STANFORD, Calif. — A voluntary effort by the U.S. food service industry to reduce salt in processed foods could have far-reaching implications for the health of the U.S. population, preventing strokes and heart attacks in nearly a million Americans and saving $32.1 billion in medical costs, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.
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Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that patients admitted to hospice care who have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) are rarely having their ICDs deactivated and are receiving electrical shocks from these devices near the end of life. This first-of-its-kind study of hospice patients with ICDs is published in the March 2, 2010 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
NEW YORK (March 1, 2010) — Robotic surgical technology with its three-dimensional, high-definition view gives surgeons the sensation of touch, even as they operate from a remote console. A new study describes the phenomenon, called intersensory integration, and reports that surgical outcomes for prostate cancer surgery using minimally invasive robotic technology compare favorably with traditional invasive surgery.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The remains of a new herbivorous sauropod dinosaur, discovered near the world-famous Carnegie Quarry in Dinosaur National Monument, may help explain the evolution of the largest land animals ever to walk the earth.
University of Michigan paleontologist Jeffrey Wilson and graduate student John Whitlock, along with coauthors from Brigham Young University and Dinosaur National Monument, describe the new species in a paper published online Feb. 24 in the journal Naturwissenschaften.
A newly identified cancer biomarker could define a new subtype of breast cancer as well as offer a potential way to treat it, say researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Their findings will be published in the March 1 online early edition issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University researchers have identified a way to improve thought processes that goes well beyond the "power of positive thinking." The technique, they argue, may help to navigate around biased ways of thinking and ultimately lead to better planning and decision-making.
Details are published online and will be included in the March 2010 issue of Psychological Science.
- Both genetic and environmental factors affect susceptibility to alcohol dependence (AD).
- To date, researchers have identified several genes associated with AD.
- Findings from a new genome-wide association study support an association between AD and a cluster of genes on chromosome 11.
- Multiple genetic, environmental and behavioral factors contribute to alcohol use disorders (AUDs).
- A person's level of response (LR) to alcohol can indicate a person's risk for developing AUDs.
- A new study has looked at "gene networks" instead of individual genes to confirm the influence of glutamate receptor signaling genes on a person's LR.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – New research shows women who don't receive a clot-busting drug after a stroke fare worse than men who are not treated. The study is published in the March 2, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Overexpression of the ARD1A gene (arrest-defective protein 1225) in mice reduced the number and size of both primary tumors and metastases, researchers report in a new study published online March 1in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Offspring of two parents with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder appear more likely to develop the same illness or another psychiatric condition than those with only one parent with psychiatric illness, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
DALLAS, March 1, 2010 — A low-carbohydrate diet, a low-fat diet and the Mediterranean diet were equally effective in helping obese people to reverse carotid atherosclerosis after losing moderate amounts of weight and improving their blood pressure, in a study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In underserved areas like North Philadelphia, existing research shows a nearly 10 percent higher smoking rate than in the general population, with a lower quit rate to boot. The consequences of this public health problem are magnified for new mothers that smoke, as they also expose their babies to the ill effects of second-hand smoke.
STANFORD, Calif. — Like homing in to an elusive radio frequency in a busy city, human embryonic stem cells must sort through a seemingly endless number of options to settle on the specific genetic message, or station, that instructs them to become more-specialized cells in the body (Easy Listening, maybe, for skin cells, and Techno for neurons?). Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that this tuning process is accomplished in part by restricting the number of messages, called transcripts, produced from each gene.
ATHENS, Ohio (March 1, 2010) — The same antifreeze proteins that keep organisms from freezing in cold environments also can prevent ice from melting at warmer temperatures, according to a new Ohio University and Queen's University study published today in the Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.