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Medicine23 Jun 2015

How can health professionals enhance cognitive health in older adults?

BOSTON -- An expert panel convened by the Institute of Medicine clarified the cognitive aging process by making a distinction from Alzheimer disease and related dementias, and provided recommendations to enhance cognitive health in older adults. Now a new article published in Annals of Internal Medicine highlights key points of that report and serves as a guide for health care professionals seeking to improve the quality of life of older adults by maintaining brain health. Practitioners define "cognition" as mental functions encompassing attention, thinking, understanding, ...

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Medicine23 Jun 2015

Study shows importance of cause of kidney failure when planning future treatment

As a new physician in Galway, Ireland, and then as a nephrology fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Michelle O'Shaughnessy, MD, began to wonder whether similar treatment plans for all patients whose kidneys had failed was necessarily the best practice. "I was struck by my patients, who were often young and on dialysis at the age of 23 or 24," O'Shaughnessy said, referring to patients whose kidneys had failed because of glomerulonephritis, a group of rare disorders that damage the kidney's ability to filter the blood. "I thought there should be other ...

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Medicine23 Jun 2015

Statins show promise to reduce major complications following lung surgery

The results of a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of patients undergoing elective pulmonary resection was designed to evaluate the effects of statin therapy. Unfortunately, because of difficulties in enrolling patients who had never taken statins, the study was terminated early, and the sample size was smaller than anticipate. Trends in the data suggesting differences between groups failed to reach statistical significance except in a post-hoc analysis. The accompanying Editorial Commentary by Dr. Betty Tong emphasizes the potential importance ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

A specially tailored gut microbiome alleviates hyperammonemia in mice

The microbiome of the human intestine consists of a variety of bacteria that assist in digestion, immune regulation, and other processes that are critical for human health. A subset of these bacteria produces urease, an enzyme that converts the waste product urea into ammonia. Ammonia supports a variety of physiological process. However, individuals with liver disease have excess ammonia in the blood, a condition referred to as hyperammonemia, that can cause neurotoxicity and hepatic encephalopathy. Current treatments for hyperammonemia-associated symptoms are limited and ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Rapid skin improvement seen after treating systemic sclerosis patients with fresolimumab

(Boston)-- A major treatment breakthrough for total body scarring of the skin that occurs in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, may soon be available for the estimated 300,000 Americans who suffer with this condition. Currently, no treatment is available. Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers worked with 15 SSc patients who were treated with either one or two doses of fresolimumab, a new, unapproved drug therapy that targets a chemical mediator in the body known as TGF-beta. After seven weeks of treatment, the researchers ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

Island rodents take on nightmarish proportions

DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers have analyzed size data for rodents worldwide to distinguish the truly massive mice and giant gerbils from the regular-sized rodents. They found that the furry animals with chisel-like teeth are 17 times more likely to evolve to nightmarish proportions on islands than elsewhere. The results are in keeping with an idea called the 'island rule,' which previous studies claimed didn't apply to rodents. The study appears online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Duke University biologists Paul Durst and Louise Roth analyzed data ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

Independence at home program national demonstration saves more than $25 million

PHILADELPHIA -- House calls, a long-running option dating back to the early days of medicine, can be used in a new way to improve geriatric care and lower costs, says a report issued last week from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Using first year results from Penn Medicine's Truman G. Schnabel In-Home Primary Care Program and its partners in the Mid Atlantic Consortium, Medstar Washington Hospital Center and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) along with the 16 other IAH practices nationwide, CMS announced last week more than $25 million was saved ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Weight-loss surgery may greatly improve incontinence

For severely obese people, bariatric surgery may have a benefit besides dramatic weight loss: it can also substantially reduce urinary incontinence. A new investigation led by UC San Francisco is the first to examine the longer-term effects of the surgical procedure on incontinence three years after bariatric surgery. The study appears online June 22 in JAMA Internal Medicine. 'Our findings showing another important long-term benefit to bariatric surgery might help to motivate people who are severely overweight,' said first author Leslee L. Subak, M.D., a UCSF professor ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

The parrot talks: complex pueblo society older than previously thought

Somehow, colorful tropical scarlet macaws from tropical Mesoamerica -- the term anthropologists use to refer to Mexico and parts of northern Central America -- ended up hundreds of miles north in the desert ruins of an ancient civilization in what is now New Mexico. Early scientists began excavating the large Pueblo settlements in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico and found the birds' remains in the late 1890s, but only recent radiocarbon dating of the physical evidence has pushed back the time period of sophisticated Pueblo culture by at least 150 years, according ...

