)
Treating HIV-AIDS patients with interleukin-2 is IneffectiveAn international research team has demonstrated that treating HIV-AIDS with interleukin-2 (IL-2) is ineffective. As a result, the scientists recommend that clinical trials on this compound be stopped. Their finding was reported in the New England Journal (NEJM) in an article co-authored by 14 researchers, including Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC).
IL-2 is currently used as a........Go to the Infectious disease blog (Added on 10/15/2009 5:19:42 PM)
Candy bar or healthy snack?If you think choosing between a candy bar and healthy snack is totally a matter of free will, think again. A newly released study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that the choices we make to indulge ourselves or exercise self-control depend on how the choices are presented.
Author Juliano Laran (University of Miami) tested subjects to determine how certain words and concepts affected consumers' decisions for self-control or........Go to the Weight watcher's blog (Added on 10/14/2009 7:19:08 AM)
Transcendental meditation reduces stressWomen with breast cancer reduced stress and improved their mental health and emotional well being through the Transcendental Meditation technique, as per a newly released study reported in the current issue of the peer-evaluated Integrative Cancer Therapies (Vol. 8, No. 3: September 2009).
"A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Quality of Life in Older Breast Cancer Patients" was a collaboration between........Go to the Psychology news blog (Added on 10/14/2009 7:16:20 AM)
Alzheimer's disease: Declines in thinking and learning skillsCognitive abilities other than memory, including visuospatial skills needed to perceive relationships between objects, may decline years previous to a clinical diagnosis in patients with Alzheimer's disease, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Recent studies have focused on identifying the beginning of the transition from healthy aging to dementia," the authors write as background........Go to the Neurology news blog (Added on 10/13/2009 8:15:32 AM)
Pre-term births and higher rates of eye problemsAs more extremely pre-term infants survive in Sweden, an increasing number of babies are experiencing vision problems caused by abnormalities involving the retina, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Retinopathy of prematurity [abnormal development of blood vessels in the retina] remains an important cause of childhood blindness and visual impairment throughout the world," the........Go to the Pediatric news blog (Added on 10/13/2009 8:07:11 AM)
Parkinsonism and urate levelParkinson disease progresses more slowly in patients who have higher levels of urate, a chemical that at very high level is linked to gout, researchers have found. While it's unknown whether the high levels actually somehow protect patients or simply serve as a marker of protection, the finding supports the idea that patients and doctors may one day be able to better predict the course of the illness.
The study, led by researchers at........Go to the Neurology news blog (Added on 10/13/2009 7:48:18 AM)
Wide gap in quality between hospitalsThe largest annual study of patient outcomes at each of the nation's 5,000 nonfederal hospitals found a wide gap in quality between the nation's best hospitals and all others. As per the study, issued today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization, patients at highly rated hospitals have a 52 percent lower chance of dying compared with the U.S. hospital average, a quality chasm that haccording tosisted for the........Go to the Society medical news blog (Added on 10/13/2009 7:46:28 AM)
Clues to human disease from blood countsA new genome-wide association study published recently in Nature Genetics begins to uncover the basis of genetic variations in eight blood measurements and the impact those variants can have on common human diseases. Blood measurements, including the number and volume of cells in the blood, are routinely used to diagnose a wide range of disorders, including anaemia, infection and blood cell cancers.
An international team of researchers........Go to the Society medical news blog (Added on 10/12/2009 7:17:46 AM)
Challenging traditional bladder treatment decisionATLANTA--A statistical model can accurately predict which patients will have poor outcomes after bladder surgery and can determine the need for chemotherapy. The analysis, to be reported in the December 1, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, concludes that the model, which considers both how far the cancer has spread and other information, such as how the cancer cells look under the microscope and the........Go to the Bladder cancer blog (Added on 10/12/2009 7:08:28 AM)
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisPremature aging of the immune system appears to play a role in the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, as per research researchers from the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and Sheba Medical Center in Israel.
A study reported in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine shows that CD4+ T cells, which grow and mature........Go to the Neurology news blog (Added on 10/9/2009 7:17:03 AM)
Triple therapy for COPDPatients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can benefit from triple treatment that includes a long-acting β-agonist (LABA), an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and an anti-muscarinic agent, as per scientists in Gera number of.
In the study, which will appear in the October 15 issue of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, scientists observed that adding........Go to the Lung news blog (Added on 10/8/2009 7:49:10 AM)
Treatment for early stage acute liver failureThe antidote for acute liver failure caused by acetaminophen poisoning also can treat acute liver failure due to most other causes if given before severe injury occurs, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists and their colleagues at 21 other institutions have found.
