New research published this month in the journal Endocrinology highlights a possible safe, future treatment for postmenopausal women. The research, which was conducted by doctors at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, found that EM-652, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) given in association with an estrogen, may be effective at controlling hot flashes and preventing breast, uterine and ovarian cancer as well as osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
Additionally, the combination
There’s sweet news about hot cocoa: Researchers at Cornell University have shown that the popular winter beverage contains more antioxidants per cup than a similar serving of red wine or tea and may be a healthier choice.
The study adds to growing evidence of the health benefits of cocoa and points to a tasty alternative in the quest to maintain a diet rich in healthy antioxidants, chemicals that have been shown to fight cancer, heart disease and aging, the researchers say.
Two Dartmouth researchers have quantified the chemical weathering rates of bedrock at three sites around the world. By concentrating their testing in localized areas and using X-ray fluorescence to measure elements and oxides, they have found that variations in the chemistry of weathered bedrock (clay) do not always follow the patterns of the underlying bedrock.
This study by Earth sciences graduate student Benjamin Burke and Assistant Professor Arjun Heimsath will be presented at The Geolo
A new study funded largely by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) reveals that people diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) — an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own tissues — have autoantibodies in their blood years before the symptoms of lupus appear. The early detection of autoantibodies — proteins that attach to the body’s healthy tissues by mistake — may help in recognizing those who will develop the disease and all
Elderly Hispanics and African Americans have higher rates of depression than their white counterparts, due largely to greater health burdens and lack of health insurance, a Northwestern University study has found.
The study, published in the November online issue of the American Journal of Public Health, showed that major depression was most prevalent among Hispanics – 10.8 percent — followed by almost 9 percent in African Americans and approximately 8 percent in whites in this age
Overweight boys have greater increases in blood pressure in response to stress than their female peers and decreased ability to restore normal pressures, researchers say in the November issue of Hypertension.
A Medical College of Georgia study showed that, despite typically having a greater height/weight ratio, overweight girls’ blood pressures respond less to stress and their natural mechanisms for decreasing blood pressure work significantly better, said Dr. Gregory A. Harshfield,
The Human Cloning Policy Institute (HCPI) launched this week a major grassroots effort to head off a proposed ban on therapeutic cloning in the United Nations scheduled for vote this Thursday. The total ban is sponsored by Costa Rica and is supported by the United States. The Human Cloning Policy Institute is backed by Ian Wilmut (Dolly’s cloner), some of the world’s leading scientists, physicians and international law experts, including retired World Court judge, C.G. Weeramantry.
HCPI exe
The Monty Python song was right: every sperm is sacred – if you’re living in the promiscuous world of chickens that is. Scientists studying the evolution of reproductive behaviour have shown that cockerels use sophisticated strategies to maximise reproductive return from limited sperm reserves.
University of Leeds researcher Dr. Tom Pizzari said: “When females are promiscuous, several males inseminate the same female, and their ejaculates compete inside the hen. This is ‘sperm competition’,
New research suggests that lycopene — a carotenoid in tomatoes that has been linked to a lowered risk of prostate cancer — does not act alone. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ohio State University say that lycopene’s punch is stronger in combination with other phytochemicals in the fruit.
Lycopene is an antioxidant and the pigment that provides the red color of tomatoes. Because of recent epidemiological studies suggestive of lycopene’s role against
Researchers here have discovered that a reddish deposit seeping out from the face of a glacier in Antarcticas remote Taylor Valley is probably the last remnant of an ancient salt-water lake. The lake probably formed as much as 5 million years ago when the sea levels were higher and the ocean reached far inland.
Ohio State University scientists reported their conclusions today at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Se
Work recently published in Nature announces a significant correlation between sediment deposition in two Bolivian rivers, which flow into one of the principal tributaries of the Amazon, and climatic events of the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) type. It is the fruit of a research partnership between the IRD, the Bolivian Meteorology and Hydrology Centre in La Paz and scientists from the universities of Washington and California. The results represent a major advance in the study of the Amazon Bas
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a genetic syndrome — an inherited birth disorder characterized by learning disabilities, facial malformations, impaired organs and mental retardation. It has been previously misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
Researchers also discovered the syndrome’s genetic basis: a rearrangement of DNA called “microduplication.” When microduplication occurs, DNA segments are repeated and this causes a surplus of genes. Microduplication is a little-studied mec
Sometimes the most extreme environment for life isn’t at the bottom of the ocean or inside a volcano. It’s just south of Chicago.
Illinois groundwater scientists have found microbial communities thriving in the slag dumps of the Lake Calumet region of southeast Chicago where the water can reach extraordinary alkalinity of pH 12.8. That’s comparable to caustic soda and floor strippers — far beyond known naturally occurring alkaline environments.
The closest known relatives
Despite widespread attention to diet, calorie intake may not be a major factor in causing death by heart disease, according to a 17-year study of almost 9,800 Americans.
Instead, losing excess weight — or not becoming overweight to begin with — and exercising may do more to ward off death from heart disease, say Jing Fang, M.D., and colleagues from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York.
“The fact is that those who both exercised more and ate more neverthe
Investigators in the A.B. Hancock Jr. Memorial Research Center at Vanderbilt have identified a type of DNA damage caused by chronic inflammation as a potential risk factor for colorectal cancer.
The findings, published this week in the early online edition of the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (www.pnas.org), shed more light on the role that inflammation might play in cancer and suggests that measurement of this type of DNA damage might be useful in ass
From a newly discovered, and armored, amphibian to new tools for understanding volcanoes, to dating hillside erosion, geologists from the University of Cincinnati’s McMicken College of Arts & Sciences fill the agenda at the upcoming Geological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting Nov. 2-5.
UC geologists will present 27 papers and posters among the 170 symposia and other sessions scheduled at the conference. More than 6,000 geoscientists will gather for “Geoscience Horizons,” the 115th
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