Herbal and complementary medicines could be recommended as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for treating postmenopausal symptoms says a new review published today in The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist (TOG). The review outlines the advantages and limitations of both pharmacological and herbal and complementary treatments for women with postmenopausal symptoms. The menopause is defined as the time after a woman's menstrual periods have ceased (12 months after a woman's final menstrual period). It is associated with an estrogen deficiency and can cause ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., – Jan. 10, 2013 – This year's flu season is in full swing with 41 states now reporting widespread illness. Unfortunately, not enough children are getting the flu shot even though health officials recommend that all children 6 months and older get the vaccine. According to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, less than 45 percent of children were vaccinated against the flu during a five-year study period. "Our research showed that one in six children under age 5 who went to an emergency department or clinic with fever ...

We would all like to believe that there is a kind of karma in life that guarantees those who cheat eventually pay for their bad behavior, if not immediately, then somewhere down the line. But a study of a new gene in the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum suggests that, at least for amoebae, it is possible to cheat and get away with it. The experimental work was conducted by then graduate student Lorenzo Santorelli as part of a collaboration between evolutionary biologists David C. Queller and Joan E. Strassmann of Rice University and Gadi Shaulsky and Adam Kuspa of Baylor ...

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 10, 2013 — A study led by UC Irvine researchers has revealed some of the underlying neural factors that explain why people with Down syndrome are more susceptible to Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and autistic spectrum disorders. Jorge Busciglio, associate professor of neurobiology & behavior, and colleagues analyzed the cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in Down syndrome individuals. They found that this breakdown in energy metabolism within brain cells contributes to the higher probability ...

Washington, DC (January 8, 2013) – The CDC reports that 77% of males wash their hands when leaving the restroom. Recent research, published in the journal Human Communication Research, found that this figure increased to 86% among men who were primed with messages in bathrooms. Maria Lapinski, Michigan State University; Erin Maloney, University of Pennsylvania; Mary Braz, Westchester University; and Hillary Shulman, North Central College published in Human Communication Research their findings from a field study of college-aged men. Conducted at Michigan State University, ...

ATLANTA –January 11, 2013—New guidelines from the American Cancer Society say evidence is sufficient to recommend screening high risk patients for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (CT) provided that certain conditions exist: The patient is aged 55 to 74 years, has at least a 30–pack-year smoking history*, and currently smokes or has quit within the past 15 years. The patient has undergone a thorough discussion of the benefits, limitations, and risks of screening. The patient can be screened in a setting with experience in lung cancer screening. Following ...

ORLANDO, Fla., January 11, 2013 – Men tend to store fat in the abdominal area, but don't usually have much in the way of hips or thighs. Women, on the other hand, are more often pear-shaped—storing more fat on their hips and thighs than in the belly. Why are women and men shaped differently? The answer still isn't clear, but it's an issue worth investigating, says Steven R. Smith, M.D., director of the Florida Hospital – Sanford-Burnham Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes. That's because belly fat is associated with higher risks of heart disease ...

The scientific community have long debated the causal relationship between cannabis use and the risk factor for psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. Both sides of this controversial subject are put forward in two articles published today in F1000 Medicine Reports. To give rise to the debate, the authors of each article were given the opportunity to read the opposing side's article drafts and consider their arguments when structuring their own article. In his article "Cannabis and psychosis: what causes what?" David Castle of the University of Melbourne argues for ...

Misguided killer T cells may be the missing link in sustained tissue damage in the brains and spines of people with multiple sclerosis, findings from the University of Washington reveal. Cytoxic T cells, also known as CD8+ T cells, are white blood cells that normally are in the body's arsenal to fight disease. Multiple sclerosis is characterized by inflamed lesions that damage the insulation surrounding nerve fibers and destroy the axons, electrical impulse conductors that look like long, branching projections. Affected nerves fail to transmit signals effectively. Intriguingly, ...

An international team of physicists has calculated the efficiency of a reaction involving an incoming electron kicking out an electron from the metal beryllium (Be) or its hydrogen compound molecules, in an article about to be published in EPJ D. The efficiency, which partly depends on the electron's incoming speed, is encapsulated in a quantity referred to as electron-impact ionisation cross sections (EICS). Electron-molecule interactions matter because they occur in a broad range of applications from the simplest like fluorescent lamps to the most complex, for example, ...

The extent to which three-dimensional structure is required for protein recognition and function is an area of vigorous debate with clear implications for protein engineering. Two differing viewpoints have been put forward in two articles published in F1000 Biology Reports today. In structuring their arguments, the authors were encouraged to consider the opposing viewpoint, examine the points put forward and critique them in their own articles. This novel collaborative approach has given rise to a considered exchange of ideas and may consequently stimulate further research ...

Researchers at the Centre of Astrobiology have identified microorganisms that live inside salt deposits in the acidic and ferrous environment of the Tinto River in Huelva, Spain. The extreme conditions of these microniches appear to be similar to those of the salt deposits on Mars and Jupiter's moon, Europa. This possibility should be borne in mind on missions operating in these places, such as Curiosity. The high doses of radiation, lack of moisture and extreme temperature and pressure on the surface of Mars make the development of life difficult. Within this hostile ...