Acute liver failure occurs when cells in the liver die quickly, resulting in toxins being released into the bloodstream and brain. Patients often end up in a hepatic coma as a........Go to the GI news blog (Added on 10/8/2009 7:45:08 AM)
Insured African-Americans more likely to use emergency roomHealth insurance, and the access it provides to a primary care physician, should reduce the use of a major driver of health care costs: the emergency room.
Yet in a policy brief released recently by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, scientists observed that in California, privately insured African Americans enrolled in HMOs are far more likely to use the ER and to delay getting needed prescription drugs than HMO-insured members of........Go to the Society medical news blog (Added on 10/7/2009 8:40:48 PM)
Autism Speaks' genetic resource exchangeAutism Speaks' Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) and the Autism Tissue Program (ATP) continue to play an integral role in continuing genetic research and new findings in the complex autism inheritance and causation puzzle. As per a research findings reported in the October 7, edition of the journal Nature, an extensive research team of more than 75 research institutions identified semaphoring 5A, a gene implicated in the growth of neurons........Go to the Psychology news blog (Added on 10/7/2009 7:58:41 PM)
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Gleevec may be helpful in sclerodemaInvestigators have identified a drug that is currently approved to treat certain types of cancer, Gleevec, that could provide the first therapy for scleroderma, a chronic connective tissue disease for which a therapy has remained elusive. The news will be presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology on October 18 in Philadelphia.
"There has never been a drug that has been shown to be effective for this condition. I........Go to the Rheumatology news blog (Added on 10/19/2009 7:10:31 AM)
Making depression treatments betterNew research clarifies how neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine, are regulated a finding that may help fine-tune therapies for depression.
Current drugs for depression target the regulatory process for neurotransmitters, and while effective in some cases, do not appear to work in other cases.
Recent findings suggest that synucleins, a family of small proteins in the brain, are key players in the management of........Go to the Psychology news blog (Added on 10/19/2009 7:08:05 AM)
Migraine sufferers, bewareMigraine sufferers, beware. You appears to be more prone to an alcohol-induced headache after a night of drinking, as per scientists from the Jefferson Headache Center. The research will be presented at Neuroscience 2009, the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in Chicago.
Until now, studying the mechanism behind migraine and other forms of recurrent headaches has not been possible in an animal model, as per Michael Oshinsky,........Go to the Neurology news blog (Added on 10/19/2009 6:51:29 AM)
Making better stem cells from adult tissueA team led by researchers from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a method that dramatically improves the efficiency of creating stem cells from human adult tissue, without the use of embryonic cells. The research makes great strides in addressing a major practical challenge in the development of stem-cell-based medicine.
The findings were published in an advance, online issue of the journal Nature Methods on October 18, 2009.
........Go to the Research news blog (Added on 10/19/2009 6:50:16 AM)
Cost Effectiveness of Blood Pressure DeviceA study conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) demonstrates that, for certain patient populations, an experimental device that lowers blood pressure appears to be a cost effective therapy. The implantable device, called Rheos, is in advanced stages of testing for individuals with drug resistant hypertension.
The study - which appears this month in the Journal of Clinical High blood pressure - used data from two large........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 10/15/2009 5:42:39 PM)
Skin cells may provide early warning for cancer riskBerkeley -- While some researchers have argued that cancer is such a complex genetic disease that you'd have to sequence a person's complete genome in order to predict his or her cancer risk, a University of California, Berkeley, cell biologist suggests that the risk appears to be more simply determined by inexpensively culturing a few skin cells.
Harry Rubin, professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, acknowledges that........Go to the Skin news blog (Added on 10/15/2009 5:33:21 PM)
Paradigm shift needed to combat drug resistanceWhen people travel, bacteria and other infectious agents travel with them. As about a billion people cross international borders each year, a number of more billions of the bugs come along for the ride.
However, the trend is contributing to substantial domestic and international public health threats and risks, as seen with SARS and more recently with the H1N1 flu virus.
In a paper published recently in Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID),........Go to the Infectious disease blog (Added on 10/15/2009 5:30:00 PM)
Self-esteem in overweight and underweight womenOverweight women's self-esteem plummets when they view photographs of models of any size, as per a newly released study in Journal of Consumer Research And underweight women's esteem increases, regardless of models' size.
Authors Dirk Smeesters (Erasmus University, the Netherlands), Thomas Mussweiler (University of Cologne, Gera number of), and Naomi Mandel (Arizona State University) researched the ways individuals with different body mass........Go to the Psychology news blog (Added on 10/14/2009 7:17:52 AM)
Information in hospital prescription recordsA recent study led by Dr. Khaled El Emam, the Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information at the CHEO Research Institute, observed that the information in hospital prescription records can quite easily re-identify patients.
