Hypnotic relaxation therapy improves sexual health in postmenopausal women who have moderate to severe hot flashes, according to Baylor University researchers who presented their findings at the American Psychological Association's recent annual meeting. The study, which examined sexual comfort, sexual satisfaction and sexual pleasure, is a first step toward a safe and effective alternative toward hormone replacement therapy, which carries associated risks of cancer and heart disease, said Gary Elkins, Ph.D., director of Baylor's Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory ...

Analysis of an ice core taken by the National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide drilling project reveals that warming in Antarctica began about 22,000 years ago, a few thousand years earlier than suggested by previous records. This timing shows that West Antarctica did not "wait for a cue" from the Northern Hemisphere to start warming, as scientists had previously supposed. For more than a century scientists have known that Earth's ice ages are caused by the wobbling of the planet's orbit, which changes its orientation to the ...

CHICAGO --- If young people are drowning in debt, their blood pressure may be on the rise and their health could suffer. A new Northwestern Medicine® study has found that high financial debt is associated with higher diastolic blood pressure and poorer self-reported general and mental health in young adults. The study, published in the August issue of Social Science and Medicine, offers a glimpse into the impact debt may have on the health of young Americans. "We now live in a debt-fueled economy," said Elizabeth Sweet, lead author of the study. "Since the 1980s ...

WA, Seattle (August 15, 2013) – Primary results from a new clinical trial show that patients with type 1 diabetes treated with the monoclonal antibody teplizumab (MacroGenics, Inc.) exhibit greater preservation of C-peptide, a biomarker of islet cell function, compared to controls. Further analyses identified a discrete subset of the treatment group that demonstrated especially robust responses ("responders"), suggesting that these patients could be identified prior to treatment. The trial, entitled "Autoimmunity-Blocking Antibody for Tolerance in Recently Diagnosed Type ...

URBANA, Ill. – Celery, artichokes, and herbs, especially Mexican oregano, all contain apigenin and luteolin, flavonoids that kill human pancreatic cancer cells in the lab by inhibiting an important enzyme, according to two new University of Illinois studies. "Apigenin alone induced cell death in two aggressive human pancreatic cancer cell lines. But we received the best results when we pre-treated cancer cells with apigenin for 24 hours, then applied the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine for 36 hours," said Elvira de Mejia, a U of I professor of food chemistry and food ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — UC Davis scientists have uncovered a potential drug target for the development of an effective therapy against the debilitating, chronic form of the bacterial disease brucellosis, which primarily afflicts people in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries. Brucellosis, which affects about 500,000 people worldwide each year, typically is caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or close contact with body secretions from infected animals. Symptoms include intermittent or irregular fever of variable duration, headache, weakness, profuse sweating, ...

Americans buy more soft drinks per capita than people in any other country. These drinks are consumed by individuals of all ages, including very young children. Although soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, depression, and suicidal thoughts in adolescents, the relationship had not been evaluated in younger children. A new study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health in The Journal of Pediatrics finds that aggression, attention problems, and withdrawal behavior are ...

Cincinnati, OH, August 16, 2013 -- Americans buy more soft drinks per capita than people in any other country. These drinks are consumed by individuals of all ages, including very young children. Although soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, depression, and suicidal thoughts in adolescents, the relationship had not been evaluated in younger children. A new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics finds that aggression, attention problems, and withdrawal behavior are all associated with soft drink consumption in young children. Shakira ...

AMHERST, Mass. – Studying the evolution and anatomy of galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers led by doctoral candidate BoMee Lee and her advisor Mauro Giavalisco at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have established that mature-looking galaxies existed much earlier than previously known, when the universe was only about 2.5 billion years old, or 11.5 billion years ago. "Finding them this far back in time is a significant discovery," says lead author Lee. The team used two cameras, Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), and Advanced ...

When astronauts launch into space, a microbial entourage follows. And the sheer number of these followers would give celebrities on Twitter a run for their money. The estimate is that normal, healthy adults have ten times as many microbial cells as human cells within their bodies; countless more populate the environment around us. Although invisible to the naked eye, microorganisms – some friend, some foe – are found practically everywhere. Microorganisms like bacteria often are found attached to surfaces living in communities known as biofilms. Bacteria within biofilms ...

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have identified a rapid response which could help halt infectious diseases such as bird flu, swine flu and SARS before they take hold. Focusing on the avian flu virus strain H5N1, research published today in the journal PLOS ONE identifies key stages in the poultry trade chain which lead to its transmission to other birds, animals and humans. High risk times for the disease to spread include during transportation, slaughter, preparation and consumption. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations will help stop the ...

Chronic liver disease is a leading cause of death in the United States, in part because it often causes the formation of harmful scar tissue—a process known as fibrosis. A study published by Cell Press August 15 in the journal Immunity reveals the central role the immune molecule interleukin 33 (IL-33) plays in the formation of liver fibrosis. The findings suggest that drugs targeting this molecule could serve as a new treatment strategy to protect against liver fibrosis. "Currently, the therapeutic options for liver fibrosis are limited and not curative," says senior ...

