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Caffeine Intake may Cut Fatty Liver Disease Risk

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Drinking four cups of coffee or tea may reduce fatty liver in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), reveals study. Worldwide, 70 percent of people diagnosed with diabetes and obesity have NAFLD, the major cause of fatty liver not due to excessive alcohol consumption. It is estimated that 30 percent of adults in the United States have this condition, and its prevalence is rising in Singapore. There are no effective treatments for ...

STIs During Teens Up HIV Risk in Adulthood, Says Study

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Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during the teenage years can boost HIV risk in young adulthood, says study. Furthermore, the greater the number of STIs contracted during their teen years, the greater the risk of subsequent HIV. Researchers analyzed a large sample of Philadelphia high school students born between 1985 and 1993 who participated in the Philadelphia High School STD Screening Program. The program, which includes ...

Finasteride Saves Men from Prostate Cancer, Doesn't Increase Risk of Death: Study

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A drug shown to reduce risk of prostate cancer by more than a third has no impact on lifespan but further reduces the risk of prostate cancer, according to a long-term follow-up to a groundbreaking study led by the director of the Cancer Therapy (and) Research Center. Reducing the risk of prostate tumors by about 30 percent - and low-grade tumors by 43 percent - means thousands of men can avoid a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatments that significantly affect ...

Many Neurologists Unaware of Safety Risks Related to Anti-epilepsy Drugs: Study

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A fifth of U.S. neurologists appear unaware of serious drug safety risks associated with various anti-epilepsy drugs, potentially jeopardizing the health of patients who could be just as effectively treated with safer alternative medications, finds a study by John Hopkins researchers. The findings suggest that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs a better way to communicate information to specialists about newly discovered safety risks, the researchers ...

Stanford Scientists Figure Out What Made Typhoid Mary's Infectious Microbes Tick

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How salmonella - a bacterial menace responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year from typhoid fever and food poisoning - manages to hide out in immune cells, altering their metabolism to its own benefit, much as someone might remodel a newly rented home to suit his own comfort was shown by Stanford University School of Medicine scientists. Salmonella's ability to position itself inside infected people's cells for the long haul can turn them into chronic, ...

Myth of "Right-Brained" and "Left-Brained" Personality Traits Debunked By Research

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You've probably heard the label of being a "right-brained" or "left-brained" thinker. Left-brained behavior is identified with logic, detail-orientation and analytical thinking. Creative, thoughtful and subjective? Your brain's right side functions stronger -or so long-held assumptions suggest. But newly released research findings from University of Utah neuroscientists assert that there is no evidence within brain imaging that indicates some people are right-brained or left-brained. ...

To Identify Targets for Treatment of Insulin Resistance and Diabetes Sanford-Burnham Collaborates With Pfizer

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Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) announced that it has entered into a collaboration with Pfizer Inc. The collaboration has taken place to dentify new therapeutic targets for preventing and treating complications of obesity and diabetes. The team will utilize novel screening tools including systems-biology approaches and technologies developed at Sanford-Burnham with the aim of discovering new therapeutic strategies for reducing insulin resistance in ...

For Older Heart Patients, Drug Dosing may Differ

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At Duke Medicine, a new study from researchers offers some rare clarity about the use of drugs that are used to treat patients with heart attacks. Older heart patients present unique challenges for determining the optimal dosages of medications. For certain heart patients older than age 75, a half-dose of the anti-platelet drug prasugrel works about as well as the typical dosage of clopidogrel, according to a team led by the Duke Clinical Research ...

Scientists Aided By Sugar In Finding and Assessing Prostate Tumors

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A natural form of sugar could offer a new, noninvasive way to precisely image tumors and potentially see whether cancer medication is effective. To aid in this matter, UC San Francisco in collaboration with GE Healthcare has created a new imaging technology. The technology uses a compound called pyruvate, which is created when glucose breaks down in the body and which normally supplies energy to cells. In cancer, however, pyruvate is more frequently converted to ...

Thai University Introduces Blinkers to Stop Cheating

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To stop would-be cheats, a Thai university has taken drastic steps by introducing makeshift 'blinkers' for its examinees, thwarting students tempted by a furtive glance at their peers' exam papers. The bizarre headgear -- consisting of two A4 sheets of plain white writing paper attached by paperclips to a headband -- was worn by nearly 100 students on Wednesday during a textile exam. It was the brainchild of a professor at one of Bangkok's most famous ...

