Mayo Clinic Proceedings looks at epidemic of obesity in February issue
...d when you choose to use a lawn service instead of doing the yard work yourself (0 vs. 360) and letting the dog out the back door vs. walking it for a half hour (2 vs. 125). Effective strategies for dealing with the increasing prevalence of obesity depend on a better understanding of the causes. As those b...'Use it or lose it?' study suggests mentally stimulating activities may reduce Alzheimer's risk
...recent years, many of us have come to believe that doing crossword puzzles or playing cards might ward off a decline in memory or help us maintain brainpower as we age. Now, a new study suggests there might be some truth to the use-it-or-lose-it hypothesis. The study, by scientists at the Rush Alzheimers ...Alcoholics may be more injury prone than illicit drug users
...t proportion of those entering detoxification were doing so because recent serious injury had helped them realize they might have a substance-abuse problem. "And this is probably true," he said. "But then we found that at the follow-up interviews during the next two years, the prevalence of injury in the...'Bird brains' take heart-our feathered friends are no slouch at cognition
...ly begun combining objects in specific orders, and doing the same with vocal labels. Such behavior once thought exclusive to humans, great apes, and monkeys, according to Pepperberg. "The simultaneous emergence of both vocal and physical combinatorial behavior was thought to be a purely primate trait, der...New software helps design multi-task, jaw-like, surgical mini-tools
...ons complain that using the existing tools is like doing surgery with chopsticks." Haluck explains that, since most existing MIS tools are single function instruments, the surgeon must constantly withdraw and re-insert new tools. Continually switching instruments can lengthen time in operation and comprom...HIV protein stops cell division, leading to more virus and sicker patients
...pr, which stops infected T cells from dividing. In doing so, Vpr helps HIV to harness the infected cells resources to create more HIV. The process goes on, creating more virus, which then go on to kill more T cells. The outcome is a sicker patient. Michael P. Sherman, MD, PhD, Gladstone research scientist ...Researchers demonstrate direct, real-time brain control of cursor
...ld work for anything you can do or you can imagine doing by pointing and clicking," Donoghue said. 'This includes reading e-mail. Or imagine an onscreen keyboard that someone can use to type sentences or issue commands by pointing and clicking. We would be extraordinarily pleased if this system could allow...Second patient with multiple sclerosis undergoes groundbreaking surgery at Yale
...the groundbreaking clinical trial. "The patient is doing fine," said Timothy Vollmer, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine. "He has a high level of disability because of the location of the lesions in the brain, but he is otherwise healthy." There are an estimated 1.4 million p...Tricking diseases into synthesizing their own worst enemies
...oes to work, constructing its own worst enemy, and doing so within its own defensive walls." "This is a breakthrough typical of Barry Sharpless," says TSRI President Richard Lerner. "For the first time, you are eliciting a contribution from the dynamic enzyme, asking it to make the inhibitor it prefers." F...Individually tailored health promotions can help working women, research shows
... said they wanted to work on, Campbell said. After doing this combined intervention, we followed the original survey with two more surveys at six months and again at 18 months to see if anything had changed. Of women originally in the group, 538 completed all three, she said. Results were encouraging. Our ...Biopsies of the internal mammary sentinel nodes may improve patients chances of survival
...ming routine axillary SN scans, which we have been doing since 1997, we frequently detected IM-SNs as well, which represented lymph drainage from the breast tumour to the IM lymph nodes. We know that the concept of the SN biopsy is valid in predicting whether there are metastases in the axillary nodes, so...Childhood sexual abuse proves top predictor for HIV infection in women
...aid. Physicians need to ask these women why theyre doing what theyre doing. The UCLA/Drew study also challenges caregivers assumptions about HIV-infected womens sexual behavior and medical providers stereotypes about who gets infected. Because public health clinics treat more women of color with HIV, thes...Polyphenols in tea may reduce risk of stomach, esophagus cancers
...an Francisco, April 8 People who drink tea may be doing more than soothing a weary stomachthey might be preventing cancer, according to researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and colleagues. Certain tea-drinkers in a study conducted in Shanghai, China were about half as likely to develop cancer...Researchers link stroke patients' anger and aggression to brain injury
...I feel annoyed when I am not given recognition for doing good work. 6) I fly off the handle. 7) When I get angry, I say nasty things. 8) It makes me furious when I am criticized in front of others. 9) When I get frustrated, I feel like hitting someone. 10) I feel infuriated when I do a good job and get a p...Tired and angry? Both emotions may predict heart attacks
...I feel annoyed when I am not given recognition for doing good work; I am quick-tempered; and, I get angry when I am slowed down by others mistakes. Questions from the exhaustion survey included: Have you experienced a feeling of hopelessness recently?; Do you ever wake up with a feeling of exhaustion and...Drug reduces risk of acute rejection in kidney transplantation
...nnan, all three patients have been treated and are doing well. Based on our results, I expect that up to half of kidney transplants that come from cadavers could benefit from Thymoglobulin therapy, Brennan says....UNC Center for AIDS Research database collaboration with SAS also helping patient care
... SAS, we developed an incredibly powerful tool for doing both clinical and translational research, moving clinicians and basic scientists closer together. And, while it wasn't our primary intention, the database already is improving the care of people in our clinic because clinical providers now have their...Male/female health differences during life's final season
...rs your age? 3) Does your health prevent you from doing what you would like to do? and 4) How would you compare your health to that of three years ago? Gold notes that having a matched sample of older, brother/sister twin pairs enabled the researchers to reduce the effects of gender differences in surviv...Number of teens --primarily boys -- having sex declined in '90s
...rds do it. Bees do it. But fewer teen-age boys are doing it. The number of 15- to 17-year-old boys having sex in the past decade dropped 8.5 percent, and teens were generally acting more responsibly when it came to sex with rates of pregnancy, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases all falling. Thes......onditionand white children covered by Medicaid are doing only slightly better, according to a new study by Harvard Medical School and other researchers. The study is the first to gather information directly from parents to evaluate racial and ethnic differences in childrens asthma status and management. An...