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Racism May Accelerate Aging in African American Men

By Guest PostJanuary 14, 2014Healthafrican american men, african americans, aging, anti black attitudes, biological age, biological level, biomarker, cellular level, chromosome, chronological age, david h chae, disease risk, gene h brody, indicator, leukocyte telomere length, physiological stress, racial discrimination, racism, sequences of dna, systemic aging, tear, telomere, university of maryland, wear

UMD-led study is first to link racism-related factors and cellular age

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A new University of Maryland-led study reveals that racism may impact aging at the cellular level. Researchers found signs of accelerated aging in African American men who reported high levels of racial discrimination and who had internalized anti-Black attitudes. Findings from the study, which is the first to link racism-related factors and biological aging, are published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Racial disparities in health are well-documented, with African Americans having shorter life expectancy, and a greater likelihood of suffering from aging-related illnesses at younger ages compared to whites. Accelerated aging at the biological level may be one mechanism linking racism and disease risk. (more…)

For anxious children and teens, context counts, UCLA researchers say

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2013Healthadolescent anxiety, adriana galvan, anxiety, anxiety disorder, anxiety provoking situation, anxious children, biomarker, brain neutral information, context counts, disorder, functional impairment, functional mri, medial prefrontal cortex, tara peris, teens, threatening information, ucla researcher

Specific area of the brain linked to anxiety disorders in youth

Anxiety disorders are common in children and adolescents, affecting up to 25 percent of the youth population. Anxiety causes distress and functional impairment and, if left untreated, can result in bad grades, problems at home and increased rates of psychiatric disorders in adulthood.

These risks constitute a significant public health burden, and they underscore the importance of continued efforts to understand the cause and course of the disorder. (more…)

Left-handed people more likely to have psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia: Yale Study

By Guest PostNovember 2, 2013Healthbiomarker, bipolar syndrome, christopher chee, deanna dial, depression, hussam jefee, left handed people, mary i schroeder, michael helfenbein, psychosis, psychotic disorders, rebecca hana, schizophrenia, us population

Being left-handed has been linked to many mental disorders, but Yale researcher Jadon Webb and his colleagues have found that among those with mental illnesses, people with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia are much more likely to be left-handed than those with mood disorders like depression or bipolar syndrome.

The new study is published in the October-December 2013 issue of the journal SAGE Open. (more…)

Can thermodynamics help us better understand human cancers?

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2013Scienceavinoam ben shaul, better understand, biomarker, cellular process, chemistry, francoise remacle, gene array analysis, human cancer, mechanisms of disease, physical dynamics, raphael levine, sohila zadran, surprisal analysis, thermodynamic signature, thermodynamics, war on cancer, wolf prize

When the “war on cancer” was declared with the signing of the National Cancer Act in 1971, identifying potential physical traits, or biomarkers, that would allow doctors to detect the disease early on was a significant goal. To this day, progress in the battle against cancer depends on understanding the underlying causes and molecular mechanisms of the disease.

In a new study, UCLA researchers analyzed the gene-expression profiles of more than 2,000 patients and were able to identify cancer-specific gene signatures for breast, lung, prostate and ovarian cancers. The study applied an innovative approach to gene-array analysis known as “surprisal analysis,” which uses the principles of thermodynamics — the study of the relationship between different forms of energy — to understand cellular processes in cancer. (more…)

UCLA Findings Buck Conventional Wisdom about How Stress-Response Protein Works

By Guest PostFebruary 11, 2013Health, Scienceage related, biomarker, cell stress, cell types, chaperones, class of molecules, clouding, conventional wisdom, environmental conditions, epithelial cells, eye institute, eye lens, fibroblast cells, gene, heart muscle degeneration, heat shock factor, heat shock factor4, heat shock protein, hsf1, hsf4, infection, inflammation, jules stein, macular degeneration, monitor for diseases, multiple sclerosis, stress response protein, toxins, transcription factors, ucla researchers, zhe jing, αb crystallin

UCLA researchers, in a finding that runs counter to conventional wisdom, have discovered for the first time that a gene thought to express a stress-response protein in all cells that come under stress instead expresses the protein only in specific cell types.

The research team, from the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA and the UCLA Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, focused on αB-Crystallin, one of a class of molecules known as heat shock proteins, which are involved in the folding and unfolding of other proteins, helping them recover from stress so they can do their job. (more…)

A Hands-on Approach to Treating Patients with Pulmonary Disease

By Guest PostAugust 15, 2012Healthaaron bohrer, biomarker, blood, breathing, chronic, copd, daniel jones, donald sefcik, drug free, hands on, hands on treatment, john wang, kerry melenovsky, lung diseases, medical care, michigan state university, obstructive pulmonary disease, osteopathic manipulative treatment, plasma, pulmonary disease, sham treatment, sherman gorbis, william pintal

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Researchers at Michigan State University are working to show how a noninvasive, drug-free form of hands-on medical care can help patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease improve their breathing.

The team from MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine will apply four osteopathic manipulative treatments to a group of patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. One of the most common lung diseases, COPD typically manifests as chronic bronchitis (a long-term cough with mucus) or emphysema (destruction of the lungs over time). (more…)

A Revealing Hand

By Guest PostJune 3, 2012Health, Scienceaustralia, biomarker, blood, blue laser light, brenda cartmel, chronic disease epidemiology, diabetes, electron, fiberoptic probe, fruit, heart disease, lycopene, macular degeneration, molecule, new technology, north dakota, nutrition research, prototype device, resonance raman spectroscopy, retina, rrs, serum, skin, skin biopsy, skin carotenoids, stephanie scarmo, susan t mayne, telltale substances, university of utah, vegetable, vegetable intake, yale school

What did you have for lunch yesterday? How many times a month do you eat nuts? How about your kids — how many servings of vegetables did they consume today?

It’s no secret that it is hard to recall the details of our meals, and that frustrating fact lies at the heart of nutrition research, complicating the task of linking foods to health outcomes like diabetes and heart disease. Some researchers look instead for telltale substances, or biomarkers, in the body that give information about how much of a certain type of food a person has eaten recently. But that solution isn’t ideal, as measuring biomarkers often requires blood, urine or even skin samples. The process can be costly, painful and cumbersome. (more…)

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