’Staggeringly stronger’ immune response may be why socially isolated women seem to be less susceptible to illness and death than isolated men. Gender difference in immune inflammatory response may be related to demands of motherhood.
Socially isolated female rats that experience stress generate a “staggeringly stronger” response to an immune challenge than similarly isolated and stressed males, according to a new study.
The difference in the female rats’
A simple, low-tech garment has the potential to prevent a major cause of death among women who give birth in many Third World countries, according to a new study by maternal health researchers.
Study findings show the use of a neoprene suit can save the lives of women suffering from obstetrical hemorrhaging due to childbirth. Hemorrhaging accounts for about 30 percent of the more than 500,000 maternal deaths worldwide each year due to childbirth, nearly all in poor countries, acco
A new study shows that patients whose colorectal cancer has spread to the liver who received an approach called hepatic arterial infusion (HAI)– the administration of chemotherapy directly to the liver through a pump in the abdomen–fare better than those who received traditional, intravenous chemotherapy. Researchers found that the patients on the HAI therapy lived longer and had better quality of life than those receiving systemic therapy. The study will be published online February 27 in the Jou
Scientists have successfully conducted the first clinical trial giving xenon gas to patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting in order to safeguard against postoperative brain damage that can occur following this procedure.
Research published in Anesthesiology shows how the team safely gave xenon to 12 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting while on cardiopulmonary artery bypass, a step which could eventually lead to new treatments for people suffering from i
Analysis of protein interactions dispels old notions of what’s important about them
Discoveries made during the first large-scale analysis of interactions between proteins in our cells hold promise for identifying new genes involved in genetic diseases, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins and the Institute of Bioinformatics (IOB) in Bangalore.
The findings, reported in the March issue of Nature Genetics, were made using a database of more than 25,000 prot
Rice U. study focuses on merged vowel sounds in different dialects
When Rice University alumna Brianna Conrey was in third grade in Stillwater, Okla., she misspelled “pen” on a test because her teacher unknowingly pronounced it “pin.” At the time, Conrey never would have guessed that she would write a senior thesis in college about the brain activity that takes place in people who don’t distinguish between similar-sounding words like “pin” and “pen.” Nor would she have guessed
How are things going at work? While there has plenty written on a wide variety of factors affecting employee well-being – on everything from management style and organizational structure to the effects of ergonomic furniture and natural lighting – the “elephant in the room” in our workplaces is something that almost everyone complains about but no one has studied: how much time we spend in meetings.
In the average workplace, there are lots of meetings. Reports indicate that the
Study examines data of more than 48,000 men between age 65 and 80 and is the first known study in an older population to show survival benefit with radiation therapy
A new study shows older men with early stage prostate cancer survive longer if they are treated versus not being treated in favor of the “watchful waiting” approach advocated by many physicians for older men with other health problems. In addition, the study revealed a survival benefit for men treated with radiation therapy
Hormonal treatment gaining popularity for localized prostate cancer despite little understanding of its effectiveness
Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers wanted to know if depriving men of testosterone actually keeps cancer from spreading beyond the prostate. What they found is that men who have localized prostate cancer with certain high-risk features and receive this treatment — known as androgen deprivation therapy — remain at risk of dying from
Hamsters with ’roid rage’ reveal that human teens may stay nasty for more than two years, with possible long-term brain impact
Anabolic steroids not only make teens more aggressive, but may keep them that way into young adulthood. The effect ultimately wears off but there may be other, lasting consequences for the developing brain. These findings, published in February’s Behavioral Neuroscience, also showed that aggression rose and fell in synch with neurotransmit
Selective T cell stimulation could help improve treatment of autoimmune disease and cancer
The findings could also be significant for developing new ways to help patients with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or juvenile diabetes.
The study, which was published in the February 16 issue of the online journal Science Express, showed that these injections caused a massive selective increase in the immune system’s two main types of T
According to a new study appearing in the April issue of the Journal of Dental Research, cigarette smoking can lead to not only tooth discoloration and gum disease, but also a common dental procedure that helps to heal a diseased tooth–the root canal.
“The findings substantiate what most of us already know: Smoking is detrimental to your health,” Elizabeth Krall Kaye, PhD, MPH, epidemiologist at the Boston VA Hospital and professor in the department of health policy and health se
Symptoms of anxiety and depression in childhood and use of MDMA: Prospective population based study; BMJ online first
Children with symptoms of anxiety and depression may have an increased tendency to use ecstasy in adolescence or young adulthood, finds a study published online by the BMJ today.
The use of ecstasy is associated with emotional health problems, such as depression, psychotic symptoms, and anxiety disorders. But it’s not clear whether emotional problem
Indicates need for patients to balance oral health with other cardiovascular risk factors
New research is reinforcing the longstanding belief that a connection exists between periodontal disease, or severe gum inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. But according to Moise Desvarieux, MD, PhD, infectious disease epidemiologist in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the nature of the relationship is still unclear and
TV advertising shown to be most effective
Most smokers want to quit, but even among those who try, less than 5% manage to stop smoking for more than three months. There is a major ongoing effort to encourage quitting, the National Action Plan for Tobacco Cessation. This comprehensive plan has six main initiatives, only one of which, a national telephone quit line, has been implemented to date. To evaluate the effectiveness of various strategies, researchers identified 787 people w
Did you ever arrange to meet a friend at a busy street corner, then rush up to a total stranger thinking it was your friend? Neuroscientists have a theory to explain why such potentially embarrassing mistakes occur. They probe the underlying perceptual and neural processes of visual search by studying how distracters affect performance of a visual search task. One might intuitively expect that as background noise created by distracters and errors increase, confidence in one’s decision plummets
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