People can easily be swayed into believing that they have seen something they never actually did see, say researchers at Ohio State University.

Participants in a study looked at a series of slides portraying geometric shapes. They were later shown a second set of test slides – two of the test slides contained images from the original group of slides, two contained images that were obviously not part of the original set, and one slide contained the lure image – a shape very similar to

Other genes, environmental factors also likely to contribute to prevalent skin disorder

After a decade of searching, researchers have identified three genes linked to psoriasis, a potentially debilitating and disfiguring skin condition characterized by burning or itching patches of raised red skin.

The project’s leader, Anne Bowcock, Ph.D., professor of genetics, of medicine and of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, says the results cou

Workouts may result in increased blood flow to the brain, allow a person to be more mentally engaged

Exercise appears to allow for better blood vessel development in the brain and allow a person to be more mentally engaged. Those are the conclusions of a study partially conducted by Oregon Health & Science University researchers. The results will be presented Saturday Nov. 8 at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

“While we already know that exercise i

Survey of Public Awareness of Colorectal Cancer (CRC) shows limited awareness that this cancer is the most common cancer across Europe and is preventable.

Results of a new survey show that fewer than one in three Europeans recognise that colorectal cancer (CRC) is now the most common cancer among European men and women, ahead of both breast and lung cancer, demonstrating a severe lack of awareness and understanding of CRC.

The survey, Public Awareness of Colorectal Cancer i

Simple semantics may help quell patient’s fears about taking part in medical education, according to a letter to this week’s BMJ.

Surprisingly, patients tend to accept a trainee’s presence in a consultation if they are addressed as student doctor or trainee doctor, as opposed to medical student, writes Dr Hany George El-Sayeh. This may be because of fears about being seen by a scruffy, disinterested youth who may well later report their intimacies in the bar.

He also recomme

The behavior of intermetallic superconductors, like the kind used in hospital MRI machines, is even more curious than recent Nobel Prize-winning physicist Alexei Abrikosov had theorized. In newly reported research,* scientists working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research have determined that so-called type II superconductors have the equivalent of a multiple personality—at least three distinct physical states, each with its own superconducting beh

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,

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

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

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.

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

The latest research shows that some women at very high risk of having a preterm baby may benefit from treatment with a derivative of the hormone progesterone, according to an opinion issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Obstetric Practice and published this month in ACOG’s official journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology.

However, the ACOG Committee said further studies are needed to evaluate the value of progesterone further and resolve issues

Young adults who received growth hormone treatment as children for deficiencies in producing that essential hormone likely will need continued treatment for years and at higher doses than doctors now prescribe, a new multi-center North American study concludes.

Higher doses of the hormone should help protect such patients from excessive and eventually crippling declines in the density of their bones and from higher blood levels of harmful fats that could promote heart disease, researchers sa

A new dissertation shows that relaxation in a flotation tank can serve as an alternative form of treatment to reduce stress or relieve persistent pain, and it has no side-effects whatsoever.

In times like these, we are surrounded by stress and troubled by burn-out. Stress seems to retain its place as the greatest enemy to good health, well-being, and self-esteem. A major international field of research is now focusing on neurogenesis, that is, the generation of new nerve cells. This i

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

Screening newborns for a rare but treatable genetic disease benefits families and society, according to a team of pediatricians and health care economists who analyzed patient records and data from mass screening programs in several states. The study appears in the November issue of Pediatrics.

The researchers, from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, analyzed the cost-effectiveness of screening for medium-chain acyl-CoA-dehydr