Dietary factors influence ovarian cancer survival rates

Dietary factors influence ovarian cancer survival rates March 1, 2010 2009 estimates projected that in the United States alone 21,550 new cases of ovarian cancer would be diagnosed and 14,600 women would die of the disease. Often diagnosed in late stages, ovarian cancer has an asymptomatic onset and a relatively low 5-year survival rate of about 45%. Consequently investigation linked to survivorship is critical. A study published in the March 2010 issue of the Journal of the American...

New study shows effectiveness of MEND program in prevention and treatment of pediatric obesity

Ground-breaking results from a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the MEND Program (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition, Do it!), a multi-component community-based childhood obesity intervention, are published today in the US journal Obesity. The results coincide with the launch of Michelle Obama's initiative to reduce childhood obesity announced in the State of the Union speech. The independent study conducted by a team at University College London Institute of Child Health (ICH) demonstrates the...

For Dekker, It’s Always Flu Season

When Cornelia Dekker, MD, was an intern in 1976, a surprise outbreak of swine flu at Fort Dix, N.J, set health care providers scrambling to immunize Americans against a possible epidemic. Instead of causing widespread disease, the virus disappeared as unexpectedly as it had come, piquing Dekker’s interest in the mysteries of influenza. After three decades of studying viral infections, Dekker, now professor of pediatrics in infectious disease at Stanford, again finds herself trying to...

Simple, five minute saliva test to determine baby’s risk for more than 100 life-threatening genetic diseases

Genetic diseases like those seen in the new Harrison Ford movie "Extraordinary Measures" can now be prevented with a simple saliva test which is free with insurance for more than 100 million Americans. “Parents who know their carrier status before pregnancy can take preventive measures to have a healthy child. Because new techniques like PGD are used before pregnancy, they avoid the ethical dilemma of termination that was previously a roadblock to wider adoption of carrier testing.” The...

Obesity ups cancer risk, and here’s how

Obesity comes with plenty of health risks, but there's one that's perhaps not so well known: an increased risk of developing cancer, and especially certain types of cancer like liver cancer. Now, a group of researchers reporting in the January 22nd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, have confirmed in mice that obesity does indeed act as a "bona fide tumor promoter." They also have good evidence to explain how that...

The human brain uses a grid to represent space

'Grid cells' that act like a spatial map in the brain have been identified for the first time in humans, according to new research by UCL scientists which may help to explain how we create internal maps of new...

Organization of the brain’s dictionary

Two hundred years ago, archaeologists used the Rosetta Stone to understand the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Now, a team of Carnegie Mellon University scientists has discovered the beginnings of a neural Rosetta Stone. By combining brain imaging and machine learning techniques, neuroscientists Marcel Just and Vladimir Cherkassky and computer scientists Tom Mitchell and Sandesh Aryal determined how the brain arranges noun representations. Understanding how the brain codes nouns is important...

People of low social status more likely to be smokers, physically inactive and to be obese

Social status is intimately linked with health-related risk factors. In the current issue of Deutsches -rzteblatt International, Thomas Lampert, of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, inquires to what extent smoking, physical inactivity, and obesity are associated with social status (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107(1-2): 1-7). The data for his investigation of social status-specific differences stemmed from the RKI's Telephone Health Survey. In interviews conducted with a total of 8318...

For low-income families with special needs kids, where you live matters

Caring for a child with special health care needs usually means higher medical expenses for a family, particularly for low-income families, who spend a large share of their income on their child's care. Yet, for individual families, the impact of out-of-pocket expenses is often a function of their state of...

Most Americans are Wellness “Wannabes”

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Americans make New Years' resolutions focused on wellness, and rightfully so - new research shows Americans have a long way to go toward achieving wellness based on the three pillars of health: healthy diet, responsible supplement use and regular exercise. The "Life...supplemented" My Wellness Scorecard National Study evaluated Americans' wellness regimens on a scale from "AlphaWELL" (those who are proactive about their health) to "OhWELL" (those who do...