Mayo Clinic researchers searching for explanations of high mortality rates among kidney failure patients undergoing hemodialysis are focusing their attention on the use of heparin, a drug used to reduce clotting of the blood.

Their study in the August issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings is a preliminary look at one aspect affecting the health of patients who undergo hemodialysis. In the study, they found patients who had a higher level of adverse outcomes also had elevated levels of h

Since 1990 lions have killed more than 563 Tanzanians, including nursing mothers, children playing outside their huts and people dragged from their beds. Consequently, increasing numbers of lions are being killed by local people. In an effort to find a way to protect both people and lions, University of Minnesota researchers have analyzed the factors involved in attacks and identified the control of bush pigs — a major agricultural pest — as the most promising strategy for curbing attacks. The res

The impact of overtime and long work hours on occupational injuries and illnesses: new evidence from the United States.

The long working hours culture drives up the risk of injury and illness, reveals a study in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. And the risk has nothing to do with how hazardous the job is, conclude the researchers.

The US researchers analysed the responses of almost 11,000 Americans to the annual National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The surv

A geographer at the University of Liverpool has discovered how women’s attitudes towards their body change in different shopping environments.

Dr Rachel Colls says size and colour of shop changing rooms, as well as the position and size of shop mirrors, influence women’s perception of their bodies.

She explains: “Research into women’s relationship with their bodies tends to find that clothes shopping and subsequent diets have negative effects on their

A paper published in the recent issue of Psychophysiology describes differences in the brain’s response (event-related potentials, or “ERPs”) to pictures and words that describe the same object. In two studies, the authors evaluated how the brain reacts differently to a picture of an object or its name when people were looking for either the picture or the name in a visual display.

University students saw pictures of five simple objects and words corresponding to their names.

Baby-boomers have spent more years living with more obesity than the previous generation, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found. Although it may be too early to tell whether this will lead to a rise in arthritis rates, the study shows more obesity-related arthritis among baby boomers compared to the previous generation.

The study, published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health, concluded that obesity rates grew substantially fo

When it comes to living together with a man, daughters often follow the lead of their mothers, according to a new study.

Research showed that young adult women whose mothers reported cohabitation were 57 percent more likely than other women to report cohabitation themselves. In addition, daughters of cohabiting mothers tended to cohabit at earlier ages than others.

“Women tend to model the behavior of their mothers when it comes to relationships,” said Leanna Mellot

Results of first large international study of acute renal failure in the ICU published in JAMA

In the first multinational study of acute renal failure (ARF) in ICU patients, an international group of researchers has found that a surprisingly high number of intensive care patients – one in 20 – develop a severe form of ARF, and an alarmingly high number of those patients will die in the hospital. The study is published in the August 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical

Overweight children who can shed their puppy fat by age 14 can expect lower blood pressure, according to a University of Queensland study.

About 2794 children in Brisbane for the study had their blood pressure and body mass or fat index (weight in kilograms divided by height in metres square) recorded at age five then at 14.

Lead researcher, Dr Abdullah Al Mamun from UQ’s School of Population Health found children who were overweight at both ages or at age 14, had avera

When devotees of ‘Lord of the Rings’ re-watch the fantasy movies, many do their level best to forget the story and convince themselves they are seeing them for the first time, according to the biggest ever study of its kind, sponsored by the ESRC.

‘Not knowing’ the plot or the ending means they can experience as much of the full emotions and tension as possible and their pleasure is increased, says Professor Martin Barker of the University of Wales, who led the research over 15 mo

In the largest analysis of its kind, Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that patients with diabetes who require surgery for ankle fractures have significantly higher rates of complications and higher hospital costs compared to non-diabetic patients. Specifically, the researchers found that diabetics experienced one additional day of hospitalization (an average of 4.7 vs. 3.6 days) with costs approximately 20 percent higher ($12,898 vs. $10,794). Additionally, diabetics had h

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have traced the biochemical pathway by which plants build a compound that compromises the quality of corn and soybeans as an animal feed. Their studies indicate that it is feasible to engineer such plants to significantly improve their quality as animal feeds — a potentially important boon to the hog and poultry industries, said the researchers

The researchers, led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator John York, published their

Definitive evidence to explain how the drug nitroglycerin relieves chest pain has resulted from a new study by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators at Duke University Medical Center. Nitroglycerin relaxes blood vessels to boost blood flow, yet the mechanism by which the drug works has remained a matter of scientific controversy.

The findings bolster earlier indications that the drug may be ineffective for certain patients, and may place others at risk, the researchers sai

For people with long-standing rheumatoid arthritis, combined treatment with the new “biologic” drug adalimumab and methotrexate is about five times more effective than methotrexate alone, according to a new systematic review of studies.

In six randomized controlled trials, comprising 2381 people with at least 10 years of the disease, the authors report that adalimumab (Humira) plus methotrexate decreased pain and swelling in patients who fail to respond to standard treatment.

If you binged for two weeks while on vacation and gained 5 pounds, would you be biologically primed to eat less to compensate and shake off the excess weight? No, suggests a new Cornell University study.

When a group of 12 normal-weight men and women, average age 31, agreed to overeat by 35 percent for two weeks, they gained an average of 5 pounds, half of it body fat. When they were permitted to return to their normal eating behavior, they did not spontaneously cut back on th

Financially richer people tend to be happier than poorer people, according to sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University, and graduate student Laura Tach, Harvard University. Their research is focused on whether the income effect on happiness results largely from the things money can buy (absolute income effect) or from comparing one’s income to the income of others (relative income effect). They present their research in a session paper, titled “Relative Income an