Category Archives: Health

UCLA Researchers Identify Molecular Program for Brain Repair Following Stroke

By Guest PostNovember 13, 20101 commentHealth, Scienceadult brain, atrx, axons, brain, brain stroke, carmichael, cells, DNA, drug, gene, giovanni coppola, healing process, molecular cascade, mouse, neurons, peri infarct tissue, s thomas carmichael, stroke

Mouse Stroke. An MRI of a mouse brain after stroke. The mouse section has been stained to show cell bodies. Image credit: University of California

A stroke wreaks havoc in the brain, destroying its cells and the connections between them. Depending on its severity and location, a stroke can impact someone’s life forever, affecting motor activity, speech, memories, and more.

The brain makes an attempt to rally by itself, sprouting a few new connections, called axons, that reconnect some areas of the brain. But the process is weak, and the older the brain, the poorer the repair. Still, understanding the cascade of molecular events that drive even this weak attempt could lead to developing drugs to boost and accelerate this healing process.

Now researchers at UCLA have achieved a promising first step. Reporting in the current online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, senior author Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael, a UCLA associate professor of neurology, and colleagues have, for the first time, identified in the mouse the molecular cascade that drives the process of reconnection or sprouting in the adult brain after stroke. (more…)

Depression Linked to Altered Activity of Circadian Rhythm Gene

By Guest PostNovember 12, 2010Health, Sciencebehavioral cycle, circadian rhythm, clock gene, dementia, depression, humans, insomnia symptoms, james connors, jean philippe gouin, messenger rna, molecular level, mrna

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Depression appears to be associated with a molecular-level disturbance in the body’s 24-hour clock, new research suggests.

Scientists examined genes that regulate circadian rhythm in people with and without a history of depression. As a group, those with a history of depression had a higher level of activity of the so-called Clock gene, which has a role in regulating circadian rhythm, than did people with no mood disorders.

Higher expression levels of this gene suggest something is amiss in the body’s 24-hour biological and behavioral cycle, which could affect sleep patterns and other physiological functions governed by circadian rhythm. Sleep disturbance is a common symptom of depression. (more…)

Researchers Find Cancer News May Contribute to Confusion About Cancer

By Guest PostNovember 11, 2010Culture, Health, Mediaamericans, behavior, cancer, CNN, dale brashers, disease, google news, health information, kami kosenko, msnbc, north carolina state university, online, people, ryan hurley, uncertain terms, yahoo news

New research from North Carolina State University shows that most online news stories about cancer contain language that likely contributes to public uncertainty about the disease – a significant finding, given that at least one-third of Americans seek health information online.

“Previous studies show that more than 100 million Americans seek health information online, and that their findings affect their health decisions,” says Dr. Kami Kosenko, an assistant professor of communication at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the study. “But, while people facing uncertainty about cancer issues are likely to seek out additional information, we’ve found that there are features of the information they’re seeking that may actually exacerbate the uncertainty.” (more…)

Timely Depression Diagnosis Critical to Maintain Health of Elderly

By Guest PostNovember 11, 2010Healthchanges in characteristics, clinical characteristics, depression, depression symptoms, increased pain, lorraine phillips, marilyn rantz, medicare, missouri minimum data set, mood, niversity of missouri, urinary incontinence, verbal aggression, weight loss

*MU researchers find non-mood changes related to depression in elderly*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Depression affects approximately 30 to 40 percent of nursing home residents, but it often goes unrecognized, according to American Geriatrics Society, which can lead to lower quality of life or even suicide. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found a series of indicators, other than changes in mood that are associated with the development of depression in nursing home residents.