An enzyme treatment which could neutralise the effects of lethal chemicals responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people across the world has been developed by experts at the University of Sheffield. Organophosphorus agents (OP) are used as pesticides in developing countries and acute poisoning is common because of insufficient control, poor storage, ready availability, and inadequate education amongst farmers. It is estimated about 200,000 people die each year across the world from OP poisoning, through occupational exposure, unintentional use and misuse, ...

Athens, Ga. – Even when at rest, the human body is a flurry of activity. Like a microscopic metropolis locked in a state of perpetual rush hour traffic, the trillions of cells that make us who we are work feverishly policing the streets, making repairs, building new structures and delivering important cargo throughout the bustling organic society. For everything to work properly there must be something to organize and direct the various workers. Enter protein kinases. Like specialized traffic signals, this huge class of proteins is critical for many aspects of cell communication, ...

Researchers used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from a young patient with Long QT syndrome (LQTS), a congenital heart disorder, to determine a course of treatment that helped manage the patient's life-threatening arrhythmias. The results, which appear in The Journal of General Physiology, could lead to improved treatments for LQTS and other channelopathies, diseases caused by disturbed ion channel function. iPSCs—adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to function like embryonic stem cells—provide a valuable tool for studying diseases and ...

This press release is available in German. Animals have developed a variety of strategies for dealing with increasing noise pollution in their habitats. It is known, for example, that many urban birds sing at a high pitch to differentiate their song from the low-frequency sound of road traffic. However, as scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology discovered, this is just a useful side effect. The real reason for this behaviour is that songs at a higher pitch are also automatically louder. The birds can make themselves heard far better in city noise ...

This press release is available in Spanish. By examining what lady beetles eat, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are learning more about the movement of these beneficial insects in farm fields—and whether they'll actively feed on crop pests. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist Jonathan Lundgren at the North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, S.D., and former ARS entomologist Michael Seagraves were part of a team of ARS and university scientists that examined how a lady beetle's diet alters its feeding patterns and ...

Peering deep into the dim edges of a distorted pinwheel galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear), astronomers at Case Western Reserve University and their colleagues have discovered a faint dwarf galaxy and another possible young dwarf caught before it had a chance to form any stars. Within the faint trails of intergalactic traffic, the researchers also found more evidence pointing to two already known dwarf galaxies as probable forces that pulled the pinwheel-shaped disk galaxy known as M101 out of shape. M101 is the dominant member in a group of 15 ...

With 41 states having reported widespread and severe outbreaks of flu this season, timely new research sheds light on why less than half of the American population has gotten a flu shot. Despite widespread knowledge that a vaccine is the best way to reduce the chances of catching and spreading the flu, even three of the four main TODAY show anchors recently admitted they had not gotten a flu shot (until they did so live on the air). Using an online computer game that simulates the spread of an infectious disease among its players, researchers at Wake Forest University ...

In what they acknowledge as a seismic shift in the ethical foundation of medical research, practice and policy, a prominent group of interdisciplinary healthcare experts, led by bioethicists at Johns Hopkins, rejects an ethical paradigm that has guided the American system since the 1970s and calls for morally obligatory participation in a "learning healthcare system" more in step with the digital age. The group has authored a pair of articles outlining their arguments and proposal for a new ethical framework, which appear in a special report from The Hastings Center Report, ...

Think of the epigenome like a giant musical mixing board, turning up or down the expression of various genes. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal PLOS Genetics shows that in cancer, not only can genes themselves go bad, but abnormal changes in the epigenetic mixing board can unfortunately change the expression of these genes. Researchers hope to play the role of sound engineers, controlling these harmful epigenomic changes to turn down cancer itself or perhaps sensitize cancers to existing drugs. The epigenome's primary tool – ...

SAN DIEGO – New research suggests that testing a portion of a person's saliva gland may be a way to diagnose Parkinson's disease. The study was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. "There is currently no diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease," said study author Charles Adler, MD, PhD, with the Mayo Clinic Arizona and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. "We have previously shown in autopsies of Parkinson's patients that the abnormal proteins associated with Parkinson's ...

Highlight While safe and well-tolerated, angiotensin II blockade did not lessen tissue scarring or prevent kidney failure in kidney transplant recipients. Angiotensin II blockade is known to slow kidney disease progression in individuals without transplants. Washington, DC (January 10, 2013) — A drug that protects the kidneys of patients with chronic kidney disease does not seem to provide the same benefit to kidney transplant recipients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Immunosuppressants ...

Thousands of individuals have had kidneys removed unnecessarily because doctors misdiagnosed their disease. A new, international study published in The Lancet indicates that approximately one of every five individuals with kidney tumors common in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a genetic disorder, has had a kidney removed. Moreover, 40 percent had some kind of surgical procedure performed. Proper diagnosis could have led to treatment that would have made surgery or kidney removal unnecessary, according to John Bissler, MD, a nephrologist at Cincinnati ...

Chris Martin has bred more than 3,000 hybrid fish in his time as a graduate student in evolution and ecology at UC Davis, a pursuit that has helped him create one of the most comprehensive snapshots of natural selection in the wild and demonstrated a key prediction in evolutionary biology. "We can see a surprisingly complex snapshot of natural selection driving the evolution of new specialized species," said Martin, who with Professor Peter Wainwright published a paper on the topic in the Jan. 11, 2013, issue of the journal Science. The "adaptive landscape" is very ...