Πέμπτη 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Health News

ScienceDaily: Top Health News


Misinformation: Why it sticks and how to fix it

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:12 PM PDT

Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Barack Obama was born in the United States. Global warming is confirmed by science. And yet, many people believe claims to the contrary. Why does that kind of misinformation stick? A new report explores this phenomenon, highlighting the cognitive factors that make certain pieces of misinformation so "sticky" and identifying techniques that may be effective in debunking erroneous beliefs.

DNA barcoding can ID natural health products

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:09 PM PDT

DNA barcoding has proven up to 88 percent effective in authenticating natural health products, according to a new study.

People change moral position without even realizing it

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:06 PM PDT

Shortly after expressing a moral view about a difficult topic, people may easily endorse the opposite view and remain blind to the psychological mismatch, according to new research.

Blind people develop accurate mental map by playing 'video' game

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:06 PM PDT

Researchers have developed a new "video" game for blind people that can help them learn about a new space using only audio cues.

Dyslexia cause may be different than previously thought

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:06 PM PDT

Dyslexia may result from impairment of a different linguistic system than previously thought, according to new research.

Promise of cell therapy for bowel disease

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT

New research shows that a special population of stem cells found in cord blood has the innate ability to migrate to the intestine and contribute to the cell population there, suggesting the cells' potential to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Possible key to slow progression toward AIDS found

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT

Although the average time between HIV infection and AIDS in the absence of antiretroviral treatment is about 10 years, some individuals succumb within two years, while so-called slow progressors can stay healthy for 20 years or longer. Researchers already know that many slow progressors carry a gene called HLA-B*57 (B57), an immune gene variant that is found in less than 5 percent of the general population but in 40 to 85 percent of slow progressors. Yet even among those with the B57 gene, the speed of disease progression can vary considerably. Now, scientists may have uncovered the key to this variation.

Emotional neglect in children linked to increased stroke risk later in life

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT

Neurological researchers have found that people who were emotionally neglected as children may have a higher risk of stroke in later adulthood.

Test can help make diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT

A new guideline may help doctors in making the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Tissue around tumor holds key to fighting triple negative breast cancer

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:00 PM PDT

A preclinical study found that decorin, a well-studied protein known to help halt tumor growth, induces a series of tumor suppressor genes in the surrounding tissue in triple negative breast cancer tumors to help stop metastasis.

New cranial neural crest cell line developed

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:21 AM PDT

Researchers have successfully developed a stable population of neural crest cells derived from mice that can be grown in large quantities in the laboratory and that demonstrates the potential to develop into many different cell types needed throughout the body.

The more people rely on their intuitions, the more cooperative they become

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:21 AM PDT

Researchers trying to answer an age-old question about human goodness have found evidence for a "cooperation reflex." They show that when self-interest goes up against the common good, our intuitions favor cooperation, while stopping to think leads to selfishness.

Medication effective in treating social withdrawal in Fragile X and potentially autism patients

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:21 AM PDT

An investigational compound that targets the core symptoms of fragile X syndrome is effective for addressing the social withdrawal and challenging behaviors characteristic of the condition, making it the first such discovery for fragile X syndrome and, potentially, the first for autism spectrum disorder, a study has found.

Many parents believe that letting young children taste alcohol discourages later use

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:20 AM PDT

One in four mothers believe that letting young children taste alcohol may discourage them from drinking in adolescence and 40 percent believe that not allowing children to taste alcohol will only make it more appealing, according to a new study. The finding is noteworthy, the study's authors say, because early introduction to alcohol is a primary risk factor for problem drinking during adolescence.

Video games help patients and health care providers

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:20 AM PDT

Video games can be therapeutic and are already beginning to show health-related benefits, new research shows.

Efficacy of drugs boosted by using nanoparticles to target 'powerhouse of cells'

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 10:54 AM PDT

Nanoparticles have shown great promise in the targeted delivery of drugs to cells, but researchers have refined the drug delivery process further by using nanoparticles to deliver drugs to a specific organelle within cells.

Human brains share a consistent genetic blueprint and possess enormous biochemical complexity

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 10:53 AM PDT

Human brains share a consistent genetic blueprint and possess enormous biochemical complexity, according to new research. The findings stem from the first deep and large-scale analysis of the vast data set publicly available in the Allen Human Brain Atlas.

Explosions are the main cause of spine injuries to wounded military personnel

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 10:53 AM PDT

Spinal injuries are among the most disabling conditions affecting wounded members of the US military. Yet until recently, the nature of those injuries had not been adequately explored.

