Studies and Analyses

Studies and Analyses

Prolonged Bottle-Feeding Linked to Iron Deficiency in Kids

Especially in Mexican-American children

Children bottle-fed past 12 months of age and Mexican-American children may be at high risk for iron deficiency and the problems that accompany it, according to a national study by Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin researchers. The research was done in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Rochester and the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Health Research. The findings appe

Studies and Analyses

Is it okay to sign Alzheimer’s patients up for research studies?

Grandma has Alzheimer’s disease – should you sign her up for a new research study, even if she doesn’t really understand what it entails? What if the research has real risks, is unlikely to benefit her, but could lead to advances that will help future patients with Alzheimer’s? A new study sheds light on these questions, which may come up more often as potential treatments require more involved and invasive research.

“As potential new therapies such as vaccines, ge

Studies and Analyses

Gender Differences in Humor: Stanford Study Reveals Insights

Need more evidence that men and women are different? Look no further than the Sunday funnies. According to a new Stanford University School of Medicine study, gender affects the way a person’s brain responds to humor.

The first-of-its-kind imaging study showed that women activate the parts of the brain involved in language processing and working memory more than men when viewing funny cartoons. Women were also more likely to activate with greater intensity the part of t

Studies and Analyses

Smoking in Movies Linked to Teen Smoking Habits, Study Finds

First national study encourages changes by the movie industry

The first national study to look at the connection between smoking in movies and smoking initiation among adolescents shows that exposure to smoking in popular films is a primary risk factor in determining whether young people will start smoking.

The study by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) appears in the November 7 issues of the journal, Pediatrics. The re

Studies and Analyses

Study Reveals Regional Disparities in U.S. Low Birth Weight Rates

Research may hold key to reduce national rate and improve neonatal health

Low birth weight, an important risk factor of infant mortality and childhood developmental disorders, varies more than 3-fold in regions across the U.S., according to national research conducted at Dartmouth Medical School. The study offers promise for health care experts in an area of prenatal health where progress has been elusive.

Published in the November 7 issue of Pediatrics, the study is the f

Studies and Analyses

Medical Misdiagnosis: Study Reveals Serious Patient Risks

Inaccurate diagnoses led to painful biopsies that in themselves worsened the condition of patients with rare muscle-to-bone disease

A new research study shows how common a medical misdiagnosis can be and how severely it can exacerbate a disease. Focusing on a rare, genetic and disabling disease known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP, researchers designed the study as an examination of the frequency of misdiagnosis and the complications associated with it.

T

Studies and Analyses

Study Reveals Gaps in Parenting Books for Teens

Books offering advice to parents about teens are less likely to contain injury prevention messages than those that give advice on parenting smaller children, according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Notably absent from most such books were discussions about preventing automobile accidents among adolescents.

The UNC Injury Prevention Research Center investigation, which appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics, involved reviewing the 46

Studies and Analyses

High Income Earners’ Increased Use of Diagnostic Imaging

Universal health care systems such as Canada’s exist, to a very large extent, because access to health care is considered a fundamental right of everyone, irrespective of income and social status. While there is good evidence that access to acute medical care such as cardiac surgery is equitably distributed across income groups, there is little evidence regarding access to the expanding array of diagnostic imaging procedures such as CT scans and MRIs.

In this study, inv

Studies and Analyses

Seal Rookeries: A New Food Source for Endangered Condors

A team of scientists is proposing that endangered California condors raised in captivity be released near seal and sea lion rookeries so that the birds can once again feast on the carcasses of marine mammals as their ancestors did centuries ago.

The researchers from Stanford University and four other institutions base their conclusion on the feeding behavior of modern and early condors and their potential prey. Writing in the Nov. 7 online edition of the Proceedings of the Nati

Studies and Analyses

Compound in wine reduces levels of Alzheimer’s disease-causing peptides

A study published in the November 11 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers the levels of the amyloid-beta peptides which cause the telltale senile plaques of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol occurring in abundance in several plants, including grapes, berries and peanuts,” explains study author Philippe Marambaud. “The polyphenol is found in high concentrations in red

Studies and Analyses

HIV-Positive Patients Face Shorter Survival Before Liver Transplant

A new study on HIV-positive patients eligible for liver transplants found that their survival while waiting for a transplant is significantly shorter than patients who are HIV-negative. Other than infection, which caused many of the deaths, there appear to be no other factors that predict a poor outcome for these patients.

The results of this study appear in the November 2005 issue of Liver Transplantation, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver D

Studies and Analyses

How ICT Shapes Political Place-Making in a Digital World

Study links information and communications technology to political ’place-making’ efforts

Cyberspace is widely considered to be lacking geography, rendering borders and distances irrelevant in a globalizing world. As a result, few have focused on how the very technologies that created the virtual space of the internet are also used to delineate physical locales.

A new study in the forthcoming issue of Current Anthropology focuses on how information and communi

Studies and Analyses

Stress, Deprivation, and Tempting Foods: Why We Overeat

Rat studies with chocolate breakfast cereal reveal why animals overdo it; opioid drug study implicates brain’s reward system

Two studies in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience show that when animals are stressed, deprived and exposed to tempting food, they overeat, with different degrees of interaction. The powerful interplay between internal and external factors helps explain why dieters rebound and even one cookie can trigger a binge if someone’s predisposed

Studies and Analyses

Parenting Teens: Study Reveals Key Advice Gaps in Books

Books offering advice to parents about teens are less likely to contain injury prevention messages than those that give advice on parenting smaller children, according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Notably absent from most such books were discussions about preventing automobile accidents among adolescents.

The UNC Injury Prevention Research Center investigation, which appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics, involved reviewing the

Studies and Analyses

Medical Misdiagnosis: Study Reveals Serious Patient Risks

Inaccurate diagnoses led to painful biopsies that in themselves worsened the condition of patients with rare muscle-to-bone disease

A new research study shows how common a medical misdiagnosis can be and how severely it can exacerbate a disease.

Focusing on a rare, genetic and disabling disease known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP, researchers designed the study as an examination of the frequency of misdiagnosis and the complications associated with it.

Studies and Analyses

Tryptophan’s Surprising Role In Boosting Immunity

Tryptophan is the source of Thanksgiving legend and grist for a “Seinfeld” episode, but it’s not the chemical that you’d expect to find in Lawrence Steinman’s lab.

A professor of neurology and neurological sciences and chair of the immunology program, Steinman, MD, and his lab generally focus on high-tech genetic therapies for diseases of the brain and nervous system. But his latest paper, to be published in the Nov. 4 issue of Science, breaks new ground on the effec

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