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Viewpoints: Fixes to Medicare should improve seniors' access to care; Lifestyle changes could help fix budget

Medicare, which according to a new assessment will go bankrupt by 2024, is in dire need of reform. But there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it. The right reform would save money while giving seniors better access to care. ... The hard truth is that that's impossible. Both Republicans and Democrats recognize the need for change. Unfortunately, their proposals have come up short.

26 Apr 2012

Scientists identify linchpin of fat metabolism

Humans are built to hunger for fat, packing it on during times of feast and burning it during periods of famine. But when deluged by foods rich in fat and sugar, the modern waistline often far exceeds the need to store energy for lean times, and the result has been an epidemic of diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related problems.

26 Apr 2012

Custom-made mouthpieces can decrease levels of serum cortisol following exercise

Mouthguards are used by almost everyone participating in sports. These devices, typically purchased over-the-counter and used on the upper teeth, are designed to protect against broken teeth and an injured tongue. Recently, researchers in South Carolina found that a customized device which rests on the lower jaw can decrease levels of serum cortisol following exercise.

26 Apr 2012

UNC announces recipients of 12th Perl-UNC Neuroscience prize

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has awarded the 12th Perl-UNC Neuroscience prize to Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD of Stanford University and Edward Boyden, PhD and Feng Zhang, PhD of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

26 Apr 2012

Chemists develop custom-designed protein crystal

Protein design is technique that is increasingly valuable to a variety of fields, from biochemistry to therapeutics to materials engineering. University of Pennsylvania chemists have taken this kind of design a step further; using computational methods, they have created the first custom-designed protein crystal.

26 Apr 2012

Daily ART safe and effective in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission

In early results of a large-scale randomized study published in 2010 and led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, giving daily antiretroviral drugs (ART) to HIV-infected moms or their breastfeeding babies for 28 weeks proved safe and effective for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission through breast milk.

26 Apr 2012

Latest AAN/AHS guidelines can help prevent migraine attacks

The latest American Academy of Neurology/American Headache Society Guidelines released this week outline evidence-based and effective treatments that can prevent migraine attacks and lessen their severity.

26 Apr 2012

World Malaria Day observed

The 25th of April was observed as World Malaria Day. According to Ray Chambers, the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, there has been a marked progress in reducing malaria deaths using bed nets, insecticide spray and drugs. He cited a World Health Organization report in December which used figures from 2010, saying malaria deaths had decreased by over one-third. Since then, he said at a news conference Monday, the world has delivered 160 million additional bed nets “so we expect the number of deaths to be much less now.”

25 Apr 2012

Botox effect modest in migraine prevention: Study

Botox injections have been used in prevention of migraines but new research shows that its effect is only modest. Among chronic sufferers who had at least 15 migraines a month, the treatment prevented, on average, about two headaches a month. Botox was no more effective than some of the most widely prescribed drugs used for migraines when the treatments were compared.

25 Apr 2012

Self-degradation response to antidepressant Zoloft observed in yeast cells

Princeton University researchers have observed a self-degradation response to the antidepressant Zoloft in yeast cells that could help provide new answers to lingering questions among scientists about how antidepressants work, as well as support the idea that depression is not solely linked to the neurotransmitter serotonin.

25 Apr 2012

First Edition: April 25, 2012

Today's headlines include reports that Medicare is proposing a change in how it decides hospital reimbursements and the latest on the GOP Capitol Hill budget strategy.

25 Apr 2012

Bile plays a critical role in development of Barrett's esophagus

For many people with gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD, acid reflux drugs are the answer to their woes, curbing the chronic heartburn and regurgitation of food or sour liquid characteristic of the disorder. But when it comes to Barrett's esophagus, a condition commonly found in people with GERD, acid control may be less important than beating back another bodily fluid - bile.

25 Apr 2012

New microfluidic device can harvest rare circulating tumor cells from blood

A research collaboration between the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston has created a microfluidic device that can harvest rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood to enable their expansion in culture for analysis.

25 Apr 2012

Costs, quality pose challenges in caring for aging patients

NPR reports on on the difficulties involved in planning for the costs associated with caring for aging parents. Meanwhile, Kaiser Health News reports on a new poll that finds doctors fall short in caring for seniors.

25 Apr 2012

Providers can and should work toward 'sustainable anesthesia'

Anesthesia providers can and should begin taking steps toward practicing "sustainable anesthesia," according to the May special issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

25 Apr 2012

Medicare's trust fund to remain solvent until 2024, report calls for fixes

News outlets report on the predictions offered by the Medicare trustees, and examine the assumptions behind them as well as the political landscape.

25 Apr 2012

Non-coding RNA gives off biological signals during viral infection

Once considered unimportant "junk DNA," scientists have learned that non-coding RNA (ncRNA) - RNA molecules that do not translate into proteins - play a crucial role in cellular function. Mutations in ncRNA are associated with a number of conditions, such as cancer, autism, and Alzheimer's disease.

25 Apr 2012

Scientists discover new mechanism for regulation of AQP function

Scientists at Aston University (UK) have identified a new mechanism responsible for regulating the flow of water into and out of cells. This discovery will improve understanding of how the body maintains its water balance in health and disease.

25 Apr 2012

State roundup: GOP Attorneys General wield health care clout; N.Y. insurance settlement costing patients?

Like the Supreme Court challenge to the Obama-sponsored healthcare law heard last month, the Arizona case is part of a larger story about an escalating battle between Republican-led states and the federal government. All but one of the 16 states that have filed "friend of the court" briefs on the Arizona side have Republican governors. Meanwhile, all of the 11 states lining up with the Obama administration are led by Democrats.

25 Apr 2012

CML and B-ALL arise from the long-term haematopoietic stem cells

Although people generally talk about "cancer", it is clear that the disease occurs in a bewildering variety of forms. Even single groups of cancers, such as those of the white blood cells, may show widely differing properties. How do the various cancers arise and what factors determine their progression? Clues to these two issues, at least for leukaemias, have now been provided by Boris Kovacic and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

25 Apr 2012