University of Illinois researchers report that four consecutive days of moderate exercise in mice after they were infected with influenza protects them from dying, compared with mice that didn’t exercise. This protective effect was more evident in mice greater than 16 weeks of age, an age at which they are immunologically more mature. The takeaway message: exercise regularly because you never know when you’ll be exposed!

Jeffrey A. Woods, PhD., and graduate student Tom Lowder at the

Call To Rename Class Of Muscle-Derived IL-6 As “Myokines”

For the most of the past century, researchers have searched for a muscle-contraction-induced factor, which mediates some of the exercise effects in other tissues and organs such as the liver and adipose tissue. In their quest for this magic trigger, or class of effectors, it’s been referred to as the “work stimulus,” “work factor” or the “exercise factor.”

Bente Karlund Pedersen, professor of internal medicine at R

Using a gene resurrected from the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, recorded history’s most lethal outbreak of infectious disease, scientists have found that a single gene may have been responsible for the devastating virulence of the virus.

Writing today (Oct. 7, 2004) in the journal Nature, virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo, describes experiments in which engineered viruses were made more pote

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a circuit in the brain that appears crucial in converting short-term memories into long-term memories. The circuit links the major learning-related area of the brain to another region that governs the brain’s higher functions.

The studies open the way for eavesdropping on one of the central processes in learning and memory, says HHMI investigator Erin M. Schuman. She and graduate student Miguel Remondes of the Califo

Skimping most common among those who pay the most out-of-pocket, earn the least, or don’t have prescription drug coverage

A recent nationally representative survey of older adults finds that 18 percent of those with chronic conditions such as heart disease and depression skip some of their prescription medicines because of out-of-pocket cost pressures, and 14 percent do so at least every month. Based on the study’s findings, the authors estimate that every month, this cost-rela

High-tech isometrics helps persons on hypertension medication

Don’t try this at home, but a high-tech version of the muscle crowd’s hand-grip has demonstrated the ability to lower blood pressure, improve the flexibility of the carotid artery and heighten vasoactive sensitivity in people taking medication for hypertension.

Two studies at the McMaster University Department of Kinesiology Exercise and Metabolism Research Group sought to confirm earlier findings related to ris

One of the fastest growing team sports in America, particularly on college campuses, is women’s soccer. Of the more than 17 million players participating in organized soccer nationwide, 7 million are female. While offering an equal opportunity playing field for student athletes, soccer has one unfortunate gender bias: women are more susceptible to knee injury. One of the most common is tearing of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)–the ligament in the center of the knee that provides stabili

A chemical solvent introduced to replace traditional ozone-depleting solvents in industrial settings has proven highly neurotoxic, according to a study presented October 5, 2004, at the 129th annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in Toronto.

Five workers whose job involved gluing foam cushions together with a glue containing the solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP, also known as n-propyl bromide) developed severe neurological symptoms, some of which appear to be permane

One group of drugs that is effective in fighting HIV may, paradoxically, also be promoting the death of sensory nerves in the skin, according to a study presented October 5, 2004, at the 129th annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in Toronto.

A team of American and Australian researchers reported that the use of certain anti-HIV drugs, called dideoxynucleosides, is highly correlated with a condition called sensory neuropathy, in which patients experience constant

Vision and motion simulators similar to those used by fighter pilots and astronauts can provide relief from the symptoms of chronic dizziness, researchers at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and Imperial College London report in the Journal of Neurology*.

Patients with a history of balance problems, including dizziness and vertigo, show up to 50% improvement in the frequency and intensity of dizziness after attending a series of ‘simulator therapy’ sessions. The sessions combine rota

Carefully controlling the amount of food and drink that formerly sedentary, overweight people ingest during and after short-term exercise has a significant impact on insulin action. The same study showed a measurable affect on the subjects’ cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, according to researchers in the Exercise Science Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

After only six days of enough treadmill exercise to burn 500 kilocalories (k/cal) each day, the

Children who have problems breathing during sleep tend to score lower on tests of mental development and intelligence than do other children their age, according to two studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Both studies appear in the October issue of Journal of Pediatrics.

The first study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), found that at one year of age, infants who have multiple, brief breathing pauses (apnea) or

Added sugars have little or no substantive effect on diet quality, according to a new study by the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy (CFNP) at Virginia Tech.

Released in the October issue of the Journal of Nutrition, the study refutes analyses in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Institute of Medicine (IOM) draft report on Dietary References Intakes stating that consumption of added sugars “displaces” essential vitamins and minerals in the diet. This “nutrient displacemen

Nerve cells with a mutant calcium channel don’t communicate as effectively as those with a normal calcium channel, according Saint Louis University research that is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition the week of Oct. 4.

“The research helps us understand the basic mechanism that underlies how neurons communicate,” said Amy Harkins, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacological and physiological science at Saint Louis University

While questions still remain about the nature and function of stem cells found in fat, a group of researchers and clinicians convened today in Pittsburgh at the Second Annual Meeting of the International Fat Applied Technology Society (IFATS) agreed that research should move forward with the ultimate goal of performing human clinical trials to test the cells’ therapeutic potential for specific indications.

Today concludes scientific sessions exploring how adipose tissue, or f

The pathogen responsible for a precooked chicken recall last summer will become easier to detect in ready-to-eat meats, thanks to a new biosensor developed by scientists at Purdue University.

A team of food scientists has developed a sensor that can detect the potentially deadly bacteria Listeria monocytogenes in less than 24 hours at concentrations as low as 1,000 cells per milliliter of fluid – an amount about the size of a pencil eraser. The sensor also is selective enough to r