Information on drug prescriptions are a highly sought after commodity. Pharmaceutical companies like to access this data to fine tune their marketing and sales efforts. A number of retail pharmacies in Canada........Go to the Society medical news blog (Added on 10/14/2009 7:05:51 AM)
Teen smoking-cessation trialFor the first time, scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have demonstrated that it is possible to successfully recruit and retain a large number of adolescent smokers from the general population into a smoking intervention study and, through personalized, proactive telephone counseling, significantly impact rates of six-month continuous quitting. These findings, by Arthur V. Peterson Jr., Ph.D., Kathleen A. Kealey and his........Go to the Society medical news blog (Added on 10/13/2009 8:22:50 AM)
Visual impairment and risk of deathVisual problems that cannot be corrected are linked to increased risk of death among individuals between the ages of 49 and 74, and all visual impairments appears to be linked to the risk of death in elderly adults, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Visual impairment has been linked to a higher risk of death as well as factors that may lead to increased death such as........Go to the Society medical news blog (Added on 10/13/2009 8:12:54 AM)
Tenderness in the breast during HRTWomen who developed new-onset breast tenderness after starting estrogen plus progestin hormone replacement treatment were at significantly higher risk for developing breast cancer than women on the combination treatment who didn't experience such tenderness, as per a new UCLA study.
The research, reported in the Oct. 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, is based on data from more than 16,000 participants in the Women's Health........Go to the Breast-cancer-blog (Added on 10/13/2009 7:56:26 AM)
How do people choose a name for their child?How do people choose a name for their child? Scientists have long noted that the overall popularity of a name exerts a strong influence on people's preferencesmore popular names, such as Robert or Susan, are more frequent and, by their sheer ubiquity, drive more parents to adopt a similar choice. However, new research by psychology experts at New York University and Indiana University, Bloomington suggests that the change in popularity of a........Go to the Psychology news blog (Added on 10/13/2009 7:44:55 AM)
Mending broken heartsBy mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living "heart patch" to repair heart tissue damaged by disease.
In a series of experiments using mouse embryonic stem cells, the bioengineers used a novel mold of their own design to fashion a three-dimensional "patch" made up of heart muscle cells, known as........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 10/12/2009 7:19:22 AM)
Using imagination to reduce abdominal painChildren with functional abdominal pain who used audio recordings of guided imagery at home in addition to standard medical therapy were almost three times as likely to improve their pain problem, in comparison to children who received standard therapy alone.
And those benefits were maintained six months after therapy ended, a newly released study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University Medical Center scientists........Go to the Psychology news blog (Added on 10/12/2009 7:10:42 AM)
Patients who received refurbished pacemakersPatients who received refurbished pacemakers donated from Detroit area funeral homes survived without complications from the devices, as per a case series reported by the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.
The pacemakers were implanted in 12 patients at the University of Philippines- Philippine General Hospital who could not afford advanced cardiac care and were confined to their beds as they waited for a permanent pacemaker.
........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 10/9/2009 7:13:38 AM)
Overweight, breathing and sleep disordersOverweight individuals are not just at greater risk of having sleep-disordered-breathing (SDB), they are also likely to suffer greater consequences, as per new research.
As per the study, to be reported in the October 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an official publication of the American Thoracic Society, excess weight increased the severity of oxygen desaturation in the blood of individuals with........Go to the Weight watcher's blog (Added on 10/8/2009 7:50:40 AM)
While adolescents may reason as well as adultsA 16-year-old might be quite capable of making an informed decision about whether to end a pregnancy a decision likely to be made after due consideration and consultation with an adult but this same adolescent may not possess the maturity to be held to adult levels of responsibility if she commits a violent crime, as per new research into adolescent psychological development.
"Adolescents likely possess the necessary intellectual skills to........Go to the Psychology news blog (Added on 10/7/2009 8:50:31 PM)
Why African American lung cancer patients respond differently?Clinical research out of University Hospitals Case Medical Center has observed that African Americans with a common form of lung cancer have a lower frequency of drug-sensitizing genetic mutations, which may impact response to new cancer-fighting drugs. Published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the study by Rom Leidner, MD, and his colleagues report that ethnicity plays a significant role in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)........Go to the Lung-cancer-blog (Added on 10/7/2009 8:01:43 PM)
Diffuse Optical Tomography for breast cancer screeningClemson University scientists in collaboration with scientists at the University of Bremen, Gera number of, are working to make the physical pain and discomfort of mammograms a thing of the past, while allowing for diagnostic imaging eventually to be done in a home setting.
The group is fine-tuning Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) to create high-resolution images from a scattering of infrared and visible light for the early detection of........Go to the Breast-cancer-blog (Added on 10/7/2009 7:10:52 AM)
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