Echinacea is not effective in shortening the duration or decreasing the severity of upper respiratory tract infections in children, according to a study in the December 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) are a significant health burden in childhood, according to background information in the article. The average child has six to eight colds each year, each lasting seven to nine days. While children are frequently give
The type of nappies mothers use in the maternity ward may influence the type they continue to use for their baby, according to a new study by the University of Surrey, funded by SITA Environmental Trust.
The Environmental Psychology Research Group at the University partnered the Maternity Unit at East Surrey Hospital and Cotton Bottoms Nappy Laundry Service to give parents the chance to use cotton nappies at the hospital after giving birth. Some also took the opportunity to try Cotton Bott
A pilot study on people terrified of heights showed that that an existing prescription pill helped to “dramatically reduce” their fear, reports Chemistry & Industry Magazine. In principle, the drug could be used to treat fear of spiders, needles, flying or any other kind of phobia, as well as post-traumatic stress and obsessive compulsive disorder. It might also be used to help people cope with their fears when they learn to to ski, skydive or any other activity which makes us scared.
The C
Background
The hippocampal formation has long been associated with the execution of higher-order cognitive functions, and impairment of this structure following severe stress and aging has been linked to cognitive disturbances. In order to understand the involvement of the hippocampal formation in the mediation of normal and pathological behaviors, much attention has recently been devoted to hippocampal neurogenesis. The dentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation has the ability to g
A 33-year study of all births by women in Norway with Myasthenia Gravis (MG) confirms that MG is associated with an increased risk for complications during pregnancy, including a threefold higher incidence of preterm rupture of the amniotic membranes, and twice the occurrence of delivery by cesarean section. The study is reported in the November 25 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Data for the study was collected from the Medical Birth Registry
A novel approach that combines gene therapy and radiation therapy for treating prostate cancer has shown promising results for its safety and effectiveness, according to Henry Ford Hospital researchers.
The study, published in this month’s edition of Cancer Research, shows that patients experienced no significant side effects when treated with gene therapy and radiation therapy. It also showed that the treatment lowered patients’ prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and eliminated the
A study by Duke University Medical Center researchers has found that women do not derive the same long-term quality-of-life benefits as men following coronary artery bypass surgery. This conclusion was evident even after the researchers statistically adjusted their data to allow for the greater number of preoperative risk factors in women than in men.
The researchers speculate that there may be two reasons for this clear gender discrepancy – either women may not experience the same level of
Use of caloric sweeteners, including sugar, has grown markedly around the world over the past 40 years, according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study.
In the United States, UNC scientists found increasing consumption of beverages, including soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks, was a major contributor to the burgeoning use of such sweeteners, which nutritionists believe contribute to unhealthy obesity. Obesity boosts the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and oth
Researchers suspect that the number of people infected during the recent Midwest outbreak may be higher than first reported
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University are trying to gain a better understanding of last summer’s monkeypox outbreak. The researchers traveled to the Midwest twice during the past few months to obtain blood samples from residents exposed to the disease. A third trip is planned for December. The samples will be used to better understand the human i
A multi-center research team has discovered how to deliver antimicrobial medications directly to the infectious parasites that cause diseases such as toxoplasmosis, even when the parasites lay hidden and inactive within cysts, where they have been untreatable by any available medicines.
The study, to be published online Nov. 17 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates the first effective, non-toxic method of transporting drugs across multiple membrane barriers an
By screening the genomes of mice with heart failure, Duke University Medical Center researchers have discovered multiple stretches of DNA containing genes that modify the heart’s pumping ability and survival with the disease. The findings could point researchers to genes that determine the severity of heart failure in patients, according to the Duke team.
“Our goal is to find novel genes that modify human heart failure by letting the mouse point us in the right direction,” said Duke ca
Researchers have found subtle damage in the brains of HIV-positive patients whose viral load is effectively suppressed by anti-retroviral therapy. In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) used a combination of MRI brain imaging, recording of electrical brain activity, and behavioral tests to compare the size and function of brains of HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy with those of healthy subjects.
Al
New study in rats suggests that nicotine at concentrations found in the blood of smokers may increase atrial vulnerability to inducible atrial tachycardia and atrial fibrillation in normal adult atria with no atrial disease.
Large numbers of Americans still smoke cigarettes or use over-the-counter nicotine products such as patches and gums to satisfy their craving for nicotine. However, serious and sometime fatal cases of atrial fibrillation (AF) have been reported in patients who use
A new study in rats has found that after severe spinal cord injury, molecules intended to help nerves communicate can attack the tissue surrounding the initial injury and cause further damage.
Interestingly, this latent, or secondary, injury develops over days and even weeks after the initial injury. It also appears to cause larger, more debilitating lesions in the spinal cord, said Randy Christensen, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at Ohio State Univers
Contrary to previous assumptions, recent findings indicate that experience-dependent mechanisms have a fundamental role for the proper development and function of the pain system.
Tactile, or touch, information now appears to play a fundamental role in guiding the functional maturation of the pain sensitivity system during normal development. This explains how the pain system can be functionally adapted despite the rare occurrence of noxious stimuli during development. Maintained input ove
Show that little sleep for a short period improves some simple tasks
Lack of sleep can affect an individual’s memory, ability to perform simple daily tasks, and attention span. Recent studies that help decipher the basic mechanism of sleep may help in the development of drugs that reduce the need for sleep in military combat or other circumstances.
In other research, investigators have found that sleeping only a few hours a night over a long period of time impairs memor
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