An herb used in traditional Indian medicine to treat diabetes seems to lower blood sugar and insulin levels in a manner similar to prescription drugs, a new study reports.
Researchers gave extracts of the herb Salacia oblonga to 39 healthy adults, and the results were promising. The largest dose of the herb extract – 1,000 milligrams – decreased insulin and blood glucose levels by 29 and 23 percent, respectively. “These kinds of reductions are similar to what we might see with p
Experts at the University of Sheffield have proven conclusively that the functions of language and mathematics are separate in the adult brain, meaning that it is not just linguistic ability that separates us from other animals. Academics and researchers had thought that language may enable higher cognitive functions, and that without it we would lose other high level skills. However, the study has shown that even when the brain is rendered incapable of using or understanding language, it can s
Improved patient outcomes and reduced costs highlight crucial link between electronic medical data and clinical practice guidelines
A new clinical study published today in this month’s American Journal of Managed Care demonstrated that a technology-driven clinical decision support system applying evidence-based clinical guidelines to patient’s electronic medical data helps flag potentially serious clinical errors or deviations from accepted best practices, while making a
Teens who cut themselves are more likely to engage in unprotected sex according to a new study by researchers at the Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Psychiatric Research Center (BHCPRC) in Providence, RI. Published this month in the journal Pyschiatric Services, researchers report a previously uncharted link between self-mutilation and sexual risk.
Lead researcher Larry K. Brown, MD, of BHCPRC believes that the findings should especially resonate with physicians since they are often
It seems that the heart wants what the heart wants — and it can figure it out fairly quickly, according to evolutionary psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers studied dating data from 10,526 anonymous participants of HurryDate, a company that organizes “speed dating” sessions, and found rare behavioral data on how people genuinely act in dating situations.
“Some people say they’re looking for one kind of person, then choose another. Other peop
Health-care costs for morbidly obese adults are nearly twice those of people considered to be of normal weight, says a study led by University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers.
The study found that medical expenditures for morbidly obese adults in the year 2000 were 81 percent more than for normal-weight adults, 65 percent more than overweight adults, and 47 percent more than obese adults. The excess costs among morbidly obese adults resulted from greater spending on visits to the
Discovery could lead to new direction for prevention, treatment research
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that women with a common thyroid gland disorder appear to have a reduced chance of developing invasive breast cancer, according to a study published in the March 15 issue of Cancer, out online Feb. 14.
In a retrospective case-control study of 2,226 females, researchers found that women with primary hypothyroidism (under-a
In defending her PhD thesis, Teresa Garde Cerdán, Doctor in Chemical Sciences at the Public University of Navarre, stated that the maximum concentrations of compounds transferred to wine from wood is reached after 10 to 12 months of the wine being stored in wooden casks.
Moreover, it has been shown that, after a year, the concentration of these compounds, positive for the aroma of the wine, not only do they not increase but, in some cases, they begin to decrease. This is an importa
Nottingham researchers have found a way to treat children with cystic fibrosis (CF), which could reduce their side effects and see more young patients treated at home.
Experts at The University of Nottingham organised the largest successful clinical trial in the UK looking at cystic fibrosis in an attempt to discover whether a common antibiotic used to treat the condition could be administered just once a day instead of the usual three daily doses.
The recommendations f
Poor forecasting is more evident for time than money
If your appointment book runneth over, it could mean one of two things: Either you are enviably popular or you make the same faulty assumptions about the future as everyone else. Psychological research points to the latter explanation. Research by two business-school professors reveals that people over-commit because we expect to have more time in the future than we have in the present. Of course, when tomorrow turns into today
A great deal of public policy advocacy has been influenced by the notion that the United States is becoming an “increasingly mobile society” – that the population is changing residence at increasing levels. However, a new study provides empirical evidence in favor of an opposite trend.
In fact, overall mobility has generally declined since about 1950, and interstate mobility has generally not increased during the same period. The data supporting this is reported in the February
Benefits and problems are related to developmental stages, family context
A consortium of researchers has reported that very young children’s interactions with TV and computers are a mixed bag of opportunities and cautions, while teenagers’ Internet use has changed so much that the myths of several years ago need to be debunked. Said Amy Sussman, program manager for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds the five-site Children’s Digital Media Center (CDMC), “Reaping
Researchers at New York University have determined the location in the brain where involuntary attention enhances visual processing. The researchers, from NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, found that attending to, or selectively processing information from a given location without directing our eyes to that location, enhances performance in visual tasks as well as the neural activity underlying the processing of ensuing images. The results are published in the lat
Alan List, M.D., leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, recently conducted a phase I/II trial of the experimental drug Revlimid showing promise as an innovative way to treat patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a form of pre-leukemia. Given in pill form, Revlimid simultaneously blocks the growth of new blood vessels that nourish tumors (anti-angiogenesis) and stimulates the immune system to fight cancer cells. The study
Although most parents, educators, and researchers believe that children can’t learn specific words until well into their second year, children younger than 1 year can, in fact, learn certain words for things that are not a regular part of their daily lives, according to new research being published in the January/February 2005 issue of the journal, Child Development.
The findings, based on research by Graham Schafer, D.Phil., of the University of Reading in Reading in the Uni
Study of dialysis patients yields surprising findings
Despite what able-bodied healthy people might think, people with severe illnesses and disabilities don’t wallow in misery and self-pity all the time. In fact, a new study finds, such patients on the whole may be just as happy as those without major medical conditions. The finding adds to the growing body of evidence that ill and disabled people adapt to their condition and show a resilience of spirit that many healthy people ca
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