Teenage girls who have sex with more than one partner in a short period of time are likely to engage in other risk behaviors such as fighting, binge drinking, smoking cigarettes, using cocaine or sniffing glue, according to results from a national survey of American high school youth.

The study of more than 3,000 female students appears in the American Journal of Health Behavior.

Having sexual intercourse with multiple partners increases the risk of pregnancy, sexually transmitted

Although women normally have androgens – so-called “male” hormones – circulating in their bloodstreams, excessive levels can cause a variety of symptoms including acne, weight gain, excessive hair growth (hirsutism), menstrual dysfunction, and infertility.

Hirsutism – the growth of coarse hair in patterns similar to those of men – has long been considered the key marker for androgen excess. Physicians have had difficulty providing a firm diagnosis and identifying underlying causes, however,

As any new mother knows, getting a baby to sleep at night is an art, and perhaps using snippets from Shakespeare’s Hamlet may help. But the science of how babies sleep – and what their processes may have in common with their adult counterparts – could be a small step closer to being better understood.
Background

Sleep shows dramatic changes across early development. Quiet sleep (also known as non-rapid eye movement sleep [QS/NREMS]) increases in the course of the first year of life

Jet lag occurs when we travel across multiple time zones by air. Anyone who has experienced jet lag knows that it causes sleep disturbances and daytime sleepiness, and can impair performance after landing. A team of researchers has investigated the effects of slow release caffeine (SRC) and melatonin (Mlt) on recovery sleep and daytime sleepiness after a seven-time zone eastbound flight and found that both drugs have positive effects on some jet lag symptoms after an eastbound flight. They found that

UMHS, Altarum study finds sleep apnea disrupts sleep throughout night

Patients who snore or have other symptoms of sleep apnea often undergo testing in a sleep laboratory to measure the number of breathing pauses and arousals that occur while they slumber. But doctors find these tests do not effectively predict daytime consequences suspected to arise from sleep apnea, such as sleepiness in adults or hyperactivity in children.

Now, neurologists at the University of Michigan

A preliminary study suggests that persistent inflammation, as indicated by increased levels of C-reactive protein in the blood, is a risk factor for the development of colon cancer.

However, according to an editorial by Northwestern University researcher Boris Pasche, M.D., the link between chronic inflammation and colon cancer must be further explored before C-reactive protein is confirmed as a risk predictor.

The study and the editorial appear in the Feb. 4 issue of The Journal o

Downward trend likely to continue says international research team

Stomach cancer rates fell by half in the European Union between 1980 and 1999 and by 45% in Eastern Europe and 40% in Russia, according to research published (Tuesday 3 February) in Annals of Oncology[1].

Encouragingly, the downward trend is set to continue, at least for the near future according to researchers, because the fall is seen in younger and middle aged people as well as the elderly.

The rep

More research needed to identify those for whom benefit could outweigh risk of side effects

A new study has found that regular intake of aspirin does appear to be associated with a reduced risk of the type of colon polyps that can develop into cancer. However, since risk reduction was strongest with aspirin doses higher than those used to prevent cardiovascular disease, the researchers say further study is needed to determine for whom the benefits of such treatment would outweigh any

Ownership of genetic materials, environmental consequences in question as 21st Century bio-prospecting gets underway in Antarctica

Work should be stepped up on international agreements to oversee prospecting efforts in Antarctica by research institutions, universities and pharmaceutical companies to discover and stake ownership to promising organisms and compounds with genetic properties that make survival possible in extremely cold, arid and salty conditions, says a new UN University

Overweight individuals who adopt a low-fat diet in hopes of lessening their risk of heart disease and diabetes may be venturing down the wrong path, results of a new study headed by a nutritional researcher at the University at Buffalo have shown.

The study, published in the current (February) issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that a moderate-fat diet might be a better choice. Christine L. Pelkman, Ph.D., assistant professor of nutrition in the UB School of Public

“The light shines brilliantly these days at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). The start up of SSRL’s new synchrotron light facility, SPEAR3, guarantees a world-class program in x-ray science for years to come,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. “This is the first time the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health have joined in funding an accelerator research facility. I expect this to be a long and productive collaboration whose impact will be truly

Views on wolves determined more by culture than individual encounters

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? The survey says: it largely depends on who you are and what you do, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Wisconsin. Published in the December issue of the journal Conservation Biology, survey results among people who live with wolves in northern Wisconsin revealed that deeply rooted social identities and occupations are more powe

Treatment for depression may be stymied in people with moderate to severe body pain, according to a new study.

Researchers Matthew J. Bair, M.D., formerly of the Regenstrief Institute, and colleagues uncovered the connection by analyzing the results of a clinical trial of 573 depression patients taking medications like Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft. Their findings are published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

Although depression improved in most of the patients after three months

Preparing for the arrival of the first European Automated Transfer Vehicle. Europe’s scientific utilisation of the International Space Station (ISS) took an important step forward with the launch of an unmanned Russian Progress cargo spacecraft today at 12:58 Central European Time (16:58 local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Progress supply vehicle will take two days to reach the International Space Station, carrying experiment hardware for the Delta mission to be

Study is among first to evaluate genetic susceptibility to neurodevelopmental problems in children with heart defects

Children with heart conditions who require surgery as infants may be more vulnerable to neurologic problems if they have a particular variety of a gene.

Researchers from the Cardiac Center and other divisions of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that children carrying the epsilon2 version (APOE å2) of the apolipoprotein E gene were significan

Meta-analysis of 27 studies showed caregiver reports may be unreliable; visuospatial tests were the best predictors of driving skill

When cognitive skills start fading, how do we know when it’s time to stop driving? Although there is some consensus that individuals with moderate to severe dementia should not drive, it has been much harder to screen people with mild dementia, the earliest stage of the mental deterioration typical of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers in Washing