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Social Science22 Jun 2015

In social networks, group boundaries promote the spread of ideas, Penn study finds

Social networks affect every aspect of our lives, from the jobs we get and the technologies we adopt to the partners we choose and the healthiness of our lifestyles. But where do they come from? In a new study, the University of Pennsylvania's Damon Centola shows how social networks form and what that means for the ideas that will spread across them. Counterintuitively, he finds that breaking down group boundaries to increase the spread of knowledge across populations may ultimately result in less-effective knowledge sharing. Instead, his research shows that best ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Fat, sugar cause bacterial changes that may relate to loss of cognitive function

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A study at Oregon State University indicates that both a high-fat and a high-sugar diet, compared to a normal diet, cause changes in gut bacteria that appear related to a significant loss of "cognitive flexibility," or the power to adapt and adjust to changing situations. This effect was most serious on the high-sugar diet, which also showed an impairment of early learning for both long-term and short-term memory. The findings are consistent with some other studies about the impact of fat and sugar on cognitive function and behavior, and suggest that ...

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Space22 Jun 2015

MAVEN results find Mars behaving like a rock star

If planets had personalities, Mars would be a rock star according to recent preliminary results from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft. Mars sports a "Mohawk" of escaping atmospheric particles at its poles, "wears" a layer of metal particles high in its atmosphere, and lights up with aurora after being smacked by solar storms. MAVEN is also mapping out the escaping atmospheric particles. The early results are being discussed at a MAVEN-sponsored "new media" workshop held in Berkeley, California, on June 19-21. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft was launched ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

Genetic study of 'co-evolution' could provide clues to better food production

COLUMBIA, Mo. - In 1964, renowned biologists Peter Raven and Paul Erhlich published a landmark study that introduced the concept of co-evolution. Using butterflies and plants as primary examples, the team determined that two species can reciprocally drive each other's evolution and development. Now, an international team of researchers led by the University of Missouri and Stockholm University has used cutting-edge genomics to analyze the co-evolution theory and identified the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon. Scientists believe that understanding how co-evolution ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

How understanding GPS can help you hit a curveball

Our brains track moving objects by applying one of the algorithms your phone's GPS uses, according to researchers at the University of Rochester. This same algorithm also explains why we are fooled by several motion-related optical illusions, including the sudden "break" of baseball's well known "curveball illusion." The new open-access study published in PNAS shows that our brains apply an algorithm, known as a Kalman filter, when tracking an object's position. This algorithm helps the brain process less than perfect visual signals, such as when objects move to the ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

Resiliency training program helps teens deal with today's stresses

Amid reports that rank today's teens as the most stressed generation in the country, a new study offers hope for helping them effectively manage stress and build long-term resiliency. A pilot study, published in the spring issue of the journal Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, describes how a stress-reduction/resiliency-building curriculum developed by the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) helped a group of Boston-area high school students significantly reduce their anxiety levels, increase productivity and effectively manage stress over ...

