Culture

STANFORD, Calif. — For some runners, a marathon is not enough.

Participation in so-called ultramarathons — defined as any distance beyond the standard 26.2-mile marathon — has grown exponentially in recent years. The number of runners who finished ultra-length races in North America increased from 15,500 in 1998 to 63,530 in 2012, according to UltraRunning Magazine. Despite its popularity, however, little is known about the health effects of this intense form of exercise.

CLEVELAND: Results published in a new study in the Jan. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine report that mild electronic stimulation therapy to the upper airway during sleep is effective in reducing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

BOSTON – The information that clinicians provide to patients when prescribing treatments has long been thought to play a role in the way that patients respond to drug therapies. Now an innovative study of migraine headache confirms that a patient's expectations – positive, negative or neutral – influence the effects of both a medication and a placebo.

PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 8, 2014)- The leatherback turtle in the Pacific Ocean is one of the most endangered animals in the world. Its population has declined by more than 90 percent since 1980. One of the greatest sources of mortality is industrial longlines that set thousands of hooks in the ocean to catch fish, but sometimes catch sea turtles as well. Using modern GPS technology, researchers are now able to predict where fisheries and turtles will interact and to reduce the unwanted capture of turtles by fishermen.

JUPITER, FL, January 7, 2014 – Two-thirds to three-quarters of the estimated 700,000 Americans living with Crohn's disease, an autoimmune condition that can disrupt the entire gastrointestinal tract, will require surgery at some point during their life. Patients and physicians often turn to this surgical intervention after a patient develops resistance to current treatments, such as steroids.

As people get older, their bodies wear down and become less resilient. In old age, it's common for people to become "clinically frail," and this "frailty syndrome" is emerging in the field of public health as a powerful predictor of healthcare use and death.

The Icelandic sagas of the Norse people are thousand-year-old chronicles of brave deeds and timeless romances, but how true to Viking life were they? Writing in Significance, Pádraig Mac Carron and Ralph Kenna use a statistical network of associations between characters to find out.

The prevalence of excess weight and obesity among adolescents and, as a result, the concomitant problems, has increased considerably in recent years. A study by the UPV/EHU has confirmed that, irrespective of the total calories consumed and the physical activity done, an excessive proportion of fat in the diet leads to a greater accumulation of fat in the abdomen. The study has been published in the prestigious journal Clinical Nutrition and is part of the HELENA study funded by the European Commission.

On 3 January 2014 the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a literature search for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the treatment of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aim of the report is to identify those recommendations from current guidelines of high methodological quality that may be relevant for the planned revision of the disease management programme (DMP). According to the results of the report, there is no compelling need for revision of any part of the DMP.

IRVINE, Calif. (DATE) – New research published in the November issue of Nutrition Journal reports adding one-half of a fresh avocado to a lunch may have helped healthy, overweight people feel more satisfied and reduced their desire to eat following a meal. The study was funded by the Hass Avocado Board.

Philadelphia, PA, January 8, 2014 – Food prepared away from home is typically higher in calories and lower in nutrition than food prepared at home, but it now makes up more than one-third of all calories purchased in the United States. Consumers tend to view full-service restaurants as providing healthier, higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, but some studies have found much higher calorie, fat, and sodium levels in food at full-service restaurants.

Intimate partner violence in women (sometimes referred to as domestic violence) is linked to termination of pregnancy, according to a study by UK researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The study, led by Susan Bewley from Kings College London, also found that intimate partner violence was linked to a women's partner not knowing about the termination of pregnancy.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Jan. 7, 2014)—We ring in the New Year with hopes of being healthy, wealthy, and wise. A new study led by San Diego State University School of Public Health research professor John W. Ayers suggests that from a public health standpoint, health and wealth may be connected.

Ayers and his team examined the Google search patterns of Americans during the recent Great Recession and discovered that during that period, people searched for keywords related to stress-related health symptoms much more frequently than they would have if the recession hadn't taken place.

Reston, Va. (January 7, 2014) – With low survival rates for patients with metastasized melanoma, accurate staging and effective treatments are critical to extending life. New research published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine highlights the potential of newly developed radiopharmaceuticals with benzamide for the imaging of metastases and as a targeted systemic therapy.

Dabrafenib (trade name: Tafinlar) has been approved in Germany since August 2013 for the treatment of advanced melanoma.In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy.