Weight loss and control of blood sugar can reduce the risk of complications in patients with diabetes but this is difficult for many to achieve. A University of California, San Diego School of Medicine randomized controlled trial of obese adults with type 2 diabetes suggests that participants enrolled in a community-based structured weight loss program are able to shed more pounds, improve blood sugar control and reduce or eliminate insulin use and other medications compared to a control group. "Support and a tailored lifestyle intervention have been shown to reduce cardiovascular ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A study of older adults at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease shows that moderate physical activity may protect brain health and stave off shrinkage of the hippocampus– the brain region responsible for memory and spatial orientation that is attacked first in Alzheimer's disease. Dr. J. Carson Smith, a kinesiology researcher in the University of Maryland School of Public Health who conducted the study, says that while all of us will lose some brain volume as we age, those with an increased genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease typically show greater ...

As evidence mounts showing the potential health benefits of probiotics, antioxidants and other nutritional compounds, more and more people are taking supplements. And the chemical industry is getting in on the action. But legitimate skepticism about supplements' health effects could deter growth, so the industry is responding with clinical research to shore up health claims, according to the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. Melody M. Bomgardner, a senior editor at C&EN, writes that about half ...

URBANA, Ill. - In a country as wealthy as the United States, it may come as a surprise that one in 12 seniors do not have access to adequate food due to lack of money or other financial resources. They are food insecure. Recent research at the University of Illinois using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) revealed that the seniors who are dealing with hunger are also facing negative health and nutrition consequences. "In 2011, 8.35 percent of Americans over age 60 faced the threat of hunger—that translates to 4.8 million people," ...

The internal surface area of the gastro-intestinal tract has long been considered to be between 180 and 300 square meters. Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy have used refined microscopic techniques that indicate a much smaller area. "Actually, the inner surface of the gastro-intestinal tract is only as large as a normal studio apartment," says scientist Lars Fändriks. The digestive tract, which passes from the mouth through the esophagus and onwards through the intestines, has a length of about 5 meters in a normal adult, and is built up with many folds and protrusions. Previous ...

Premier League soccer stars are subjecting their club's junior players to regular insults and practical jokes in a humiliating rite of passage, the British Sociological Association's annual conference in Leeds heard today. [Wednesday 23 April 2014] This was part of an "authoritarian" treatment of youth team players which undermined attempts to change the culture of clubs and produce better footballers, Dr Chris Platts, of Sheffield Hallam University's Academy of Sport and Physical Activity, said. Dr Platts interviewed 303 junior players aged 16 to 18 and 13 coaches ...

New Rochelle, NY, April 23, 2014—Men whose testosterone falls below normal levels are more likely to have erectile dysfunction and to be overweight and have heart disease and type 2 diabetes. A new simple screening questionnaire designed to identify testosterone-deficient men for further testing and possible treatment is described in an article in Journal of Men's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Men's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jmh. The article "Male Androgen ...

In science, "simple and accessible detection methods that can rapidly screen a large cell population with the resolution of a single cell inside that population has been seriously lacking," said Virginia Tech chemical engineer Chang Lu. In the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Science, Lu has announced that he and his coworkers have developed a novel technique that detects the subcellular location of a protein (Chem. Sci., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4SC00578C, http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/sc/c4sc00578c#!divAbstract). The significance of this method ...

A new computer program could help doctors predict which patients might suffer potentially fatal side-effects from a key stroke treatment. The program, which assesses brain scans using pattern recognition software similar to that used in airport security and passport control, has been developed by researchers at Imperial College London. Results of a pilot study funded by the Wellcome Trust, which used the software are published in the journal Neuroimage Clinical. Stroke affects over 15 million people each year worldwide. Ischemic strokes are the most common and these ...

Visit a typical gym and you will encounter a highly standardised notion of what the human body should look like and how much it should weigh. This strictly controlled body ideal is spread across the world by large actors in the fitness industry. A new study explores how the fitness industry in many ways resembles that of fast food. One of the authors is from the University of Gothenburg. McDonaldisation of the gym culture is the theme of an article published in Sports, Education and Society, where Thomas Johansson, professor at the University of Gothenburg, together ...

Both acupuncture at Waiguan (SJ5) and sham acupuncture can activate/deactivate several brain regions in patients with ischemic stroke, but there are some difference in Brodmann areas 4, 6, 8, Brodmann areas 7, 39, 40, Brodmann areas 18, 19, 22 and Brodmann areas 13, 24, 32, 28. Most studies addressing the specificity of meridians and acupuncture points have focused mainly on the different neural effects of acupuncture at different points in healthy individuals. Dr. Ji Qi and co-workers from School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University in China examined ...

It is the defining moment that demonstrates a QUT physicist was correct in pointing out a 99-year-old mistake to one of the world's most authoritative dictionaries. QUT Senior Lecturer in Physics, Dr Stephen Hughes, sparked controversy over how a humble siphon worked when he noticed an incorrect definition in the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary. In 2010, eagle-eyed Dr Hughes spotted the mistake, which went unnoticed for 99 years, which incorrectly described atmospheric pressure, rather than gravity, as the operating force in a siphon. Dr Hughes demonstrated ...

