Medindia Health News

Vaccine Denial Goes Mainstream in the United States
Faced With Imminent Outbreak, West Africa Gears Up to Fight Ebola
Research Answers Why Arctic Ice is Disappearing More Rapidly Than Expected
Tonsillectomy Complications in Adults are Higher Than Previously Thought
Cardiopulmonary Arrest in Premature Infant After Cyclomydril Eyedrops Documented in New Report
Research Explores Links Between Dopamine and Hippocampus
Cancer Cells can be Forced to Self-Destruct by Jamming a Protein Signal
Research Finds ER Doctors Commonly Miss More Strokes Among Women, Minorities and Younger Patients
Personalized Treatment Approach may Benefit Patients With Common Breast Cancer Subtype
New Research Finds Recurrent Head and Neck Tumors Have Gene Mutations That Could be Vulnerable to Cancer Drug
Research Finds Antioxidants can Protect Against Omega 6 Damage or Promote It
New Hope for Adrenocortical Tumor Patients Via Study of Key Genetic Mutations
Baby Blues in Mothers may be Worsened if They Live With Grandparents
Researchers Reveal Math Modeling Integral to Synthetic Biology Research
Mice Study: Parental Obesity may Impact Cancer Risk in Offspring
UCLA Psychology Study Finds Junk Food Diet Leads to Laziness
Kids are Being Influenced by Tobacco Marketing
In Prostate Cancer Patients, Brachytherapy Helps Maintain Erectile Function
Scotland: Undocked Working Dogs at Greatest Risk of Tail Injuries
Insomnia Ups Stroke Risk
Novel Biomarker for Head and Neck Cancer, Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Identified

Vaccine Denial Goes Mainstream in the United States

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Kathleen Wiederman believes it is better for her child to naturally battle an illness than to get a vaccine for it. "Doctors don't know everything," said the 42-year-old recruiter, who prefers alternative medicine and gave birth at her home in the well-heeled Virginia suburbs without the aid of a pain-killing epidural. At first, she and her husband agreed on the matter, but when their marriage ended, he pushed for their daughter to get some of her recommended ...

Faced With Imminent Outbreak, West Africa Gears Up to Fight Ebola

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As suspected cases emerge in Mali, Liberia and Sierra Leone, many west African countries geared up to tackle killer haemorraghic fevers including Ebola, which has claimed more than 80 lives in Guinea. The health minister in Mali, one of Guinea's several neighbours, late Thursday announced three suspect cases of Ebola and said the victims had been placed in isolation, while test samples were sent to the US Center for Disease Control. On Friday morning, ...

Research Answers Why Arctic Ice is Disappearing More Rapidly Than Expected

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Unexpected climate-driven changes have been discovered by researchers in Mackenzie River's ice breakup. This discovery may help resolve the complex puzzle underlying why Arctic ice is disappearing more rapidly than expected. The study, led by Simon Fraser University geographer and Faculty of Environment professor Lance Lesack, has been co-authored at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Alberta and Memorial University. Its goal was ...

Tonsillectomy Complications in Adults are Higher Than Previously Thought

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A team of researchers has revealed that twenty percent of adults who have tonsillectomies will have a complication, which is significantly higher than previously shown. The team also found that these complications substantially increase health care expenditures. "Since 1973, John Wenneberg and his colleagues at Dartmouth have been examining variation in the rates of tonsillectomy performed across regions, trying to explain why such wide variation is observed," said ...

Cardiopulmonary Arrest in Premature Infant After Cyclomydril Eyedrops Documented in New Report

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Previous research has shown that eyedrops administered to infants as part of routine outpatient retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening can have fatal consequences. A case report published in the current issue of the iJournal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus/i (AAPOS) describes cardiopulmonary arrest in a 27-week-old infant following administration of three sets of cyclopentolate 0.2%/phenylephrine 1% (Cyclomydril) eyedrops. ...

Research Explores Links Between Dopamine and Hippocampus

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The role that dopamine plays in a region of the brain called the hippocampus has been demonstrated for the first time by Bruno Giros, PhD, a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. Published in iBiological Psychiatry/i, this discovery opens the door to a better understanding of psychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that ...

Cancer Cells can be Forced to Self-Destruct by Jamming a Protein Signal

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Previous research has shown that some cancer cells dodge death by consuming a bit of themselves, thus essentially sleeping through radiation or chemotherapy and later returning as tougher, resistant disease. Interfering with a single cancer-promoting protein and its receptor can turn this resistance mechanism into lethal, runaway self-cannibalization, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal iCell Reports/i."Prolactin ...

Research Finds ER Doctors Commonly Miss More Strokes Among Women, Minorities and Younger Patients

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Doctors overlook or discount the early signs of potentially disabling strokes in tens of thousands of Americans each year, a team of researchers led by a Johns Hopkins specialist has concluded. The findings from the medical records review, reported online April 3 in the journal iDiagnosis/i, show that women, minorities and people under the age of 45 who have these symptoms of stroke were significantly more likely to be misdiagnosed in the week prior to sustaining ...

Personalized Treatment Approach may Benefit Patients With Common Breast Cancer Subtype

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A multidisciplinary team led by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), a partner with UPMC Cancer Center, has found that the second-most common type of breast cancer appears to be a good candidate for a personalized approach to treatment. Invasive lobular carcinoma, characterized by a unique growth pattern in breast tissue that fails to form a lump, has distinct genetic markers which indicate drug therapies may provide benefits beyond ...

