New findings that long-overlooked brain cells play an important role in regulating blood flow in the brain call into question one of the basic assumptions underlying today’s most sophisticated brain imaging techniques and could open a new frontier when it comes to understanding Alzheimer’s disease.
In a paper to appear in the February issue of Nature Neuroscience and now available on-line, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center demonstrate that
The Science Museum’s Dana Centre has come up with a way to beat the winter blues with the creation of the Dana Centre ‘Light Lounge’.
Many people suffer from seasonal blues, although for some, winter can be a disabling time with the onset of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) – a term used to describe depression during darker months.
The Light Lounge will contain four specially designed lightboxes, which are used to treat SAD, and a circular sofa where visitors can relax
Preliminary data are encouraging, though researchers stress no helmet can prevent concussions and proper injury management is of critical importance
Newer football helmet technology and design may reduce the incidence of concussions in high school football players, according to results from the first phase of a three-year study by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Sports Medicine Concussion Program. The current study compared concussion rates and recovery times
A new group which could help individuals who have medically unexplained conditions to resolve their symptoms will take place at the University of Hertfordshire in March 2006.
The group, which will use the body’s movement expression to help participants to explore their symptoms, has just received ethical approval from Welwyn & Hatfield PCT, making it the first group of its type in the region.
It will form part of a research project run by the University’s School of Social Community
We all wonder what is in the air for 2006 – but for people with asthma and other breathing problems, advance knowledge of air pollution levels is very important. An ESA-backed project is forecasting daily forecasts via text message to selected individuals in parts of London and the London borough of Croydon.
As the video above recounts, the service anticipated especially high levels of air pollution during late June 2005, when a concentrated air pollution mass formed over centra
A research group in Bergen has discovered a new form of diabetes. In addition to high blood sugar levels, the disease is characterised by a decrease in pancreatic functioning and reduced fat absorption in the intestine. The discovery may have an impact on the treatment of more usual forms of diabetes.
Researchers from Haukeland University Hospital and the University of Bergen published an article in Nature Genetics, one of the highest ranked journals in the field of biomedicine. The art
A leading UK cancer expert has expressed concern about the link between hospitals carrying out low numbers of breast cancer operations and disproportionately high readmission rates.
Professor Ian Fentiman from London’s Guy’s Hospital made his comments in the January issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice, after researchers from Korea discovered that 95 per cent of breast cancer surgery readmissions were from hospitals performing less than 100 procedures a
For people with the chronic disease ulcerative colitis, life can be limited to few social functions and trips away from home.
A promising new therapy pioneered by University of Kentucky gastroenterology specialists may offer improved lives to patients suffering from moderate to severe forms of the disease.
Ulcerative colitis causes inflammation and ulcers in the colon, leading to abdominal pain and such frequent trips to the bathroom that normal routines can be disrupted
A new analysis of adjuvant radiation therapy in women with breast cancer following mastectomy is associated with better survival as measured at 10 years when appropriate doses and fields of radiation are used. The study was published in the January 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute . The finding helps resolve controversy over whether radiation therapy improves both survival and risk of recurrence in women with operable breast cancer.
Past studies of radiat
Carbonated soft drink consumption was previously suggested to be linked to the 350 percent increase of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus since the mid-1970s, but researchers at Yale School of Medicine report that the link is unfounded and that there may, in fact, be a decreased risk of this cancer for diet soda drinkers.
The researchers warn that diet soft drink consumers might differ from other groups because they may engage in other unmeasured healthy behaviors. The study is publish
Patients with metastatic melanoma (MM) have new hope, says a recently published study by Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. The study, which shows the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin (PC) appears to be effective for MM when traditional treatments have failed, is in this month’s issue of Cancer.
“Melanoma is unfortunately one of the few cancers that has become more common over the last few decades, and when it becomes metastatic, there are very few treatment options,” sa
With an equal rate of incidence and mortality-the number of those who get it, and the number of those who die from it-Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a brain cancer death sentence.
Of the approximately 12,000 people who are diagnosed with GBM annually in the U.S., half will die within a year, and the rest within 3 years. Currently, the only treatments that stretch survival limits are exceptionally invasive surgeries to remove the tumor and radiation treatment with the maximum tol
Internists say most important reasons to recertify are to improve professional image and update knowledge
A survey of internists–physicians practicing internal medicine–whose board certification was up for renewal in December 2002 found that the most common reasons for participating in recertification or Maintenance of Certification (MOC) were to maintain professional image and update knowledge.
The survey findings report that 59 percent of general internists and 60 p
Initial results of the nation’s largest clinical trial for depression have helped clinicians to track “real world” patients who became symptom-free and to identify those who were resistant to the initial treatment. Participants treated in both medical and specialty mental health care settings experienced a remission of symptoms in 12 to 14 weeks during well-monitored treatment with an antidepressant medication. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Insti
Northwestern Memorial Hospital research shows that cancer patients benefit from one-hour art sessions
A study published today in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management found that art therapy can reduce a broad spectrum of symptoms related to pain and anxiety in cancer patients. In the study done at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, cancer patients reported significant reductions in eight of nine symptoms measured by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) after spending an
To detect invasive lung cancer in its early stages, researchers urge current and former smokers who have a strong family history of the disease to take a lung function test and undergo screening with spiral computed tomography. The test is especially important should the previously diagnosed relative be young (around 50).
These findings appear in an article on familial lung cancer in the first issue for January 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, publish
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