Effects of Parkinson's-disease Mutation Reversed in Cells: Study

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A chemical found in an anti-wrinkle cream was used by UC San Francisco scientists working in the lab to prevent the death of nerve cells damaged by mutations that cause an inherited form of Parkinson's disease. A similar approach might ward off cell death in the brains of people afflicted with Parkinson's disease, the team suggested in a study reported online in the journal emCell/em/a on August 15. The achievement marks a pharmacologic milestone as the ...

Stanford/Packard Study Shows Autistic Kids Who Best Peers at Math Show Different Brain Organization

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Compared with nonautistic children in the same IQ range, children with autism and average IQs consistently demonstrated superior math skills, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "There appears to be a unique pattern of brain organization that underlies superior problem-solving abilities in children with autism," said Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences ...

Subset of Patients With Strong Response to Therapy Identified By ITN Type 1 Diabetes Study

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Patients with type 1 diabetes treated with the monoclonal antibody teplizumab (MacroGenics, Inc.) exhibit greater preservation of C-peptide, a biomarker of islet cell function, compared to controls, according to the primary results from a new clinical trial. Further analyses identified a discrete subset of the treatment group that demonstrated especially robust responses ("responders"), suggesting that these patients could be identified prior to treatment. The trial, entitled ...

Calcium Plus Vitamin D Supplementation Does Not Reduce Joint Symptoms in Postmenopausal Women: Study

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The effect of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on joint symptoms in a rigorous and controlled study of postmenopausal women was systematically analyzed by a team of investigators. They found that supplementation did not reduce the severity of joint symptoms reported by the participants. Their results are published in the iJournal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics/i. The influence of low calcium and vitamin D deficiency on joint symptoms has been ...

Study Finds Evidence for a Therapeutic Effect of Braintone on Ischemic Brain Damage

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In the field of stroke, the importance of the neurovascular unit, which is comprised of neurons, endothelial cells and astrocytes, has received great attention, because stroke affects not only neurons, but also astrocytes and microvessels. Within the neurovascular unit, endothelial cells are critical for maintaining normal hemodynamic and metabolic homeostasis. Vascular damage during ischemia often leads to the disruption of the blood-brain barrier and dysregulation ...

Excess Fat Helped 39-year-old Survive Flesh-eating Bug

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Thirty-nine year old, Russell Kimble, was surprised at what he landed after a routine operation. Medically called as necrotising fasciitis, it is a deadly bacterium which begins at the place of trauma and just spreads through the body, destroying skin, tissue and fat at a rate of up to three centimeters an hour. Fortunately Russell survived because he was obese and the extra fat stopped the infection from going to his organs. He weighted 27 st and because he was ...

Survey to Help Tackle Child Malnutrition and Trafficking

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A UN official said that with inadequate data on the numbers of children trafficked for labour and sexual exploitation, India and Unicef are conducting a survey across the country to create a baseline for addressing these issues. Unicef India Representative Louis-Georges Arsenault, addressing a press briefing here, said the government was in the process of surveying children across the country in a comprehensive manner. In the first quarter of the year, ...

Find Out How Our Skin is Maintained Throughout Life

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Researchers have tried to explain how the skin is maintained throughout its life, which is our largest organ and forms a shield against the environment. The skin consists of many different cell types, including hair cells, fat- and sweat glands. It protects us against microbial and chemical attacks and forms a waterproof barrier that prevents fluid loss. Associate professor Kim Jensen' group from BRIC have, through mapping of stem cell's behaviour ...

Cell Cycle-related Genes in the Pathogenesis of Neural Tube Defects: Research

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Accurate and ordered regulation of the cell cycle and apoptosis are crucial factors contributing to the normal formation of the neural tube in the the field of developmental neurobiology. Preliminary studies by Xinjun Li and colleagues from Deyang People's Hospital have identified several genes involved in the development of neural tube defects. Their recent study published in the iNeural Regeneration Research/i (Vol. 8, No. 20, 2013) established a model of developmental ...

Heartbeats Link Mind and Body Together: Research

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A research recently conducted at EPFL recently found that while we're not necessarily aware of our heartbeat, this inner rhythm actually contributes to how we experience the body, and what belongs to it. A study to be published in the journal iPsychological Science/i later this year supports the idea that signals from our internal organs combine with visual information to contribute to self-consciousness. "The relevance of internal organs for identifying the ...

