If a strand of your DNA was stretched out completely, it would be more than six feet long. It's hard to imagine that it can fit inside the nucleus of one of your cells, but that's exactly how it works. For much of the last century, scientists have been busy figuring out how DNA is packaged in cells, and have found strong indications that the packaging is integral to how DNA works. The packaging – comprised mostly of an amino acid molecule called a histone – influences the on and off switches of different genes that regulate cellular function and play a role in human ...

New research led by economists at the University of Warwick reveals that medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today. In a paper entitled British Economic Growth 1270-1870 published by the University of Warwick's Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) the researchers find that living standards in medieval England were far above the "bare bones subsistence" experience ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Women with transient restless legs syndrome (RLS) during pregnancy appear to be at a higher risk of developing a chronic form of RLS later in life or have the same symptoms during future pregnancies, according to new research published in the December 7, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. RLS is a sleep-related motor disorder that causes an unpleasant feeling in the legs. The condition generally worsens during rest at night and improves with movement. Symptoms tend to progress with age. "This is ...

Exposure to death and dying does not negatively affect palliative and hospice care professionals and can actually have positive benefits, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj100511.pdf. A study of palliative and hospice care professionals in five centres across Canada over was conducted to explore how death affects their personal lives and practices. Since these professionals are constantly around death and dying, it was thought that their insight could benefit others. Participants reported ...

Patients who are starting dialysis too early are at an increased risk of death, found an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj100349.pdf. Glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is a test that describes the flow rate of fluid going through the kidneys and is associated with early dialysis initiation. Current guidelines in the United States place more emphasis on eGFR dialysis timing. Analysis of dialysis registries in the United States and Europe indicates that patients are starting dialysis earlier. This ...

DALLAS, Dec. 6, 2010 — High blood pressure may help to explain why deaths from heart disease and stroke vary according to geography, race and sex, researchers reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. "Where you live, your race, and your gender strongly influence your risk of developing high blood pressure as you move from young adulthood into middle age — and hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke," said Deborah A. Levine, M.D., M.P.H., lead study author and assistant professor of internal medicine in the Departments ...

Mary Zutter and colleagues, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, have generated data that lead them to suggest that decreased expression of the protein alpha-2 integrin is predictive of tumor dissemination to distant sites and decreased survival in individuals with either breast or prostate cancer. The researchers first studied the role of the protein alpha-2-beta-1 integrin (which is composed of the alpha-2 integrin protein and the beta-1 integrin protein) in cancer initiation and progression using a clinically relevant, spontaneous mouse model of breast ...

The mammalian embryo relies on physical connections to its mother to survive. After implantation into the wall of the uterus and before the placenta is established, a structure known as the decidua forms and is key to supporting embryonic development. Defective formation of an effective decidua is thought to be a cause of female infertility. A team of researchers, led by Toru Miyazaki, at the University of Tokyo, Japan, has now determined that the protein DEDD is required for the formation of a functional decidua in mice. The authors therefore suggest that it would be interesting ...

Patients in hospitals and healthcare facilities can develop infections as a result of contamination of indwelling medical devices such as catheters with bacteria that are normal inhabitants of the skin of the patient or health care personnel. The bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis is a major cause of such infections. This is in part because of its ability to form biofilms — surface-attached agglomerations of microorganisms that are extremely difficult to eradicate — on indwelling devices. Michael Otto and colleagues, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, have ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Alpha-2 integrin: a protein predictor of tumor spread? Mary Zutter and colleagues, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, have generated data that lead them to suggest that decreased expression of the protein alpha-2 integrin is predictive of tumor dissemination to distant sites and decreased survival in individuals with either breast or prostate cancer. The researchers first studied the role of the protein alpha-2-beta-1 integrin (which is composed of the alpha-2 integrin protein and the beta-1 integrin protein) in cancer initiation and ...

An expert panel sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has issued comprehensive U.S. guidelines to assist health care professionals in diagnosing food allergy and managing the care of people with the disease. The Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States: Report of the NIAID-sponsored Expert Panel, developed over two years, are intended for use by both family practice physicians and medical specialists. Published online by the Journal of Allergy ...

Children who attend large group child care facilities before age 2½ appear to develop more respiratory and ear infections at that age, but fewer such illnesses during elementary school years, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Preschool children in group child care experience more frequent infections than do children cared for primarily at home, and the risk seems greater when children attend larger group child care [facilities]," the authors write as background information in ...

