Health News Today

(University of California - San Francisco) A novel therapy using a miniature nerve stimulator instead of medication for the treatment of profoundly disabling headache disorders improved the experience of pain by 80-95 percent, according to a new study from UCSF and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. »»»

(Texas Children's Hospital) Texas Children's Cancer Center today announced Passport for Care, an innovative Web-based application that provides childhood cancer survivors and their physicians with immediate access to a survivor's diagnosis and treatment history. Passport for Care provides detailed, individualized health care recommendations based on the most up-to-date national survivorship care guidelines. »»»

(University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) The North Carolina Institute for Public Health has been awarded an $8.5 million, five-year grant to create a new research center focused on helping protect the state from a wide range to disasters and threats. »»»

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) NIAID will award five-year contracts estimated to be up to $68.7 million to establish programs in Systems Biology for Infectious Disease Research at four research institutions. Scientists at each facility will apply novel techniques to study diseases that include severe acute respiratory syndrome, tuberculosis and influenza. »»»

(University of Southern California) Imaging study follows on previous lesion studies to pinpoint regions of brain involved in risk management: finds that individuals' response to risk and reward can be gauged from activity in two distinct brain regions. »»»

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) NIAID has awarded two five-year contracts to establish Clinical Proteomics Centers for Infectious Diseases and Biodefense. The contracts were awarded to the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and to the Canadian firm Caprion Proteomics, Montreal. Researchers at the centers will analyze human blood and other tissue samples from completed or ongoing clinical studies with the aim of discovering proteins that could serve as biomarkers of infectious disease. »»»

(Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) Results of a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center challenge the longstanding practice of treating premature babies with hydrocortisone, a steroid believed to fight inflammation and prevent lung disease. »»»

(Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) Existing recommendations for treating vitamin D deficiency in children with cystic fibrosis are too low to cover the serious need, leaving most at high risk for bone loss and rickets, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. »»»

(American College of Physicians) "The Last Half Hour of the Day" shares writings that express medical ideals and realities, the devastation of death and illness, the miracle of healing, and the netherworld of remission. Reflections of the physician's role in society and as an observer of the human body and spirit are seen throughout the book. »»»

(Case Western Reserve University) Research results from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine show that the progression of age-related macular degeneration is markedly slowed in new laboratory-engineered mice when they received treatments of retinylamine, a trial drug that has been tested in a medical school lab. AMD is a leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 years of age and older.The findings from the National Eye Institute-funded research are reported in the prestigious Journal of Biological Chemistry. »»»

(Rhode Island Economic Development Corp.) People will soon have access to a state-of-the-art 3-D visual exploration of the cardiovascular system created from medical imaging and computer animations. Anatomical Travelogue's TheVisualMD.com will also include visualizations of asthma, kidney disease, anemia, arthritis, osteoporosis, and colon cancer. The site will be free. Tsiaras will unveil TheVisualMD at the Business Innovation Factory's BIF-4 Summit on Oct. 15-16 in Providence, RI. Tsiaras is one of two dozen innovators appearing at this year's event. »»»

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) German and American researchers have for the first time identified complete gene sequences and function of two proteins in mussels that play a key defensive role against environmental toxicants. These proteins form part of an active, physiological barrier in mussel gills that protects them against environmental toxins, researchers from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research and Stanford University in California report in the "American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology". »»»

(European Molecular Biology Organization) The European Molecular Biology Organization proudly announces the introduction of EMBO Molecular Medicine, a new journal dedicated to a research discipline focused on the interface between molecular biology and clinical research. The new journal, launching in 2009, will publish original research offering molecular insights into cellular and systemic processes underlying defined human diseases as well as potential clinical applications for diagnosis, prevention and therapy. »»»

(Public Library of Science) Researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore and collaborators have identified a new gene that may confer susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis. Their findings, published Oct. 10 in the open access journal PLoS Genetics, reported that the gene Toll-like receptor 8, previously shown only to recognize some factors from viruses such as HIV, has a probable role in susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections. The study also found that males are more susceptible than females. »»»

(Medical College of Georgia) Stabilizing force for good communication between neurons and muscle cells foundYou can't raise a finger without your brain directing muscle cells, and scientists have figured out another reason that usually works so well. »»»

(Queen's University Belfast) A Queen's University Belfast academic has been awarded ??228,000 to further his research into how Alzheimer's disease progresses. »»»

(Wiley-Blackwell) Patient using solifenacin reported that their overactive bladder problems improved by 70 percent. Improvements were noted as early as 3 days in the double-blind randomized study which involved 863 patients from 14 countries. The results appear in the November issue of BJU International. »»»

House repossession poses the greatest threat to people's mental health, a charity has warned. »»»

The NHS in England is failing to learn from complaints made to it by patients, a parliamentary watchdog says. »»»

The gut may have receptors that shut down appetite when bitter substances are detected, a study suggests. »»»