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Scientists find structure of critical Ebola virus protein

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have uncovered the structure of a critical protein from the Ebola Virus that allows viral entry in human cells.

23 Jul 2008

Blitz on hospital waiting lists pays off

Since a boost of $600 million to both federal and state governments earlier this year, almost 14,000 additional patients have received elective surgery in the first six months of the Rudd government's blitz on lengthy public hospital waiting lists.

23 Jul 2008

Coronary heart disease linked to problems with reasoning, vocabulary and verbal fluency

Coronary heart disease is associated with a worse performance in mental processes such as reasoning, vocabulary and verbal fluency, according to a study of 5837 middle-aged Whitehall civil servants. The study also found that the longer ago the heart disease had been diagnosed, the worse was the person's cognitive performance and this effect was particularly marked in men.

22 Jul 2008

Awareness of the role of physical activity in colon cancer prevention

Many experts now consider colon cancer a largely preventable disease, but a new study finds that primary care doctors might not always inform patients about one important step they can take to reduce their risk: becoming more physically active.

17 Jul 2008

New British consortium to tackle healthcare associated infections

Just over 8% of all hospital inpatients in England develop a healthcare associated infection, with this figure rising to 23% in intensive care units. Preventing and controlling the transmission of infection is a key priority for those involved in healthcare.

16 Jul 2008

Culturally tailored education can improve blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes

Using community-based health advocates, delivering information within same-gender groups or adapting dietary and lifestyle advice to fit a particular community's likely diet can help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels, certainly for up to six months, following health education.

16 Jul 2008

Potential treatment for TB solves puzzle

Scientists have uncovered a new target for the potential treatment of TB, finally resolving a long-running debate about how the bacterial cell wall is built.

13 Jul 2008

Genetic change in dopamine transporter supports a role for dopamine signaling in ADHD

A genetic change in the dopamine transporter - one of the brain's dopamine-handling proteins - makes it behave as if amphetamine is present and "run backward," Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators report this week in The Journal of Neuroscience.

9 Jul 2008

Specific gene may make women more susceptible to alcoholism

A particular gene variant might make women more susceptible to alcoholism. At least, a study carried out by the Universities of Bonn and Sweden's Karolinska Institute makes this a plausible conclusion.

8 Jul 2008

Keeping a food diary doubles diet weight loss

Keeping a food diary can double a person's weight loss according to a study from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research. The findings, from one of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

8 Jul 2008

New target for the potential treatment of tuberculosis

Scientists have uncovered a new target for the potential treatment of tuberculosis (TB), finally resolving a long-running debate about how the bacterial cell wall is built.

3 Jul 2008

FDA finds many possibly life-threatening medical equipment malfunctions result from software problems

The Baltimore Sun on Monday examined how FDA, with help from experts in the information technology and scientific fields, has found that medical equipment "might not malfunction because it was poorly designed or badly made ... but because the computer code running it includes a mistake."

2 Jul 2008

Weekends can sabotage weight-control efforts

Saturday can be the worst enemy for our waistlines, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

1 Jul 2008

Salmonella outbreak in the U.S. gives health officials the run around

An outbreak of salmonella poisoning in the U.S. appears to have health authorities running around in ever decreasing circles.

1 Jul 2008

New comprehensive map of brain connections

An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate. Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

30 Jun 2008

Growth hormone FGF21's link to starvation may be clue to increasing life span, researchers find

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined that starvation blocks the effects of growth hormone via a mechanism that may have implications in treating diabetes and extending life span.

30 Jun 2008

High levels of urinary albumin excretion predict hypertension

Healthy individuals with higher levels of albumin excretion, even levels considered normal, are at increased risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure), according to a study appearing in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).

25 Jun 2008

Transfer of learning traced to areas of the brain

Practice makes perfect, but a question that still remains a mystery is why it is so difficult to transfer learning from a trained to an untrained task? Why are we no better at remembering faces when we have been training our memory for words? Scientists at Umea University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show in the journal Science that the answer lies in the brain areas activated by each task.

15 Jun 2008

Vitamin D, "the heart tranquilizer"

Strong bones, a healthy immune system, protection against some types of cancer: Recent studies suggest there's yet another item for the expanding list of vitamin D benefits. Vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," keeps the heart, the body's long-distance runner, fit for life's demands.

11 Jun 2008

Oxygen-rich lifesaving efforts pose risk for respiratory infections

Each year, thousands of premature infants battle to breathe. Thanks to life-saving interventions developed in the past couple decades - steroids given to their mothers to stall pre-term labor, mechanical ventilation, air enriched with extra oxygen, and surfactant, a crucial wetting agent that makes breathing less work - most of these newborns survive with enough lung function to grow and go home.

11 Jun 2008