Risk of Severe Blood Sugar Swings Among Diabetics Taking Fluoroquinolones Examined By Study

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Fluoroquinolones, is a frequently prescribed class of antibiotics. Diabetic patients who were taking fluoroquinolones were found to have a higher risk of severe blood sugar-related problems than diabetic patients taking other kinds of antibiotics, according to a recent study/a from Taiwan published in iClinical Infectious Diseases/i. The increased risk was low-hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) related to the drugs occurred in fewer than ...

Study: CPAP Reduces Risk of Death in People With COPD and Sleep Apnea

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Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy reduces the mortality rate in people who have both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which the authors refer to as "the overlap syndrome" suggests a new study. "This study adds to the growing body of literature regarding the combined impact of OSA in patients with COPD," said lead author and principal investigator Michael L. Stanchina, MD, clinical assistant professor ...

New Areas for Improvement Revealed By Neutron Studies of HIV Inhibitors

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An international team with members from the US, Britain and France using neutrons at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France carried out the first study of interactions between a common clinical inhibitor and the HIV-1 protease enzyme. It provides medical science with the first true picture of how an antiviral drug used to block virus replication actually works, and critically how its performance could be improved. The findings, reported in the iJournal ...

Two Months After Floods Thousands Flock to Lourdes for Assumption

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Two months after the church in southwestern France was damaged by floodwaters, six thousand Catholic faithful attended an Assumption mass in the Basilica of Saint Pius X in Lourdes. The crowds were only slightly smaller than last year and a spokesman for the town's religious sites said the recovery had been faster than expected thanks to successful fund-raising campaign. The attendees were just some of the 25,000 people who made the journey from across ...

Tuscan City Fired Up for Horse Race

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Summer horse races offer a welcome respite to the doom and gloom for residents of Siena, a Tuscan city rocked by financial scandal and economic crisis. The famous Palio race on the spectacular Piazza del Campo is held twice a year in July and August and pits traditionally rival neighbourhoods against each other. In Friday's race, the horse riding for the Onda quarter, or contrada, came first in an exhilarating spectacle lasting just over a minute. There ...

Spaniards Flood in for Slave Wages in 'Exodus' in Search of Employment

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With the unemployment rates continuing to rise in the country, Ridley Scott's biblical epic 'Exodus' has seen thousands of Spaniards queuing up to sign on for the role of slaves in the film. In a region with unemployment at 35 percent, the prospect of work as an extra with a daily wage of 80 euros ( (Dollar) 107) has sparked a rush in Almeria where casting is being held for the story of Moses and the Jewish exodus to the promised land. "Half of Almeria and half ...

Chinese President Promises to Improve Health Cooperation With Africa

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With a number of health ministers from African countries meeting in Beijing, China's President Xi Jinping has promised to step up medical co-operation with Africa. China has placed major emphasis on ties with Africa as the country's economic rise has seen financial and trade ties skyrocket as it buys many of its raw materials from countries there. Xi said China will keep dispatching cataract surgeons and other medical teams and will step up cooperation ...

Ugandan Farmer Hospitalized With Crimean-Congo Fever

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Uganda's health ministry has confirmed at least one case of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in the country after a farmer was hospitalized while three other people are suspected to have lost their lives due to the virus. The virus, which causes severe bleeding and has a fatality rate as high as 40 percent, is usually spread by tick bites, but can also be spread from person to person through close contact with blood or other secretions. Tests carried ...

UN Warns Insecurity Hampering Efforts to Tackle Polio Outbreak in Somalia

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The United Nations warned that insecurity in the country is making it difficult for aid workers in Somalia to contain a dangerous outbreak of crippling polio virus. Six years after the Horn of Africa nation was declared free of the virus, at least 105 cases have been confirmed in Somalia, the "worst outbreak in the world in a non-endemic country," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. "The polio outbreak plaguing ...

Hypnotic Relaxation Therapy Found to Improve Sexual Health in Postmenopausal Women

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A new study has found that the sexual health in postmenopausal women suffering from moderate to severe hot flashes can be improved thanks to hypnotic relaxation therapies. Gary Elkins, Ph.D., director of Baylor's Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory and a professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor's College of Arts and Sciences, said that the study, which examined sexual comfort, sexual satisfaction and sexual pleasure, is a first step toward a safe and ...

One in Five Women Don't Believe They may Have Breast Cancer

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A new study reveals that one in five women do not believe their risk of acquiring breast cancer. The new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that most of the women who didn't believe their risk numbers said they did not feel it took into account their family history of cancer or their personal health habits. Senior study author Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine at the University of ...

