The drive for energy efficient homes could increase asthma risks, according to new research. Led by a team at the University of Exeter Medical School, the research has found that a failure by residents to heat and ventilate retrofitted properties could lead to more people developing the respiratory condition. Working with leading UK social housing provider, Coastline Housing, the research team assessed data from the residents of 700 properties in Cornwall. They found that people living in more energy efficient homes had a greater risk of asthma, and that the presence ...

Scientists at Brunel University London have found a way of targeting hard-to-reach cancers and degenerative diseases using nanoparticles, but without causing the damaging side effects the treatment normally brings. In a huge step forward in the use of nanomedicine, the research helped discover proteins in the blood that disguise nanoparticles so they are absorbed into cells without causing inflammation and destroying healthy cells. Two studies, Complement activation by carbon nanotubes and its influence on the phagocytosis and cytokine response by macrophages and Complement ...

The preventive effect of breast cancer drug 'tamoxifen' remains virtually constant for at least 20 years - with rates reduced by around 30 per cent - new analysis published in The Lancet Oncology reveals. The IBIS-I trial (International Breast Cancer Intervention Study), led by Queen Mary University of London and funded by Cancer Research UK, examined the long-term risks and benefits of taking tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer in women at high risk of the disease (aged 35-70 years old, primarily with a family history of breast cancer). During the study* 7,154 pre ...

Smart agricultural practices and an extensive grain-trade network enabled the Romans to thrive in the water-limited environment of the Mediterranean, a new study shows. But the stable food supply brought about by these measures promoted population growth and urbanisation, pushing the Empire closer to the limits of its food resources. The research, by an international team of hydrologists and Roman historians, is published today in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Stretching over three continents and persisting ...

Phoenix, AZ (December 11th, 2014) - Signs of cognitive decline related to aging populations, and even the severe cognitive losses seen in Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative disorders, may emerge many years earlier, according to a report presented today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting in Phoenix (Arizona). The study suggests that early signs of cognitive decline are already present for some individuals during midlife, and that they are linked with risk factors such as elevated blood pressure. It is possible that if these risk factors ...

December 11, 2014--(BRONX, NY)--Sleep-related breathing problems and chronic lack of sleep may each double the risk of a child becoming obese by age 15, according to new research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The good news is that both sleep problems can be corrected. The study, which followed nearly 2,000 children for 15 years, published online today in The Journal of Pediatrics. "In recent years, lack of sleep has become a well-recognized risk for childhood obesity," said Karen Bonuck, Ph.D., professor of family and social medicine ...

WASHINGTON, DC (December 11, 2014)--A new study led by a researcher at Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University looks at the metal cadmium and finds that higher human exposure can lead to significantly shorter telomeres, bits of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that are associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other diseases of old age. The study, which was published online today in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the largest-ever to look at cadmium exposure and telomeres. "We looked at heavy ...

TORONTO, Dec. 11, 2014 -- Nearly seventeen per cent of adults surveyed in Ontario said they have suffered a traumatic brain injury that left them unconscious for five minutes or required them to be hospitalized overnight, according to new research. These same adults also reported more substance use, smoking and recent psychiatric distress. Researchers compared the prevalence of reported TBI with current substance use, cigarette smoking and psychological distress among 1,999 Ontario adults. "We found that one in six Ontario adults reported a history of TBI," said Dr. ...

Novel research reveals that the risk of acute gout attacks is more than two times higher during the night or early morning hours than it is in the daytime. The study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), confirms that nocturnal attacks persist even among those who did not consume alcohol and had a low amount of purine intake during the 24 hours prior to the gout attack. The body produces uric acid from the process of breaking down purines--natural substances in cells in the body and in most foods--with especially ...

New research suggests that toddlers who share a bed with their parents might have an increased risk of asthma in later childhood. The study, which is published online today (11 December, 2014) in the European Respiratory Journal, sheds light on the potential health effects of bed-sharing for infants and toddlers. The researchers investigated 6,160 mothers and their children in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. They collected information via a questionnaire on wheezing and asthma symptoms every year from the age of one to six years. They also assessed sleeping patterns at ...

A new study has revealed key steps for hospitals to improve care for pregnant mums and babies affected by a life-threatening condition. In the UK today, almost one in every 100 babies is stillborn or dies soon after birth. Up to 100 women die every year during or just after pregnancy. A team of academics, clinicians and charity representatives, called MBRRACE-UK*, has looked at how care for mothers and babies can be improved. The report, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership as part of the Clinical Outcome Review Programmes**, is led by a team ...

This approach may offer a new weight management option, suggest the researchers. Animal studies have shown that the natural fermentation of dietary fibre by gut bacteria produces short chain fatty acids, one of which is propionate. These fatty acids stimulate the release of the gut hormones PYY and GLP-1, which in turn suppress appetite. And propionate seems to be the most effective at stimulating PYY and GLP-1 release. To find out if increasing levels of propionate in the bowel could reduce food intake and stave off weight gain in people, the researchers developed ...

Dietary guidelines should emphasise the role played by added sugars, particularly fructose, in the fight to curb the prevalence of cardiovascular, they insist. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of premature death in the developed world. And high blood pressure is its most important risk factor,accounting for almost 350,000 deaths in the US in 2009 and costing more than $50 billion US dollars every year. Dietary approaches to lower high blood pressure have historically focused on cutting salt intake. But the potential benefits of this approach "are debatable," ...

