Culture

For youth dealing with obesity who need extra help losing weight, experts suggest a multidisciplinary approach in which care is provided by several health specialists. However, the logistics of traveling to multiple appointments, even if just across town, can be a barrier to receiving care, especially for low-income families.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Four nuclear power plants, sources of low-emissions electricity, have announced closings this year. If plants continue to shut down instead of extending operations the nation risks losing 60 percent of its clean electricity starting in 2030, according to a new report, Renewing Licenses for the Nation's Nuclear Power Plant by the American Physical Society.

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a new way to predict which heart failure patients are likely to see their condition get worse and which ones have a better prognosis. Their study is one of the first to show that energy metabolism within the heart, measured using a noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test, is a significant predictor of clinical outcomes, independent of a patient's symptoms or the strength of the heart's ability to pump blood, known as the ejection fraction.

New York University College of Nursing researcher and Assistant Professor Abraham A. Brody, RN, PhD, GNP-BC and colleagues reporting in Journal of Palliative Medicine found that initiating a palliative care consult in the emergency department (ED) reduced hospital length of stay (LOS) when compared to patients who receive the palliative care consult after admission.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine and the Medical College of Wisconsin found that a new kind of gene therapy led to a dramatic decline in bleeding events in dogs with naturally occurring hemophilia A, a serious and costly bleeding condition that affects about 50,000 people in the United States and millions more around the world.

Philadelphia, Pa. (December 10, 2013) - A man attempting a bicycle stunt made a significant—if unintended—contribution to surgical science, as a video of his crash allowed researchers to analyze the "kinematic and dynamic parameters" of the accident and resulting facial fractures. The study appears in The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, edited by Mutaz B.

(Boston)--As a result of the limited transgender medical training offered at medical schools, very few physicians possess the knowledge needed to treat transgendered patients. This circumstance is the topic of a paper in this month's issue Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity.

University of Alberta researchers have developed a new web-based tool to aid health professionals in determining the right treatment course for injured workers, helping them feel better and get back to work earlier.

Researchers used a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning to analyze injury and treatment records from Alberta's workers' compensation database to create a tool that recommends an appropriate course of rehabilitation. During early testing, the support tool actually outperformed clinicians.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Fewer than half of adults in the United States meet the recommended physical activity guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Often physical inactivity may be associated with overweight and obese individuals, but even healthy, normal-weight Americans sometimes fail to meet physical activity guidelines. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that simply encouraging healthy adults to be more physically active can improve their cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF).

Researchers from Taiwan reveal that antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) improves kidney and cardiovascular outcomes for patients with diabetes. Results of the study published in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, show that incidences of kidney disease, stroke, and heart attack were lower in patients treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin compared to HCV patients not treated with antivirals or diabetic patients not infected with the virus.

OAKLAND, Calif., December 11, 2013 — In the first study to look at racial and ethnic differences in dementia risk among older adults with type 2 diabetes, researchers found that dementia was much higher among Native Americans and African-Americans and lowest among Asian-Americans.

Grandaddy Purple, Blueberry Yum Yum and other pot products may now be legal for medical use in 20 states and the District of Columbia, but how do patients know what dose they're really getting and whether it's safe? Small labs are setting up shop — some at their own legal peril — to help patients find out, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

DURHAM, N.H. – A new book by Murray Straus, founder and co-director of the Family Research Lab and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, brings together more than four decades of research that makes the definitive case against spanking, including how it slows cognitive development and increases antisocial and criminal behavior.

New findings from a long-running study of nearly 1300 rural children by UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) reveal that parenting deteriorates when families face a number of risk factors at once. As a result, children's intellectual, emotional, and social development suffers.

(Boston) – Americans are increasingly eating more of their meals prepared away from home, and this is particularly true among African Americans, who also have higher rates of obesity than other Americans. Young adults tend to eat out more often at fast-food restaurants and these establishments are more often found in minority neighborhoods.