Exposure to low oxygen levels, such as those present at high altitudes, can wreak havoc on the body. Now researchers reporting August 15 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, published by Cell Press, have uncovered genes that play a role in causing this damage, making them attractive targets for treatments against chronic mountain sickness and other conditions that involve oxygen deprivation. There are approximately140 million people living permanently at high altitudes, where oxygen levels are low. Many of them have adapted to their environment, but others have ...

When something gets in the way of our ability to see, we quickly pick up a new way to look, in much the same way that we would learn to ride a bike, according to a new study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on August 15. Our eyes are constantly on the move, darting this way and that four to five times per second. Now researchers have found that the precise manner of those eye movements can change within a matter of hours. This discovery by researchers from the University of Southern California might suggest a way to help those with macular degeneration ...

VIDEO: Part 1: Swarming by the ancestral (wild type) strain, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14, shows the typical branching pattern of swarming colonies. Part 2: Swarming by a hyperswarmer mutant, clone #10, shows... Click here for more information. The evolution of hyperswarming, pathogenic bacteria might sound like the plot of a horror film, but such bugs really have repeatedly evolved in a lab, and the good news is that they should be less of a problem to us than their less ...

Ovarian cancer often remains undetected until it is at an advanced stage. Despite positive responses to initial treatment, many patients are at risk of tumor recurrence. A multitude of genetic markers have been implicated in ovarian cancer prognosis. However, the genetic testing required is not practical or affordable in a clinical setting. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Roel Verchaak and colleagues at the MD Anderson Cancer Center identify protein biomarkers that are predictive for time of ovarian cancer recurrence and develop a PRotein-driven ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by poor airflow due to the breakdown of lung tissue, mucus accumulation and airway dysfunction. Development of COPD is most commonly associated with smoking tobacco, however, it also occurs after acute respiratory infections such as influenza. It is unclear how prior lung disease leads to COPD. In the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Michael Holtzman and colleagues at the Washington University School of Medicine report that expression of an inflammatory molecule, interleukin-33 (IL-33), ...

Biomarkers predict time to ovarian cancer recurrence Ovarian cancer often remains undetected until it is at an advanced stage. Despite positive responses to initial treatment, many patients are at risk of tumor recurrence. A multitude of genetic markers have been implicated in ovarian cancer prognosis. However, the genetic testing required is not practical or affordable in a clinical setting. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Roel Verchaak and colleagues at the MD Anderson Cancer Center identify protein biomarkers that are predictive for time of ...

LA JOLLA, CA – August 15, 2013 – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered the molecular mechanism by which the deadly Ebola virus assembles, providing potential new drug targets. Surprisingly, the study showed that the same molecule that assembles and releases new viruses also rearranges itself into different shapes, with each shape controlling a different step of the virus's life cycle. "Like a 'Transformer', this protein of the Ebola virus adopts different shapes for different functions," said Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., professor in the ...

Research led by scientists from the University of California, San Diego has decoded the genetic basis of chronic mountain sickness (CMS) or Monge's disease. Their study provides important information that validates the genetic basis of adaptation to high altitudes, and provides potential targets for CMS treatment. It will be published online August 15 in advance of print in the September 5 issue of American Journal of Human Genetics. More than 140 million people have permanently settled on high-altitude regions, on continents ranging from African and Asia to South America. ...

Researchers at King's College London have for the first time highlighted the natural regenerative capacity of a group of stem cells that reside in the heart. This new study shows that these cells are responsible for repairing and regenerating muscle tissue damaged by a heart attack which leads to heart failure. The study, published today in the journal Cell, shows that if the stem cells are eliminated, the heart is unable to repair after damage. If the cardiac stem cells are replaced the heart repairs itself, leading to complete cellular, anatomical and functional heart ...

Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world;there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years. A team of Smithsonian scientists, however, uncovered overlooked museum specimens of this remarkable animal, which took them on a journey from museum cabinets in Chicago to cloud forests in South America to genetics labs in Washington, D.C. The result: the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina);the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. The ...

Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world--there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years. A team of Smithsonian scientists, however, uncovered overlooked museum specimens of this remarkable animal, which took them on a journey from museum cabinets in Chicago to cloud forests in South America to genetics labs in Washington, D.C. The result: the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina)--the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (August 15, 2013) – By studying the planarian flatworm, a master of regenerating missing tissue and repairing wounds, Whitehead Institute Member Peter Reddien and his lab have identified an unexpected source of position instruction: the muscle cells in the planarian body wall. "I was completely surprised. We had no idea it would be muscle," says Reddien, who is also an associate professor of biology at MIT. "Finding such a cellular system for positional control in an adult regenerative animal was unanticipated and is very informative for understanding ...

Investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have described another link in the chain of events that connect acute viral infections to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Their discovery points to a new therapeutic target for COPD, an extremely common disease of the lower airways that is seen in chronic bronchitis and emphysema. COPD affects about 12 million people in the United States, where it is the third leading cause of death. Worldwide, it is the fifth leading cause of death. It is characterized by inflammation ...