Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found new evidence to explain how cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) mediates the transfer of cholesterol from "good" high density lipoproteins (HDLs) to "bad" low density lipoproteins (LDLs). These findings point the way to the design of safer, more effective next generation CETP inhibito... (read more)
Livestock in the United States may be building resistance to deadly bacterial infections, and those superbugs may be easily transferrable to humans, according to a new study published in the journal, mBio. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a strain of staph bacteria that does not respond to antibiotics used to treat staph infections. About two out of every 100 people carry... (read more)
States that allow raw milk sales have more than twice as many dairy-related disease outbreaks as states with prohibitions on such unpasteurized products, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showed. The rate of incidents caused by raw milk, cheese and yogurt was 150 times greater than outbreaks linked to pasteurized milk, according to the Atlanta-based CDC’s study, published today i... (read more)
Gluten-free products are all the rage these days, but many health-conscious eaters who buy them may be wasting their money, the authors of a new commentary in Annals of Internal Medicine suggest. Going gluten-free is necessary for people with celiac disease, an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye. The disease causes inflammation in the small intestine and can lead ... (read more)
Fewer women than men suffering from a heart attack appear to experience chest pain symptoms, according to a study of more than one million people in the US. Overall men have significantly more heart attacks, but under the age of 55 women are more likely to die from one. Without displaying the classic chest pain symptoms of a heart attack, researchers say some women may not be getting the right kind of treatment. ... (read more)
On the surface, it's simple: when night falls, our bodies get sleepy. But behind the scenes, a series of complex molecular events, controlled by our genes, is hard at work to make us groggy. Now, research suggests that a newly identified gene known as insomniac may play a role in keeping us asleep. By cloning and testing this gene in fruit flies, Rockefeller University researchers say they have d... (read more)
It turns out plastic surgery really does make you look younger, one study has found — on average, in the case of one Canadian doctor’s patients, 7.2 years younger. Some plastic surgeons “tend to use the terms more youthful and more refreshed, but precise quantification of these attributes has remained elusive,” a team of cosmetic surgeons wrote in a study published Monday in the Archives of Facial Pl... (read more)
A little extra simple sugar in your diet probably won't make you pack on the pounds -- as long as you cut down on other carbs to make up for it, a new analysis of past studies suggests. Researchers found that people who consumed extra fructose baked into breads or sprinkled into drinks didn't gain any extra weight compared to those who had other types of carbohydrates instead -- when they ate the same numbe... (read more)
Fitting in can be a tough business for kids, especially for the boy who wants to play dress-up and the girl with the short haircut. Now a new study finds that children who display such gender non-conformity — activity choices, interests and pretend play that don’t conform with what’s expected of their gender — are more likely to suffer physical, psychological and sexual abuse and experience post-trau... (read more)
It's no secret that battlefield trauma can leave veterans with deep emotional scars that impact their ability to function in civilian life. But new research led by Washington University in St. Louis suggests that military service, even without combat, has a subtle lingering effect on a man's personality, making it potentially more difficult for veteran... (read more)
The molecular response of an organism -- be it mouse or man -- to pathogenic invasion is controlled by circadian rhythms, researchers found. In mice exposed to infection at the highest and lowest time of activity in the 24-hour light-dark cycle of an immune protein known as toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), those whose exposure was at the nadir of TLR9 expression had much more severe sepsis, according to Erol Fikrig, MD, ... (read more)
Brain changes in infants as young as six months of age suggest that MRIs could be used to detect autism in children at least half a year before the emergence of other symptoms, according to a new study published online Friday in the American Journal of Psychiatry. According to Lara Salahi of ABC News, Dr. Joe Piven, director of the University of North Carolina’s (UNC) Carolina Institute for De... (read more)
Making play sets more interactive and giving children with autism greater opportunities to control and add content of their own to the game could improve cooperative play with other children as well as giving them greater confidence in understanding how objects interact. William Farr and Nicola Yuill of the University of Sussex, UK and Steve Hinske of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, explain that children with autism are... (read more)
About 15 years ago, MIT professors Robert Langer and Michael Cima had the idea to develop a programmable, wirelessly controlled microchip that would deliver drugs after implantation in a patient's body. This week, the MIT researchers and scientists from MicroCHIPS Inc. reported that they have successfully used such a chip to administer daily doses of an osteoporosis drug normally give... (read more)
A UCSF stem cell study conducted in mice suggests a novel strategy for treating damaged cardiac tissue in patients following a heart attack. The approach potentially could improve cardiac function, minimize scar size, lead to the development of new blood vessels -- and avoid the risk of tissue rejection. n the investigation, reported online in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers iso... (read more)
The speed someone walks may predict the likelihood of developing dementia later in life, according to researchers in the US. They also told a conference that grip strength in middle-age was linked to the chance of a stroke. The scientists said more studies were needed to understand what was happening. Experts said the findings raised important questions, but more research was needed. Suggestions of a link between s... (read more)
Breathing in dirty air may be linked to a higher chance of suffering a heart attack in the next few days, suggests a fresh look at past studies undertaken by French researchers. While it's well established that people who spend years living in polluted cities or near major highways are at increased risk of heart problems, the new findings suggest even short-term exposure to pollution can be harmful. "... (read more)
People who have trouble sleeping may be at higher risk of developing memory problems, new research shows. People who woke frequently in the night had a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to work to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in New Orleans in April. Other research has shown a link between impaired sleep and multiple-personality di... (read more)
Though researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the long-term effects of head injury, few studies have looked at the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in all age groups, including males and females, taking into account both mild and serious events. In a recent study published in Epidemiology, Mayo Clinic researchers applied a new, refined system for classifying injuries c... (read more)
The Mediterranean diet has been linked to a host of health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. A study finds that the diet may also be associated with a decreased chance of small vessel damage in the brain. The diet, popular in Mediterranean countries, includes little red meat but lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, lean proteins, whole grains and healthy monosaturate... (read more)
Antibiotics won't chase away patients' sniffles any faster than watchful waiting, researchers found. In a randomized trial, patients with acute rhinosinusitis had no differences in symptoms or quality of life three days after starting on amoxicillin compared with patients who received a placebo instead, Jay Piccirillo, MD, of Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Medic... (read more)
Breathing in particulate matter, even at levels deemed safe by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, may raise the risk for acute ischemic stroke and for cognitive decline, 2 new studies suggest. In an accompanying commentary, Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH, from the San Francisco Department of Public Health in California, notes that the reported association between ambient fine particulate matter, d... (read more)
A protein called SAMHD1 has been found to starve HIV in cells so that it cannot do anything, thus making the cell resistant to HIV infection, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center reported in Nature Immunology. The authors explained that their discovery could pave the way for new therapeutic research at halting or slowing the HIV's progression to AIDS. Research co-leader, Nathaniel R. Landau, PhD., said: ... (read more)
Damage caused by a heart attack has been healed using stem cells gathered from the patient's own heart, according to doctors in the US. The amount of scar tissue was halved in the small safety trial reported in the Lancet medical journal. The authors said there was also an "unprecedented" increase in new heart muscle. The British Heart Foundation said it was "early days", but cou... (read more)
Damage caused by a heart attack has been healed using stem cells gathered from the patient's own heart, according to doctors in the US. The amount of scar tissue was halved in the small safety trial reported in the Lancet medical journal. The authors said there was also an "unprecedented" increase in new heart muscle. The British Heart Foundation said it was "early days", but could &quo... (read more)
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