“Prompt diagnosis and treatment of depression is essential to improve the quality of life for nursing home residents,” said Lorraine Phillips, assistant professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing. “Many elderly people develop certain clinical characteristics at the same time they develop depression. Understanding these changes is essential to quickly and accurately diagnosing depression in nursing home residents.” (more…)

Researchers Discover How Key Drug Kills Worms in Tropical Diseases

By Guest PostNovember 11, 2010Healthanti parasitic drug, elephantiasis, parasitic worms, river blindness, skin disease, tropical filarial diseases

Charles Mackenzie, a professor of veterinary pathology, works with elephantiasis patients in Tanzania. Image credit: Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. — In a major breakthrough that comes after decades of research and nearly half a billion treatments in humans, scientists have finally unlocked how a key anti-parasitic drug kills the worms brought on by the filarial diseases river blindness and elephantitis.

Understanding how the drug ivermectin works has the potential to lead to new treatments for the diseases, in which the body is infected with parasitic worms, said Charles Mackenzie, a professor of veterinary pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and researcher on the project. The diseases afflict about 140 million people worldwide, doing much of their damage in equatorial Africa.

“Ivermectin is one of the most important veterinary and human anti-parasitic agents ever,” Mackenzie said. “Knowing specifically how it interacts with the body’s own immune system and kills parasitic worms opens up whole new treatment avenues.”

The research appears in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

UCLA Uses Hybrid, Precision Heart Procedures to Help Stop Deadly Arrhythmias

By Guest PostNovember 9, 20103 commentsHealth, Scienceabnormal rhythms, arrhythmia, cardiologists, catheter ablation, electrical heart mapping systems, heart, high risk patients, hybrid cardiac procedures, kalyanam shivkumar, lower chambers, ventricular arrhythmias, ventricular tachycardia, yoav michowitz

Hybrid Cardiac Procedure. Schematic of the heart showing the minimally-invasive approaches to allow access to the surface of the heart (the blue and red areas) during this hybrid cardiac procedure. Image credit: University of California

New techniques now being used at UCLA allow doctors to more precisely target certain areas of the heart to stop ventricular arrhythmias — serious abnormal rhythms in the heart’s lower chambers — in high-risk patients.

Generally, arrhythmias can be controlled by medications, and sometimes defibrillators. But a potentially life-threatening, recurrent arrhythmia known as a ventricular tachycardia, which originates in one of the heart’s two ventricles, can produce a fast heart beat that requires other interventions, such as catheter ablation, in which the precise focus area of the arrhythmia must be controlled.

Cardiologists will often use catheter ablation once medications and other therapies have failed. The procedure involves the insertion of a tiny, metal-tipped catheter through a vein in the groin or neck to reach the inside of the heart. Prior to the procedure, electrical tests are conducted on the heart to identify and map the exact site of the arrhythmia’s origin. (more…)

Low Blood Levels of Vitamin D Linked to Chubbier Kids, Faster Weight Gain

By Guest PostNovember 8, 2010Health, Scienceanthropometric indicators, dartmouth medical school, eduardo villamor, national university of Colombia, subscapular-to-triceps, subtropical areas

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Kids who are deficient in vitamin D accumulated fat around the waist and gained weight more rapidly than kids who got enough vitamin D, a new University of Michigan study suggests.

Vitamin D, which is primarily provided to the body by the sun, has been a hot topic in the U.S. lately. The federal standards for vitamin D intake have come under fire by public health professionals as being much too low, and disagreement continues over the proper amount of vitamin D necessary for optimal health. (more…)

Fast Food Restaurants Dish Up Unhealthy Marketing to Youth; Researchers Release Unprecedented Report on Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing

By Guest PostNovember 8, 2010Culture, HealthAds, african american children, calories, children, denver, drinks, fast food, hispanic, internet, jennifer l harris, kelly brownell, mcdonalds, mobile applications, nutrition criteria, obesity, social media sites, sugar, yale rudd center

Children as young as age 2 are seeing more fast food ads than ever before, and restaurants rarely offer parents the healthy kids’ meal choices, according to a new study from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. The new evaluation, the most comprehensive study of fast food nutrition and marketing ever conducted, shows that fast food marketers target children across a variety of media and in restaurants. In addition, the study finds that restaurants provide largely unhealthy defaults for the side dishes and drinks that come with kids’ meals. The detailed findings of this study will be presented in Denver today during the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting. (more…)