Advance Teams of Molecules Formed by Primary Tumors Help in Spread of Cancer

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Primary tumor cells produce an advance team of molecules that triggers a series of events creating a network of nurturing blood vessels that allows the primary tumor cells to travel to distant places in the body and form secondary tumors. In lung cancer, the formation of that niche likely involves immune cells and moderate levels of VEGF and other molecules that promote the formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis. But little is known about how the local ...

Crucial Questions About Anthrax Exposure Answered

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Health care providers and policy makers would need key information to protect people from anthrax in the event of a anthrax terror attack on the US. This information includes knowledge about the likelihood of an individual becoming infected, how many cases to expect and in what pattern, and how long to give antibiotics. Those questions gained urgency when anthrax-laced letters killed five people and infected 17 others in the wake of the terror attacks of September ...

Rehospitalization Less Likely in Psychiatric Patients Given Smoking-Cessation Treatment

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A new study conducted by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine found that participation in smoking-cessation programs by patients who are hospitalized for mental illness not only helps them to quit smoking but also makes it less likely that they will be rehospitalized for their psychiatric conditions. The findings counter a longstanding assumption, held by many mental-health experts, that smoking serves as a useful tool in treating some psychiatric ...

Oxidative Stress Has a Role in Detrimental Effects

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In mice, although muscle cells did not reduce in size or number lacking a protective antioxidant protein, they were weaker than normal muscle cells. Researchers from the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio found this. The scientists, who are faculty in the university's School of Medicine, are studying how oxidative stress in cells impacts sarcopenia - a loss of muscle mass and ...

Around One in Five Black and White Middle-Aged and Elderly Americans Die Due to Obesity

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A new study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has found that obesity was responsible for the deaths of more than 18 percent of black and white Americans between 40 and 85 years of age, well above the previously thought estimate of five percent. "Obesity has dramatically worse health consequences than some recent reports have led us to believe," says first author Ryan Masters, PhD, who conducted the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health ...

Beer Ad Violations Continue to Occur Despite Self-Regulation Process Adopted by the U.S. Beer Institute

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Terming the current U.S. Beer Institute's self-regulation process as ineffective, a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health that looked into beer advertising code regulations aimed to encourage responsible advertising practices, reveals that content violations continue to occur. Researchers reviewed all alcohol advertisements that aired during the men''s and women''s NCAA basketball tournament games from 1999 to 2008. Current alcohol advertising ...

Research Suggests The Pathway to Asthma Winds Through Toll-Like Receptor 4

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The immune mechanisms that lead to allergy and asthma have continued to puzzle researchers, although great strides have been taken in understanding the mechanisms behind the conditions. Dr. David Corry/a compares the allergic response to a computer. "The core of a computer is its CPU (central processing unit) or chip. We are looking for the chip that drives allergic disease," said the professor of medicine, chief of the section of immunology, allergy and rheumatology ...

Racism Linked to Adult-onset Asthma in African-American Women

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African-American women who reported more frequent experiences of racism had a greater likelihood of adult-onset asthma compared to women who reported less frequent experiences. This is according to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University. The study, which currently appears on-line in the journal iChest/i, was led by Patricia Coogan, DSc, senior epidemiologist at SEC and research professor of epidemiology at Boston ...

Immune Molecule That Plays Key Role in Liver Fibrosis can be Targeted by New Drugs

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Researchers have found that the immune molecule interleukin 33 (IL-33) plays a key role in the development of liver fibrosis and can be targeted by drugs as part of new treatment strategies to protect against liver fibrosis, a new study published in the journal Immunity reveals. "Currently, the therapeutic options for liver fibrosis are limited and not curative," says senior study author Stefan Wirtz of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. "We identified ...

Scripps Researchers Discover Mechanism Through Which Ebola Virus Assembles

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The molecular mechanism through which the Ebola virus assembles has been identified by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) who have also found that the molecule that assembles and releases new viruses is also responsible for rearranging itself into different shapes which control the different steps of the virus' life cycle. "Like a 'Transformer', this protein of the Ebola virus adopts different shapes for different functions," said Erica Ollmann ...

Improving the Diagnostic Process of Mental Health Conditions

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In mental health, what are some of the most troubling numbers? Six to 10 -- the number of years it can take to properly diagnose a mental health condition. Dr. Elizabeth Osuch, a Researcher at Lawson Health Research Institute and a Psychiatrist at London Health Sciences Centre and the Department of Psychiatry at Western University, is helping to end misdiagnosis by looking for a 'biomarker' in the brain that will help diagnose and treat two commonly misdiagnosed ...

