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Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery

With the unusual opportunity that human leprosy infections provide for study of human immune responses, scientists have discovered how the body's early warning system prompts a rapid immune response by two separate armies of defensive cells.

29 May 2005

Doubts cast over India's AIDS figures

A controversy has erupted after Indian health workers have, expressed doubts over the new HIV/AIDS figures released by the government, they says the figures are too good to be true.

29 May 2005

Why good medications are sometimes bad for the liver

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of five clinical centers nationwide to receive funds from the National Institutes of Health to study why good medications are sometimes bad for the liver.

29 May 2005

Adolescent depression can be as high as 20 percent

Teenage depression is widespread and can become a life-long illness, but is more often transitory, said UCLA Psychology Professor Constance Hammen, who discussed her research at the American Psychological Society's annual convention in Los Angeles.

29 May 2005

Fluorescence device to diagnose atherosclerosis and tumors

In a presentation at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Biophotonics Research and Technology Development Laboratory described recent progress on a device that stimulates, collects and measures light emissions from body tissues to diagnose critical atherosclerotic plaques (vulnerable plaques) and aggressive brain tumors.

29 May 2005

New evidence for cause of dyslexia

Addressing a persistent debate in the field of dyslexia research, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Southern California (USC) have disproved the popular theory that deficits in certain visual processes cause the spelling and reading woes commonly suffered by dyslexics.

29 May 2005

A new technique might allow women diagnosed with cancer the opportunity to have children when chemotherapy and radiation treatments rob them of their fertility

Freezing eggs is one thing; thawing them safely so they can lead to pregnancy is the challenge. In the past, efforts to freeze a woman's eggs, or oocytes, have not worked well because the cells are large. When the egg is thawed, ice crystals cause damage that prevents the egg from being fertilized.

29 May 2005

Allergies may be linked to irregular periods

New research is suggesting a there is possibly a link between allergic conditions such as asthma and hay fever and irregular periods.

29 May 2005

Exposure to violence makes teens more violent

Scientific proof has now been found for what many might consider pretty obvious, that teens exposed to violence are more likely than their peers to become involved in violence in the future.

29 May 2005

Taking the contraceptive pill may permanently supress womens libido

According to their research, a team at Boston University Medical College found that women who take the pill regularly have much lower levels of the hormone that drives sexual desire, and even more worrying, that hormone remains suppressed even when they come off the pill.

29 May 2005

Call for better monitoring of new devices after sudden death of college student

Thousands of people with diseased hearts who have undergone surgical implantation of a cardiac defibrillator, a mechanical device inserted under the skin that shocks a heart when it beats improperly, will be concerned after the death recently of a 21-year-old college student with a genetic heart abnormality who died of cardiac arrest while on a bicycle trip.

29 May 2005

An increase in a woman's body mass results in a decrease in her family income

... and a decline in her occupational prestige, according to research conducted by New York University sociologist Dalton Conley and Rebecca Glauber, an NYU graduate student. The study was sponsored by the Cambridge, MA-based National Bureau of Economic Research.

26 May 2005

Long-term perspective on the detection and identification of infectious diseases

A review of the history of infectious diseases commissioned by the Government is to be carried out by The University of Manchester.

From The University of Manchester 26 May 2005

How the human brain can learn without thinking

Watch out -- you may learn something and not even know it, says Takeo Watanabe, an associate professor of psychology at Boston University's Center for Brain and Memory. Watanabe and his team recently pinpointed the mechanism that makes subliminal learning work. Watanabe will present the team's findings at the American Psychological Society meeting in Los Angeles, May 27 and 28.

26 May 2005

Significant association between depression severity and poor glycemic control (PGC) among Hispanics

In a study of more than 200 Hispanics with diabetes, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons found a significant association between depression severity and poor glycemic control (PGC).

26 May 2005

Much more needs to be done to tackle heart disease in South Asians in the United Kingdom

Health inequality between ethnic groups in the United Kingdom is widening. Death rates from coronary heart disease in South Asians (immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) have declined at a slower rate than in the indigenous population, while evidence shows that second and third generation South Asians seem to be displaying many of the same risk characteristics that make them prone to coronary heart disease as their parents and grandparents.

26 May 2005