New Research Finds Recurrent Head and Neck Tumors Have Gene Mutations That Could be Vulnerable to Cancer Drug

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While metastatic and primary tumor cells of head and neck cancers share similar mutations, recurrent disease is associated with unique gene alterations that could be vulnerable to a cancer drug, new research has found. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and Yale University School of Medicine will share their findings during a mini-symposium Sunday at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2014. About ...

Research Finds Antioxidants can Protect Against Omega 6 Damage or Promote It

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Researchers are examining the role that antioxidants play in blocking the harmful effects of omega 6 fatty acids, found in many cooking oils. After all, antioxidants are supposed to prevent DNA damage. But employing antioxidants could backfire, say researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.In their study, being reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, researchers found that vitamin E actually increased specific damage linked to omega 6 fatty ...

New Hope for Adrenocortical Tumor Patients Via Study of Key Genetic Mutations

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Patients with adrenocortical tumors often face worse prognosis, previous research has revealed. Chinese researchers from Rui-Jin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao-Tong University School of Medicine, BGI, and other institutions have discovered that the activating hotspot L205R mutation in PRKACA gene was closely associated with adrenocortical tumors (ACTs), and the relationship of recurrently mutated DOT1L and CLASP2 with ACTs' other subtypes. The latest study published online ...

Baby Blues in Mothers may be Worsened if They Live With Grandparents

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A new study from Duke University suggests that living with grandparents may ease or worsen a mothers' baby blues depending on the mother's marital status. Married and single mothers suffer higher rates of depression when they live in multi-generational households in their baby's first year of life, the study found. But for moms who live with their romantic partners but aren't married, having one or more grandparents in the house is linked to lower rates of depression. ...

Researchers Reveal Math Modeling Integral to Synthetic Biology Research

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One of the main challenges in synthetic biology research has been to create gene circuits that behave in predictable ways. Mathematical modeling experts from the University of Houston (UH) collaborated with experimental biologists at Rice University to create a synthetic genetic clock that keeps accurate time across a range of temperatures. The findings were published in a recent issue of the iProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences/i. "Synthetic ...

Mice Study: Parental Obesity may Impact Cancer Risk in Offspring

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New research indicates that obese male mice and normal weight female mice produce female pups that are overweight at birth and in childhood. These female pups also have increased number of "terminal end buds" in their breast tissue at the site where cancer often develops in rodents. The findings, presented by a Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher at the AACR Annual Meeting 2014, come from one of the first animal studies to examine the impact ...

UCLA Psychology Study Finds Junk Food Diet Leads to Laziness

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Being overweight makes people tired and sedentary, a new UCLA psychology study has found. Life scientists led by UCLA's Aaron Blaisdell placed 32 female rats on one of two diets for six months. The first, a standard rat's diet, consisted of relatively unprocessed foods like ground corn and fish meal. The ingredients in the second were highly processed, of lower quality and included substantially more sugar - a proxy for a junk food diet. After just ...

Kids are Being Influenced by Tobacco Marketing

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Many states and tobacco manufacturers established restrictions to prevent youth exposure to the marketing of nicotine products about 15 years ago. This follows regulations imposed 50 years ago that banned cigarette ads from TV. Despite these continued efforts, a new study by Dartmouth researchers reveals that not only are young people exposed to tobacco marketing, they are influenced by it. According to a study published in the emJournal of Adolescent Health/em, ...

In Prostate Cancer Patients, Brachytherapy Helps Maintain Erectile Function

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A researcher will present a study at the ESTRO 33 congress, which says the use of permanent brachytherapy, into or near to the tumour, preserves erectile function in approximately 50% of patients with prostate cancer. Brachytherapy is a procedure where radioactive sources are placed inside the prostate. Brachytherapy works by giving a high dose of radiotherapy directly to the tumour, but only a very low dose to the surrounding normal tissues. Since erectile dysfunction ...

Scotland: Undocked Working Dogs at Greatest Risk of Tail Injuries

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A survey of dog owners in Scotland, published in this week's iVeterinary Record/i, indicates that undocked working dogs are at greatest risk of tail injuries. Of 2860 working dogs, 13.5% sustained at least one tail injury during the 2010/11 shooting season. But undocked spaniels (56.6%) and hunt point retrievers (38.5%) were at greatest risk. To ward off one tail injury during one shooting season would require between two and 18 spaniels or hunt point retrievers ...

Insomnia Ups Stroke Risk

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People with insomnia experience a higher risk of stroke than those who don't have trouble sleeping, states new study published in I Stroke /I. The risk also seems to be far greater when insomnia occurs as a young adult compared to those who are older, said researchers who reviewed the randomly-selected health records of more than 21,000 people with insomnia and 64,000 non-insomniacs in Taiwan.They found:ulliInsomnia raised the likelihood of subsequent ...

Novel Biomarker for Head and Neck Cancer, Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Identified

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Scientists discover new biomarker linked to better outcomes of patients with head and neck cancers and non-small cell lung cancer. The work could help scientists develop new diagnostics and therapies and help physicians determine the best long-term treatments for patients with these cancers. The findings, which were published this week online ahead of print by the journal emCancer/em, focus on a protein called Choline phosphate cytidylyltransferase-a CCT-a ...