Author Archive
Kids with down syndrome might get help learning
Experts say they enhanced the learning ability of mice afflicted with a disease alike to Down syndrome by interfering with the making of an exact protein.
The “beta-amyloid” protein is establish in mice and people, the research authors noted, and is considerate to play a position in the cognitive refuse linked with Alzheimer’s and Down syndrome.
The research, announced online June 3 in the journal PLoS One, was conducted using 4-month-old mice that had a genetic irregularity that caused them to display learning disabilities comparable to those in children with Down syndrome.
This beginning research raises the fascinating option that drugs that lower beta-amyloid levels might offer some advantage to children with Down syndrome, study co-author Dr. Craig Powell, a supporter professor of neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said in a news release.
Gulf oil spill workers report health problems
With the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico now in its sixth week, reports of clean-up workers falling unwell are on the rise.
Within the past week, they have seen a number of workers hospitalized. Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council mentioned that is new.
More than a dozen workers have been treated at local medical centers for flu-like symptoms ranging from chest pain to dizziness, nausea and headaches, presumably due to contact to diverse chemicals emanating from the slick, according to news reports.
The Unified Command in Louisiana — an alliance of administration agencies that includes the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and the National Parks Service — previous week called back to shore 125 boats helping with the clean-up after medical complaints from crew members.
Lifestyle doesn’t influence genetic risks in breast cancer
In spite of prior research identifying both genetic risks for breast cancer as well as risks linked with way of life and environmental factors, a new British study reveals that the two types of risk pools appear to operate separately of one another.
The finding is based on analysis that looked for any confirmation of an interaction between a dozen genetic mutations — all connected with a small increase in breast cancer risk — and 10 recognized environmental danger factors, which are factors associated to behavior or standard of living. The results are reported in the June 2 online edition of The Lancet.
The author Dr. Ruth Travis, of the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom mentioned in a news release that they looked at whether way of life factors for breast cancer, such as use of HRT, hormone replacement therapy, alcohol consumption and reproductive history, influence the genetic risks. And the respond is that they do not.
Brain volume lost to anorexia reversible
Patients suffering from the eating disorder anorexia nervosa can actually lose brain volume, but new study puts forward that, with particular treatment, adult patients can recover the gray matter that they lost from persistent dieting.
Anorexia nervosa wreaks havoc on many different parts of the body, as well as the brain, study author Christina Roberto, of Yale University, said in a news release. In their research, they calculated brain volume deficits among underweight patients with the disease to evaluate if the decline is reversible through short-term weight restoration.
Working out of the Columbia University Center for Eating Disorders in New York City, Roberto and her colleagues conducted MRI scans of the brains of 32 adult female inpatients diagnosed with anorexia, as well as 21 healthy women.
Anorexia patients were found to have less brain volume than healthy women, and those how had battled the psychiatric disorder the longest had the furthermost gray volume deficit.
20% of U.S. High Scholars Abuse Prescription Drugs
One in five high school students in the United States has taken a instruction medication that was not prescribed for them, a new survey shows.Conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the survey covers a diversity of risky behaviors among American youth.
Survey author Danice K. Eaton, a research scientist at the CDC mentioned that they are very worried that 20 percent of high school students are reporting this behavior. It can be unsafe to take a instruction drug that hasn’t been prescribed to you.
Studies have exposed that taking non-prescribed prescription drugs can lead to overdose, dependence and death, Eaton explained. Taking a prescription drug that hasn’t been prescribed to you is a health danger behavior.
The abuse of prescription drugs was widest among whites at 23 percent, followed by Hispanics at 17 percent, and black students at 12 percent.