Those with the largest waists and hips combined are twice as likely to be affected as those with measurements in the normal range, the findings indicate. Sudden cardiac death, or SCD for short, occurs without warning, and is caused by a sudden unexpected loss of heart function, which rapidly reduces blood flow around the body, including to the brain. It is distinct from a heart attack, and kills around 300,000 people in the USA every year. Obesity has long been associated with various unfavourable changes in cardiovascular health, including SCD. But the researchers ...

SAN ANTONIO, TX, USA and Neu-Isenburg/Frankfurt, Germany -- December 10, 2014 -- The German Breast Group (GBG) said nab-paclitaxel (ABRAXANE®) demonstrated significant benefit for patients with early high risk breast cancer when compared to conventional solvent-based paclitaxel. The findings are from the GeparSepto clinical trial sponsored by GBG and conducted together with the German AGO-B study group involving over 1200 patients, which is the largest randomized Phase III study ever completed with nab-paclitaxel and the first one completed in high risk early breast ...

Scientists have developed an ingredient that can be added to foods to make them more filling. In its first tests in humans, researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow found that the ingredient is effective at preventing weight gain in overweight volunteers. The ingredient contains propionate, which stimulates the gut to release hormones that act on the brain to reduce hunger. Propionate is produced naturally when dietary fibre is fermented by microbes in the gut, but the new ingredient, called inulin-propionate ester (IPE), provides much larger ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- A study of more than 12 million acute care hospitalizations over a five-year span found that as quality improved on each of 17 measures so did racial and ethnic equity. Nine major disparities evident in 2005 had mostly or totally disappeared by the end of 2010. The study, led by Dr. Amal Trivedi of Brown University and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that care for blacks and Hispanics became better and more equitable when comparing hospitals principally serving whites to hospitals principally serving minorities, ...

Despite recent significant gains in health care access throughout the nation, people of color continue to grapple with a disproportionate burden of chronic disease. Two studies in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) indicate that differences in how care is delivered to patients in various racial or ethnic groups have narrowed nationally, but health outcomes remain worse for blacks than for whites. In his editorial "How to Achieve Health Equity," also published in the just released NEJM, Marshall Chin, MD, MPH, the Richard Parrillo Family Professor ...

WASHINGTON -- A five-minute functional MRI (fMRI) test can pick up neuronal dysfunction in HIV-positive individuals who don't yet exhibit cognitive decline, say neuroscientists and clinicians at Georgetown University Medical Center. Their study in Neuroimaging: Clinical provides proof-of-concept that imaging can help track neural functioning in this population, known to be affected by the virus and potentially by the treatments meant to keep HIV at bay. The issue of neural dysfunction in the HIV-positive population is significant, says Georgetown neuroscientist Xiong ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Despite years of effort to help American seniors with high blood pressure, heart disease, or diabetes get their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar under control, new research shows wide gaps between older people of different ethnic backgrounds in all three of these key health measures. Black seniors in Medicare Advantage health plans are still much less likely than their white peers to have each of the three measures in check, according to a new study published in the December 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. If not well ...

Treatment of acute traumatic brain injury with the hormone progesterone provides no significant benefit to patients when compared with placebo, a NIH-funded phase III clinical trial has concluded. The results are scheduled for publication Dec. 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, named ProTECT III, involved 49 trauma centers across the United States between July 2009 and November 2013. The study was originally planned to include 1,140 patients, but was stopped after 882 patients because safety monitors determined that additional enrollment would be ...

A study concluded that after five days of treatment with a novel formulation of progesterone acutely administered to patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), showed no clinical benefits. The paper entitled, "A Clinical Trial of Progesterone for Severe Traumatic Brain Injury," will be published online in The New England Journal of Medicine, December 10, 2014. This trial, referred to as SyNAPSe, reports on a large prospective randomized clinical trial that investigated the effects of progesterone administered to severe TBI patients," said Raj K. Narayan, ...

A new study out today in the journal Neurology shows that pregabalin is not effective in controlling the pain associated with lumbar spinal stenosis, the most common type of chronic lower back pain in older adults. "Chronic low back pain is one of the most common reasons why older adults go to the doctor and lumbar stenosis is the leading indication for surgery in this age group," said John Markman, M.D., director of the Translational Pain Research Program in the University of Rochester Department of Neurosurgery and lead author of the study. "While physicians have ...

Eczema, an itchy chronic inflammatory disease of the skin, was not associated overall with short stature in an analysis of data from several studies, although a small group of children and adolescents with severe eczema who do not get enough sleep may have potentially reversible growth impairment, according to a study published online by JAMA Dermatology. Eczema (atopic dermatitis) affects about 10 percent of children and adults in the United States. The disease results in a number of conditions that could impact growth in children and adolescents, such as sleep impairment, ...

Surgery to remove all or part of the pancreas and then transplant a patient's own insulin-producing islet cells appears to be a safe and effective final measure to alleviate pain from severe chronic pancreatitis and to help prevent surgically induced diabetes, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery. Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is an inflammatory disease that over time leads to loss of function of the pancreas and manifests with intractable pain, malabsorption and diabetes. While medical management and pain control are the initial approaches to CP, some patients ...