Vitamin D-Related 'Molecular Switches' Predict Childhood Bone Mass: Research

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The degree to which a gene related to vitamin D action is switched on or off predicts bone density of the child at four years of age, according to researchers at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton. In the study, 230 boys and girls were assessed at 4 years as part of the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS), a large ongoing mother-offspring cohort. The children visited the Osteoporosis Centre at Southampton General Hospital for measurement ...

'Rothman Index' A Useful Tool to Lower Repeat Hospitalization Risk

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A health risk score calculated automatically using routine data from hospital electronic medical records (EMR) systems can identify patients at high risk of unplanned hospital readmission. This is being reported in a study in the September issue of iMedical Care/i, published by Lippincott Williams (and) Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The score, called the Rothman Index, may provide a useful tool for lowering the rate of avoidable repeat ...

Making Medical Decisions for a Cognitively Impaired Family Member is Not Simple

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A new study conducted by researchers at Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics of Indiana University Health has found that the decision making process of people who take medical decisions on behalf of a family member who is unable to do so is more complicated compared to the decision making process of the patients themselves. The researchers found that family decision-makers ...

Four New Biomarkers That can Help in Accurate Diagnosis of Urinary Bladder Cancer Identified

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A new study published in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics reports that a team of German researchers has identified four biomarkers that can accurately determine malignancy of urinary bladder cancers and can help in accurate prediction of patient outcomes. Current prognosticators of bladder cancer, such as tumor grade, stage, size, and number of foci, have limited usefulness for clinicians since they do not accurately reflect clinical outcomes. Therefore, investigators ...

Scientists Identify New Targets to Stop the Progression of Alzheimer's Disease

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It is necessary to identify new therapeutic targets to stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease in the early stage. Prof. Yunpeng Cao and team from the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University examined striatal-enriched phosphatase 61 expression in the brain tissues of Alzheimer's disease rats using in vivo and in vitro models, and analyzed the molecular mechanism by which striatal-enriched phosphatase 61 regulates N-methyl-D- aspartate receptor ...

Dragonflies may Help to Improve Vision System in Robots

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At the University of Adelaide, researchers have discovered a novel and complex visual circuit in a dragonfly's brain that could one day help to improve vision systems for robots. Dr Steven Wiederman and Associate Professor David O'Carroll from the University's Centre for Neuroscience Research have been studying the underlying processes of insect vision and applying that knowledge in robotics and artificial vision systems. Their latest discovery, published ...

Turning Off Complement System can Prevent Early Macular Degeneration

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Researchers led by Dr Donita Garland, Rosario Fernandez-Godino, and Eric Pierce from the Ocular Genomics Institute at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, found that turning off a part of the immune system, known as complement system, in genetically modified mice that have inherited a form of macular degeneration can prevent the disease, according to a new study published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. Macular degenerations, which ...

Produce ID Before You Buy Nail Polish Remover in Southern New England

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An identity proof will now be mandatory for CVS pharmacy customers to buy a nail polish remover. This policy in Southern New England requires that customers provide ID when they purchase a nail polish remover. Further, there will also be a limit on the number of bottles purchased. The drugstore chain has taken this decision to curb the making of illegal methamphetamine. A spokesman for the drugstore said, "Because acetone is an ingredient ...

New Zealand Officially Opens Cardboard Cathedral

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In New Zealand's second largest city, Christchurch's cardboard cathedral officially opens on Thursday, replacing the neo-Gothic structure destroyed in a 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people. Completion of the innovative structure, designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, marks a major milestone in the city's recovery from the devastating 6.3-magnitude quake that levelled much of the downtown area, acting dean Lynda Patterson said. "The old cathedral ...

Fruits and Vegetables' Consumption Key for Perfect Nutrition Pattern

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Celebrity nutritionist Jane Clarke said that paying attention to a balanced consumption of fruits and vegetables is key for a perfect nutrition pattern. While many people enjoy fruits, it is equally important to pay attention to salads and vegetables, reports femalefirst.co.uk. "Really focus on the vegetable and fruit intake. While we may be pretty good at enjoying fruits, vegetables and salads can be few and far between and they can be delicious and ...

Parents Prefer Train Travel Over Car as It Helps Them Talk With Their Kids Better

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A new study suggests that parents prefer to travel with their children in train rather than a car as it provides them with an opportunity to engage in more stimulating conversations with their children. CrossCountry, a train operating company in Britain, have released the findings of a new research that says that 43 percent parents prefer train travel when accompanied by their children, reports femalefirst.co.uk. Not only do most parents agree that travelling ...