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Resveratrol does not appear to offer metabolic benefits in healthy women

Resveratrol, an ingredient in red wine thought to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce risk of heart disease and increase longevity, does not appear to offer these benefits in healthy women, new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates.

26 Oct 2012

Behavioral counseling can impact risky drinking habits

Counseling about alcohol misuse can reduce the number of drinks consumed weekly among adults with risky drinking habits, according to a review of the evidence.

25 Oct 2012

Social or daily drinking may be more harmful to brain health

Drinking a couple of glasses of wine each day has generally been considered a good way to promote cardiovascular and brain health. But a new Rutgers University study indicates that there is a fine line between moderate and binge drinking - a risky behavior that can decrease the making of adult brain cells by as much as 40 percent.

25 Oct 2012

Feedback intervention improves hand hygiene compliance in modern hospitals

A major three-year trial led by researchers at UCL, in partnership with the Health Protection Agency, has shown that giving one-to-one feedback to healthcare workers makes them twice as likely to clean their hands or use soap.

25 Oct 2012

Evidence for clinical heterogeneity in mixed bipolar states

Research suggests that there are significant clinical differences between bipolar disorder patients who experience mixed mood states with predominant depressive or manic symptoms.

24 Oct 2012

Review describes link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer

An excellent review article from two scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the USA to be published in Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2012, describes the epidemiologic and basic scientific evidence linking alcohol consumption to the risk of breast cancer.

24 Oct 2012

Patients with Type 2 Diabetes may face increased risk of Barrett's Esophagus

Patients with Type 2 Diabetes may face an increased risk for Barrett's Esophagus (BE), regardless of other risk factors including smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), according to research unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 77th Annual Scientific meeting in Las Vegas.

23 Oct 2012

C. diff infections on the rise among children, elderly

Clostridium difficile infections are becoming more common and more severe in hospitalized children and the elderly, in large part due to greater use of antibiotics, Mayo Clinic researchers report in studies being presented at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting.

23 Oct 2012

Halloween safety tips from UC San Diego

The Regional Burn Center and Emergency Departments at UC San Diego Health System - along with the California Poison Control System - San Diego Division located at UC San Diego Medical Center - offer the following safety precautions to help parents and guardians make Halloween safe this year.

23 Oct 2012

Alcohol consumption, college education may increase risk of COPD

College education and alcohol consumption may be linked to risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Oakland, California, followed 126,019 people who supplied baseline data from 1978 - 1985 through 2008 with analyses of hospitalizations attributed to COPD (emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or chronic airway obstruction).

22 Oct 2012

Exercise is the first step to protect against negative impacts of stress

Any time life hands us a stressful situation, we have a decision to make: will we handle it with grace, or let it pile up on everything else? For women, stress sometimes feels like a never-ending occurrence, and University of Alabama at Birmingham experts say that, left unmanaged, stress can lead to health problems. But it can easily be curtailed.

20 Oct 2012

Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai receives fund to research on TBI

The Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai has received two prestigious grants totaling $6.65 million to fund research on traumatic brain injury over the next five years.

20 Oct 2012

Common misconceptions about breast cancer risks

From the food we eat to the products we use, there are a lot of misconceptions about what may increase the risk of developing breast cancer. There are known factors, like genetics, that are well documented. But what about lifestyle issues like having a nightly cocktail or using deodorant? So, what is fact and what is fiction? Wendy Chen, MD, MPH, a breast cancer expert at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston says an overabundance of information can be confusing, and it often is incorrect to some degree.

20 Oct 2012

Research roundup: Financial impact of reducing surgical complications; Pay for performance to doctors, hospitals yields mixed results

The authors write: "We found that if a hospital's surgical inpatient volume is not growing, such a program results in negative cash flow. We also found that if a hospital's surgical volume is growing, and if the hospital can sufficiently reduce the average length-of-stay for surgical patients without complications, the cash flow could be positive. We recommend that hospitals with limited growth prospects that are nonetheless contemplating a surgical complication reduction program establish agreements with payers to share in any savings generated by the program."

20 Oct 2012

Two Chicago students develop novel treatment method for fetal alcohol syndrome

Two Chicago high school students have developed a novel treatment method to reduce the negative effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and a new understanding of genetics behind the disease.

19 Oct 2012

Gender gap for alcohol abuse reduced

The predominance of men among patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals because of alcohol abuse has declined compared with 25 years ago in Iceland, while the gender gap for other substance use disorders has not changed, say researchers.

19 Oct 2012

Antidepressant use may increase risk of strokes caused by bleeding in the brain

Research shows that use of popular antidepressants is linked to an increased risk of some strokes caused by bleeding in the brain, but that the risk is low, according to a multi-study analysis published in the October 17, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Oct 2012