Only about one-fourth of children participating in organized sports—such as baseball, softball or soccer—receive the government-recommended amount of physical activity during team practices, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the April 2011 print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. National guidelines recommend that children and teens perform 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day, but fewer than half of children and 10 percent of teens meet these guidelines, according ...

Dating violence among adolescents is common and those who physically assault dating partners are also likely to have perpetrated violence involving siblings and peers, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "As many as one in ten U.S. high school students reports having been 'hit, slapped or physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend or girlfriend' in the past year," the authors write as background information in the article. "Research on victims of dating violence has demonstrated ...

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy appears to be similar to maintenance antidepressant medication for preventing relapse or recurrence among patients successfully treated for depression, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Relapse and recurrence after recovery from major depressive disorder are common and debilitating outcomes that carry enormous personal, familial and societal costs," the authors write as background information in the article. The current standard for preventing relapse is ...

The rate of depression treatment increased between 1998 and 2007 but at a slower rate than during the previous decade, and the percentage of patients treated with psychotherapy continued to decline, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Depression is a leading cause of disability, lost productivity and health care expenditure," the authors write as background information in the article. During the 1990s, the rate of depression treatment increased substantially, from 0.73 percent in 1987 to 2.33 ...

Among patients with depression, the presence of many aspects of illness which may be associated with bipolar disorder does not appear to be associated with treatment resistance—evidence against the common hypothesis that some cases of difficult-to-treat depression are actually unrecognized bipolar disorder, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the April 2011 print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, many patients with depression also report psychotic-like symptoms, such as hearing voices or believing ...

When people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were asked to relate their mood to a color, those choosing a positive color were nine times more likely to respond to hypnotherapy than those who chose a negative color or no color at all. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine suggest that these findings could be used to predict responders to treatment. Peter Whorwell worked with a team of researchers from the University of Manchester, UK, to carry out the study using a color chart called the 'Manchester Color Wheel' which ...

Hanging out with healthy friends could be the best way to keep fit. A study of 3610 Australian women, published in BioMed Central's open access International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that physical activity and healthy eating behavior were both strongly affected by social norms. Kylie Ball, from Deakin University, Australia, worked with a team of researchers to survey the 18-46 year old women. She said, "The importance of social environmental influences on health-promoting behaviors such as physical activity and healthy eating has been ...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Two janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors are substantially improving treatment of myelofibrosis (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/myelofibrosis/DS00886) in patients, say Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org/) researchers who are presenting results of several clinical trials at the 52nd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (http://www.hematology.org/ ) (ASH) Dec. 4𔃅 in Orlando. VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Drs. Animesh Pardanani and Ayalew Tefferi describing the research, ...

ORLANDO ––– In research to be presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston offer a new explanation of why chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) tends to recur in the lymph nodes and bone marrow after being cleared from the bloodstream by chemotherapy. Their findings will be reported during in an oral session on Monday, Dec. 6, at 4:45 p.m. in room 315 of the Orange County Convention Center. To uncover the reasons for CLL's resilience in the marrow and lymph nodes, the researchers employed a ...

Foreign pests are eating their way through our national forests, destroying majestic scenery and costing taxpayers millions of dollars. If enforcement efforts to prevent their importation aren't stepped up, irreplaceable resources will be lost forever and taxpayers can expect to fork over billions of dollars by 2019, according to a comprehensive study published today in BioScience. Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Michigan State University, the University of Central Florida and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service analyzed ...

San Diego, CA, December 7, 2010 – Obesity in youngsters has risen dramatically in recent decades. Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption and increased water intake can lower the risk of obesity, as can increased physical activity, but it is not always easy to convince children to eat better and exercise more. In a new study published in the January 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers found that video games designed to encourage these behaviors were effective. "Escape from Diab" (Diab) and "Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space" (Nanoswarm) ...

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has contributed to a study showing that a low dose of aspirin reduces the occurrence of several common cancers. The study is published in today's Lancet. The work was started and carried out by Professor Peter Rothwell in Oxford, and is based on an overview of several randomised trials of aspirin. These have been primarily concerned with reducing heart attacks, but have also gathered information on deaths from cancer. The trial contributing most information to the overview has been the Thrombosis Prevention Trial ...

Scientists have created the highest resolution map of the Sumatran tiger distribution ever produced, revealing that the island now hosts the second largest tiger population on earth. The research, carried out with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia Program and Forum HarimauKita, will be published in a special issue of Integrative Zoology, on tiger conservation and research methodologies. Hariyo T. Wibisono and Wulan Pusparini conducted a questionnaire-based survey across the island to identify the status of Sumatran tiger distribution. They found that tigers ...