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Science22 Jun 2015

Bass use body's swimming muscles to suck in food

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Fish are power eaters. In many species, large muscles running along their backs and bellies provide bursts of speed for chasing down prey. Then, at the very instant they close in, they vacuum victims into their suddenly gaping mouths with overwhelming suction. It turns out that these power surges are no anatomical coincidence. A new study shows that largemouth bass get their slurping power from the very same muscles that provide their swimming power. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brown University researchers ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Scientists create synthetic membranes that grow like living cells

Chemists and biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in designing and synthesizing an artificial cell membrane capable of sustaining continual growth, just like a living cell. Their achievement, detailed in a paper published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will allow scientists to more accurately replicate the behavior of living cell membranes, which until now have been modeled only by synthetic cell membranes without the ability to add new phospholipids. 'The membranes we created, though completely synthetic, mimic several ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

PrEP data links anti-HIV immune response to reduce chance of infection

WASHINGTON (June 18, 2015) -- Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that some individuals exposed to HIV-1, but who remain uninfected, have a certain pattern of virus-specific immune responses that differentiated them from individuals who became infected. The findings build upon prior research by studying these responses in the context of a controlled clinical trial, examining a large number of subjects, and by having access to specimens saved before anyone was infected. In the future, this information could be used to assess HIV-1 ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Smart insulin patch could replace painful injections for diabetes

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Painful insulin injections could become a thing of the past for the millions of Americans who suffer from diabetes, thanks to a new invention from researchers at the University of North Carolina and NC State, who have created the first "smart insulin patch" that can detect increases in blood sugar levels and secrete doses of insulin into the bloodstream whenever needed. The patch - a thin square no bigger than a penny - is covered with more than one hundred tiny needles, each about the size of an eyelash. These "microneedles" are packed with microscopic ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Study looks at antibiotic choice for treating childhood pneumonia

New Vanderbilt-led research shows hospitals are doing a better job of using antibiotics less commonly associated with antibiotic resistance to treat children hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The report, 'Antibiotic choice for children hospitalized with pneumonia and adherence to national guidelines,' was released today in the journal Pediatrics. This study was nested within a larger study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC). The multi-center EPIC study was a prospective, population-based ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Dual internal clocks keep plant defenses on schedule

DURHAM, N.C. -- Time management isn't just important for busy people -- it's critical for plants, too. A Duke University study shows how two biological clocks work together to help plants deal with intermittent demands such as fungal infections, while maintaining an already-packed daily schedule of activities like growth. The researchers also identified a gene that senses disturbances in the 'tick-tock' of one clock, and causes the other clock to tighten its timetable. Their work appears in the June 22 issue of the journal Nature. From daily sleep/wake cycles and fluctuations ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Penn vet research confirms a more accurate method for blood glucose testing

For diabetics, a quick prick of the finger can give information about their blood glucose levels, guiding them in whether to have a snack or inject a dose of insulin. Point-of-care glucose meters, or glucometers, are also used in the veterinary world to monitor cats and dogs with diabetes or pets hospitalized for other reasons. In both cases, the device's readout can literally be a matter of life and death. While glucometers have the advantage of being fast and requiring only a small drop of blood, they are not as accurate as some other methods of measuring blood glucose. ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

'High-normal' blood pressure in young adults spells risk of heart failure in later life

Mild elevations in blood pressure considered to be in the upper range of normal during young adulthood can lead to subclinical heart damage by middle age -- a condition that sets the stage for full-blown heart failure, according to findings of a federally funded study led by scientists at Johns Hopkins. A report on the findings of the multicenter study that followed 2,500 men and women over a period of 25 years is published online June 22 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Persistently elevated blood pressure, or hypertension, is one that tops 140/90, ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

For black rhino, zoo diet might be too much of a good thing

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new study shows that captive black rhinos -- but not their wild counterparts -- are at high risk for two common health problems suffered by millions of humans: inflammation and insulin resistance. The finding suggests captive black rhinos have metabolic problems. In humans, these same conditions can both result from a rich diet and sedentary lifestyle and contribute to obesity and other diseases. To be clear, this study does not suggest that zoos cause health problems in black rhinos, said Pam Dennis, clinical assistant professor of veterinary preventive ...

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Medicine22 Jun 2015

Elevated blood pressure in young adults associated with middle-age heart issues

WASHINGTON (June 22, 2015) - Young adults who had blood pressure that was elevated but still within normal range for long periods of time were more likely to show signs of cardiac dysfunction in middle age, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researchers followed 2,479 men and women for 25 years, conducting health assessments -- including blood pressure readings -- seven times during the study period beginning as part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, or CARDIA study. Participants ranged in ...

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