Discovery will led to improvements in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry
Ever since the 1970s, scientists have been trying to establish the cause of a repulsive force occurring between different electrostatically charged molecules, such as DNA and other biomolecules, when they are very close to each other in aqueous media. This force became know as hydration force.
Jordi Faraudo, a researcher for the Department of Physics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barc
Rates of celiac disease are significantly higher in patients with osteoporosis, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They recommend using blood tests to screen osteoporosis patients for celiac disease because their study has shown that treating celiac disease with diet can restore bone health in these patients.
Celiac disease is an intestinal disorder caused by intolerance to wheat flour (gluten). The investigators evaluated 840 people
It has long been thought that cells that regenerate tissue do so by regressing to a developmentally younger state. Now two University of Washington researchers have demonstrated that cells can regenerate without becoming “younger.”
Biologists for years have studied stem cells, the ones responsible for replenishing and regenerating an organism’s structures, aiming to find the means to selectively regenerate tissue such as that of the heart or liver in much the same way that the body h
Patients taking a high number of prescription medications who are then unexpectedly admitted to hospital face a medication error rate of more than 50 per cent with their existing medications, one-third of which could result in more serious complications, says a new study by University of Toronto researchers.
Senior author Dr. Edward Etchells says he wasn’t surprised by the high proportion of unintended medication errors. “In that kind of situation – where a patient is tak
Only half of kidney failure patients currently receive the treatment, more research needed
The administration of intravenous vitamin D appears to significantly improve the survival of patients on dialysis, according to a study that will be published in the April Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and has been released ahead of print on the journal’s website. Vitamin D injections are currently recommended only for dialysis patients with elevated levels of parathyroid h
Middle-aged women who take an active role in their health care may be less likely to develop cardiovascular disease as they transition through menopause, according to research done at the University of Pittsburgh.
The results, presented today at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting, suggest women who believe they should take charge of their health, rather than rely solely on treatment by doctors, have fewer signs of pre-clinical atherosclerosis. “Our findings provide
New international study suggests effects of climate change may be irreversible
Unprecedented and maybe irreversible effects of Arctic warming, linked to human intervention, have been discovered by a team of international researchers led by Queen’s University biologist John Smol and University of Alberta earth scientist Alexander Wolfe.
The researchers have found dramatic new evidence of changes in the community composition of freshwater algae, water fleas and insect l
The ancestors of chimpanzees and gorillas were infected with a deadly retrovirus about three to four million years ago, but there is no evidence it infected ancestors of modern-day humans, according to research by genome scientists. The virus struck after humans had split off the evolutionary tree from primates, researchers said. The infection may have played a role in the evolution of such great apes as chimps and gorillas. The research appears in the April issue of the journal Public Library o
Patients with Type II diabetes who also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea can lower their glucose levels by receiving the most common sleep apnea therapy, a new study has found. The study appears in the Feb. 28 Archives of Internal Medicine.
Dr. James Herdegen, associate professor of medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago and medical director of the UIC Center for Sleep and Ventilatory Disorders, and his co-authors measured glucose levels of participants before an
The frequency of withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging treatment at the end of a patient’s life varied greatly among six European countries, according to an article in the February 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
“Modern medicine provides unprecedented opportunities in diagnostics and treatment to save and sustain life,” according to background information in the article. However, in certain situations at the end of a patient’s
Greater awareness needed to improve use of available services
Health care and related services for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) usually depend on the medical insurance and other programs offered by their parents’ employers. A new study from researchers at MassGeneral Hospital for Children finds that many of the benefits offered by employers could address the needs of parents of children with ADHD, although they may be underutilized. Surveyed
ASPS study says only 5 percent of college-age women have had cosmetic surgery
Many parents worry about the potential influence the media may have on their children’s self-esteem and body image. Stories about young women having excessive plastic surgery are enough to keep any parent up at night. However, according to a study published in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery® (PRS), the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), onl
Teens with HIV are having more risky sex with more partners than their counterparts did in the years before powerful new medications for HIV were introduced in 1996, according to a new report in the American Journal of Health Behavior.
A group of HIV-positive youth studied between 1999 and 2000 reported having more sexual partners, more unprotected sex and more drug use than HIV-positive youth studied between 1994 and 1996, say Marguerita Lightfoot, Ph.D. and colleagues at the UCL
Physicians have long been puzzled by a condition called intracranial arterial dolichoectasia, in which the larger arteries of the brain become elongated and misshapen. Typically, it has been considered a complication of atherosclerosis (“hardening of the arteries”), and not directly life-threatening. However, there is recent evidence that people with dolichoectasia are more likely to have aortic aneurysms, a potentially fatal weakening of the main artery that carries blood out from the heart
Evolutionary analysis of snake venom reveals that toxin proteins arose from multiple body tissues
Bryan Grieg Fry, Ph.D., a scientist from the University of Melbourne, Australia, has conducted the first comprehensive analysis of the origin and evolution of one of nature’s most sophisticated bioweapons: snake venom. His results are reported in the March issue of the journal Genome Research. Venomous snakes, all of which belong to the superfamily Colubroidea, evolved glands
A new study finds men treated with hormone therapy for prostate cancer may experience temporary cognitive changes that can affect verbal fluency, visual recognition and visual memory. The study, published in the April 1, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, finds the degree of cognitive dysfunction appeared to be related to a decline in serum estradiol brought on by hormonal treatment.
Androgen-deprivation therapy (AD) is an effective adjuvan
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