Genetically-engineered preclinical models predict pharmacodynamic response

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:57 AM PDT

A new comparison of four different methodologies for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic testing of the anti-melanoma agent carboplatin, demonstrates that genetically-engineered mouse models provide tumor delivery of drug most comparable to the response seen in melanoma patients.

Diseases of aging map to a few 'hotspots' on the human genome

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:57 AM PDT

Researchers have long known that individual diseases are associated with genes in specific locations of the genome. Genetics researchers have now have shown definitively that a small number of places in the human genome are associated with a large number and variety of diseases. In particular, several diseases of aging are associated with a locus which is more famous for its role in preventing cancer.

Your memory is like the telephone game, altered with each retelling

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:57 AM PDT

Your memory is a lot like the telephone game, according to a new study. Every time you remember an event from the past, your brain networks change in ways that can alter the later recall of the event. The next time you remember it, you might recall not the original event but what you remembered the previous time. The Northwestern study is the first to show this and has implications for witnesses in criminal cases.

Weight gain worry for stressed black girls

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:57 AM PDT

Could the impact of chronic stress explain why American black girls are more likely to be overweight than white girls? Higher levels of stress over 10 years predict greater increases in body weight over time in both black and white girls. However, the experience of chronic stress appears to have a greater negative effect on black girls' weight.

Children with autism experience interrelated health issues

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:56 AM PDT

A new study found that many children with ASD also experience anxiety, chronic gastrointestinal problems and atypical sensory responses, which are heightened reactions to light, sound or particular textures. These problems appear to be highly related and can have significant effects on children's daily lives, including their functioning at home and in school.

Toward a better material for hip replacement and other joint implants

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:56 AM PDT

In an advance toward a new generation of improved hip and other joint replacements, scientists are describing development of a potential implant material that flexes more like natural bone, fosters the growth of bone that keeps implants firmly in place and is less likely to fail and require repeat surgery.

Fighting melanoma's attraction to the brain

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:56 AM PDT

A researcher is delving deeper into the way the brain attracts cancer cells, and his breakthrough is giving scientists new hope for better therapies.

Preemies' brains reap long-term benefits from Kangaroo Mother Care

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:56 AM PDT

Kangaroo Mother Care -- a technique in which a breastfed premature infant remains in skin-to-skin contact with the parent's chest rather than being placed in an incubator -- has lasting positive impact on brain development. Very premature infants who benefited from this technique had better brain functioning in adolescence -- comparable to that of adolescents born at term -- than did premature infants placed in incubators.

Neuroscientists investigate lotteries to study how the brain evaluates risk

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:53 AM PDT

A new video article uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to characterize subjective risk assessment while subjects choose between different lotteries to play.

Autistic adults have unreliable neural responses, research team finds

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:53 AM PDT

New research by neuroscientists takes the first step toward deciphering the connection between general brain function and the emergent behavioral patterns in autism. The study shows that autistic adults have unreliable neural sensory responses to visual, auditory and somatosensory, or touch, stimuli. This poor response reliability appears to be a fundamental neural characteristic of autism.

Improved brain tumor diagnosis

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:49 AM PDT

New method of brain tumor diagnosis offers hope to tens of thousands of people.

Neuroscientists find promise in addressing Fragile X afflictions

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:48 AM PDT

Neuroscientists have devised a method that has reduced several afflictions associated with Fragile X syndrome (FXS) in laboratory mice. Their findings offer new possibilities for addressing FXS, the leading inherited cause of autism and intellectual disability.

New study on relapse risk in alcoholics

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 07:33 AM PDT

Scientists have succeeded in coming closer to determining the risk of relapse in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients. Using an imaging process (magnetic resonance tomography) it was shown that particular regions in the brain demonstrate structural as well as functional abnormalities in relapsed alcohol-dependent patients.

Nanomaterials in a heart beat: Nanomaterial may allow regeneration of cardiac cells

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 07:33 AM PDT

Stem cell scientists have capitalized on the electrical properties of a widely used nanomaterial to develop cells which may allow the regeneration of cardiac cells.

Monitoring brain activity during study can help predict test performance

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 07:31 AM PDT

New research has shown that it's possible to predict how well people will remember information by monitoring their brain activity while they study. A team of scientists was the first to demonstrate predictions based on the results of monitoring test volunteers with electroencephalography (EEG) sensors.

Birth is no reason to go to hospital, review suggests

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 05:34 AM PDT

A new Cochrane Review concludes that all countries should consider establishing proper home birth services. They should also provide low-risk pregnant women with information enabling them to make an informed choice.

Stop diabetes with insulin tablets?

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 05:34 AM PDT

Could a capsule of insulin crystals a day stop the development of type 1 diabetes? There are indications that this could be the case. Researchers are now investigating whether oral insulin could prevent or delay the disease.

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