Why the skin wrinkles more on certain parts of the face

Long QT syndrome (LQTS), a rare hereditary heart condition, can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias, or fast heartbeat irregularities. New research indicates that children with LQTS who take medications for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk of experiencing heart-related problems--especially syncope, or the loss of consciousness. "In light of these findings, special attention is needed when prescribing ADHD medications for LQTS patients, starting with the lowest effective dose and planning close follow-up," said Dr. Valentina Kutyifa, ...

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2015) - The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes have been decreasing in the United States and Europe, however they appear to be on the rise in Asia, particularly Japan, according to a guest editor page published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Using data from epidemiological studies and examining a health program launched by the Japanese government, guest editor Masafumi Kitakaze, M.D., Ph.D., found many risk factors in the Japanese population remain unchanged or even ...

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2015) -- Adults who walked briskly, were moderately active in their leisure time, drank moderately, didn't smoke and avoided obesity had half the risk of heart failure as adults who did not optimize these modifiable risk factors, according to a study that followed nearly 4,500 adults for two decades. The study was published today in JACC: Heart Failure. Heart failure, a condition where the heart fails to pump as much blood as the body needs, is increasing in frequency in the United States and is a leading cause of hospitalization for people over age ...

Common extra heartbeats known as premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) may be a modifiable risk factor for congestive heart failure (CHF) and death, according to researchers at UC San Francisco. The study, which is in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), is based on more than a decade of research of 1,139 participants from the national Cardiovascular Health Study. PVCs are extra, abnormal heartbeats that occur in the ventricles. They disrupt the heart's regular rhythm but usually are no reason for concern or require treatment. ...

(Philadelphia, PA) - Lupus, multiple sclerosis, and type-1 diabetes are among more than a score of diseases in which the immune system attacks the body it was designed to defend. But just why the immune system begins its misdirected assault has remained a mystery. Now, researchers at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) have shown that bacterial communities known as biofilm play a role in the development of the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus -- a discovery that may provide important clues about several autoimmune ailments. A team led by TUSM ...

Adolescents who saw advertising for medical marijuana were more likely to either report using marijuana or say they planned to use the substance in the future, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Studying more than 8,000 Southern California middle school students, researchers found that youth who reported seeing any ads for medical marijuana were twice as likely as peers who reported never seeing an ad to have used marijuana or report higher intentions to use the drug in the future. The study was published online by the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Researchers ...

Converting large tracts of the Midwest's marginal farming land to perennial biofuel crops carries with it some key unknowns, including how it could affect the balance of water between rainfall, evaporation and movement of soil water to groundwater. In humid climates such as the U.S. Midwest, evaporation returns more than half of the annual precipitation to the atmosphere, with the remainder available to recharge groundwater and maintain stream flow and lake levels. A recent study from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and published in Environmental Research ...

Worcester, Mass. - A study by a multidisciplinary research team, co-directed by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), offers new insights into how virulent fungi adapt through genetic modifications to fight back against the effects of medication designed to block their spread, and how that battle leaves them temporarily weakened. These insights may provide clues to new ways to treat notoriously difficult-to-cure fungal infections like thrush and vaginitis. The team studied patients infected with the fungus Candida albicans (C. albicans), which causes common yeast infections ...

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2015) -- The investigation of a simple protein has uncovered its uniquely complicated role in the spread of the childhood cancer, osteosarcoma. It turns out the protein, called ezrin, acts like an air traffic controller, coordinating multiple functions within a cancer cell and allowing it to endure stress conditions encountered during metastasis. It's been known that ezrin is a key regulator of osteosarcoma's spread to the lungs, but its mechanism was not known. Osteosarcoma is a tumor of bone that afflicts children, adolescents and young adults. In ...

Mohamed Boutjdir, PhD, professor of medicine, cell biology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, has led a study with international collaborators identifying the mechanism by which patients with various autoimmune and connective tissue disorders may be at risk for life-threatening cardiac events if they take certain anti-histamine or anti-depressant medications. Dr. Boutjdir is also director of the Cardiac Research Program at VA New York Harbor Healthcare System. The researchers published their findings in the online edition of the American ...