In addition to its lipid-lowering effect, statins exert anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects as well. Statins also provide protection against renal, pulmonary and myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury. However, little evidence is available on similar changes in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. Therefore, Dr. Qiuyun Tu and colleagues from Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in China verified that atorvastatin, a commonly used lipid-lowering drug, protects against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury through anti-infammatory and antioxidant effects. ...

Los Angeles, London (April 23, 2014). "I think one can argue that if we were to follow a strong nuclear energy pathway—as well as doing everything else that we can—then we can solve the climate problem without doing geoengineering." So says Tom Wigley, one of the world's foremost climate researchers, in the current issue of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE. Refusing to take significant action on climate change now makes it more likely that geoengineering will eventually be needed to address the problem, Wigley explains in an exclusive Bulletin interview. ...

Inverse Effects of Midlife Occupational and Leisure Time Physical Activity on Mobility Limitation in Old Age Strenuous occupational physical activity in midlife increases the risk of mobility limitation in old age, whereas leisure-time physical activity decreases the risk. This is found in a study which followed up 5,200 public sector employees for 28 years. The study was conducted at the Gerontology Research Center in Finland and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Heavy physical labor is often repetitive, wears the body and lasts for several hours a day. ...

One of the most influential ecological disturbances is fire. Fire can spread so rapidly and for such far distances that its impact on land is for the most part far greater than any other factor. Less than optimal logging practices in the Primorksy region worsen the problems of human-caused fires in this area. Abandoned fields with dry grasses provide the detritus that can fuel an out of control blaze with a single spark. In southwest Primorsky Province dry grass has been burned for centuries. This uncontrolled method of managing agricultural areas each year turns the ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Floods of molten lava may sound like the stuff of apocalyptic theorists, but history is littered with evidence of such past events where vast lava outpourings originating deep in the Earth accompany the breakup of continents. New research at Michigan State University shows that the source of some of these epic outpourings, however, may not be as deep as once thought. The results, published in the Journal Geology, show that some of these lavas originated near the surface rather than deep within the mantle. When geoscientists want to learn more about ...

The research, published in the journal Oncotarget, explored tumour heterogeneity – where different cells have different appearances or their own DNA signatures within the same cancer. Such differences could make it difficult to design effective, targeted treatment strategies. Firstly they confirmed the mutual exclusivity between the EGFR mutation and either the KRAS or BRAF mutation. Secondly, they found that lung cancers driven by the EGFR gene mutation have that specific mutation present uniformly throughout the tumour, regardless of microscopic appearance. In stark ...

Methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin, may prevent the depletion of self-control, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Self-control can be difficult — sticking with a diet or trying to focus attention on a boring textbook are hard things to do. Considerable research suggests one potential explanation for this difficulty: Exerting self-control for a long period seems to "deplete" our ability to exert self-control effectively on subsequent tasks. "It is as if self-control is a limited resource ...

Previous studies have shown that proliferation of endogenous neural precursor cells cannot alone compensate for the damage to neurons and axons. From the perspective of neural plasticity, Dr. Yun Xiang and co-workers from Sun Yat-sen University in China observed the effects of functional electrical stimulation treatment on endogenous neural precursor cell proliferation and expression of basic fibroblast growth factor and epidermal growth factor in the rat brain on the infarct side. The researchers found that functional electrical stimulation can promote endogenous neural ...

Getting to the bottom of Alzheimer's disease has been a rapidly evolving pursuit with many twists, turns and controversies. In the latest crook in the research road, scientists have found a new insight into the interaction between proteins associated with the disease. The report, which appears in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, could have important implications for developing novel treatments. Witold K. Surewicz, Krzysztof Nieznanski and colleagues explain that for years, research has suggested a link between protein clumps, known as amyloid-beta plaques, in the ...

HUNTSVILLE, TX (4/23/14) -- Researchers have found evidence of an interaction between prenatal smoking and genetic risk factors that increase aggressive behavior in children, especially in girls. "The interesting issue is that not all children exposed to prenatal smoking will have behavioral problems. Some might, but others will not," said Brian Boutwell, Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University, College of Criminal Justice and senior author on the study. "One possible explanation for this is that the effect of prenatal smoke exposure depends on the presence ...

A team of scientists led by a researcher from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore has identified the cancer specific stem cell which causes gastric cancer. This discovery opens up the possibility of developing new drugs for the treatment of this disease and other types of cancers. The research group, led by Dr Chan Shing Leng, Research Assistant Professor at CSI Singapore, demonstrated for the first time that a cancer-specific variant of a cell surface protein, CD44v8-10, marks gastric cancer stem cells but ...

In a new study, women who were more inclined to have one-night stands had wider hips, reveals Colin A. Hendrie of the University of Leeds in the UK. He is the lead author of a study into how a woman's build influences her sexual behavior, published in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. The study into whether hip width or waist-to-hip ratio was a better predictor of a woman's sexual behavior was conducted among 148 women between 18 and 26 years old. The participants all had at least one sexual partner previously. Their hip width (defined as the distance between ...

This news release is available in Portuguese. Speed-reading is a technique used to read quickly. It involves visual searching for clues to meaning and skipping non-essential words and/ or sentences. Similarly to humans, biological systems are sometimes under selective pressure to quickly "read" genetic information. Genes that need to be read quickly are usually small, as the smaller the encoding message, the easier it will be to read them quickly. Now, researchers from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC, Portugal) and Centre for Molecular and Structural Biomedicine ...