NIH awards USC $8.7 million to study tobacco use in China
...ia to study genetic and environmental factors that influence tobacco and alcohol use among adolescents in China and the United States. The new Pacific Rim Transdisciplinary Tobacco & Alcohol Use Research Center (PR TTURC) is conducting the research, under the direction of principal investigator C. Anderson Joh...Parents comfortable with vaccination for sexually transmitted infections for adolescent children
...ue to examine (1) characteristics of vaccines that influence decision making; (2) how parents and adolescents process information both about the diseases and the vaccines; (3) characteristics of parents and adolescents associated with vaccine acceptance, and (4) barriers to vaccination. The findings from such ...UCLA brain scientists crack mystery of how alcohol causes intoxication
... of alcohol. Alcohol enhances the GABA receptors' influence on brain cells, slowing the cells' activity and ability to communicate. IMPACT: The fact that the gene mutation arises naturally suggests that tolerance levels to alcohol may be genetically wired in people, too. If so, the findings could eventual...Rehabilitation can restore some vision after stroke
...n loss] disappeared." Even a patients' age didn't influence the likelihood of improvement. "The age of the patient does not matter much," Sabel said. "It also does not matter how old the lesion is at the start of the training, even when it is decades old patients can still benefit." However, he said, VRT h...State policies decrease youth smoking, drinking and sex
...licies are neither the only nor the most important influence on risky behaviors by teens. Other factors, such as parental involvement, may have been taking place outside of our study," said David M. Bishai, MD, MPH, PhD, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Heal...Smoking hurts wealth as well as health, study suggests
...ome from lower socioeconomic categories, which may influence how much wealth they accumulate. So he analyzed the data taking into account many factors that may influence wealth, including education, race, and even income. Even after these factors are taken into account,...Two studies find evidence that sunlight may have beneficial influence on cancer
...have found that sun exposure may have a beneficial influence on some types of cancer. One study found an associ...e new evidence that sunlight may have a beneficial influence on both cancer incidence and outcome and hypothesize that vitamin D may be a critical mediator in th...Obesity and weight gain associated with poorer breast cancer survival
...ate these groups in analyses may have obscured the influence of weight or weight gain on breast cancer recurrence and mortality. Researchers found that high weight prior to diagnosis was associated with poorer survival, but found this was particularly evident in women who had never smoked. Never smokers who w...Adults who had higher exposure to infant siblings have decreased risk for MS
...isk for allergic and autoimmune disorders, and can influence the developing immune system, according to background information in the article. Having siblings may increase the number of early-life infections, and lack of contact with siblings has been associated with several immune disorders. Younger siblings...Study finds no evidence of a 'cancer personality'
...studies further show that these personality traits influence known risk behaviors that would explain the increa...irect association where certain personality traits influence health behavior and thus indirectly affect risk for cancer."...Baked or broiled fish may help reduce the risk of stroke
...arlier in life, our findings suggest that diet may influence stroke risk beyond the earlier development of cardiovascular disease in young adulthood and middle age," the authors write. "Our findings also suggest thatpreparation methods may be important when considering relationships of fish intake with stroke ......the ocean floor, and 30,000 times greater than the influence of the oceanic tides. Only with delicate measurements by satellite constellations, supported by ground stations, ships and aircraft carrying magnetic instruments, can scientists sort out all the patterns of magnetism from the different sources. The ...Annual mammogram, doctor visits are enough for breast cancer follow-up
...r analysis were begun in the late 1980s, which may influence the review's findings. "One must consider that now, more than a decade later, knowledge, technology and treatment for breast cancer have improved, which may justify new randomized controlled trials," Fossati says....JCI table of contents, January 20 2005
...ne breakdown is the osteoclast, which is under the influence of a molecule known as RANKL. However our understanding of what triggers RANKL expression and its full effects on the osteoclast remains limited. Steven Teitelbaum and colleagues from Washington University now demonstrate, in mice, that tumor necrosi...Common antidepressants lower effects of tamoxifen in many women
... first large-scale clinical trial to determine the influence of multiple genetic variations and drug interactions on the plasma concentrations of tamoxifen and its active metabolites. "We can see the light at the end of the tunnel," said Dr. Flockhart. "Using our pharmacogenetic tool kit, we are very close to...Post election 2004: What's in store for health policy
...ug discount cards - how will these critical issues influence the nation's health policy agenda in 2005? The National Health Policy Conference, sponsored by AcademyHealth and the journal "Health Affairs", provides an in-depth look at the health policy issues facing the country and the challenges to finding solu...New insight into link between homocysteine and stroke
...ariation in a gene called MTHFR, which is known to influence homocysteine concentration. People randomly inherit variant (TT) of the gene, which gives them a higher concentration of blood homocysteine, or variant (CC), which results in lower levels of the amino acid in their blood. The authors compared risk e...Baby talk: Infants have much to say if adults will only listen
...s, as well as how infants learn speech." How much influence parents have on infant speech perception is another area of study at the Infant Language Lab. "In one of our projects, we are trying to determine why mothers instinctively talk baby talk to infants," said Dr. Bergeson. "Interestingly, we are finding ...News briefs from the journal Chest, January 2005
...tive pulmonary disease (COPD); yet, depression may influence treatment decisions in the same group of patients....hers conclude that clinicians should recognize the influence depression may have on patient treatment preferences and that improvement in depression symptoms may...Macular degeneration patients benefit from self-management training
...ting that the program "seemed to have a remarkable influence on preventing new cases of depression," according to the study's authors. "Too often the vision loss that results from this incurable disease is accompanied by anxiety, hopelessness and depression," said Stuart I. Brown, M.D., director of UCSD's Shil...