Hormone News and Research

RSS

A hormone is a chemical released by one or more cells that affects cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. It is essentially a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one cell to another.

Truths and myths about pregnancy, obesity

Ironically, despite excessive caloric intake, many obese women are deficient in vitamins vital to a healthy pregnancy. This and other startling statistics abound when obesity and pregnancy collide. Together, they present a unique set of challenges that women and their doctors must tackle in order to achieve the best possible outcome for mom and baby.

22 Dec 2011

Mother's milk for healthy growth

A PhD project from LIFE - the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen has shown that breastfed children follow a different growth pattern than non-breastfed children. Breastfeeding lowers the levels of the growth hormones IGF-I and insulin in the blood, which means that growth is slightly slower. This is believed to reduce the risk of overweight and diabetes later in life.

21 Dec 2011

Takeda receives FDA approval for EDARBYCLOR to treat hypertension

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved EDARBYCLOR (azilsartan medoxomil and chlorthalidone) for the treatment of hypertension to lower blood pressure in adults.

21 Dec 2011

Mammography appears to detect women with low-risk breast cancer

As a woman ages, her chances of being diagnosed with a lower-risk breast tumor increase, according to a novel study led by UCSF which found that for women over 50, a substantial number of cancers detected by mammograms have good prognoses.

20 Dec 2011

DHEA hormone may help a woman's menopausal symptoms, sex life

A new study has shown that the DHEA, a hormone mostly secreted by the adrenal glands, may be able to help a woman's menopausal symptoms, as well as giving her a better sex life.

20 Dec 2011

Scientists discover missing link between body's biological clock and sugar metabolism system

Scientists have discovered a missing link between the body's biological clock and sugar metabolism system, a finding that may help avoid the serious side effects of drugs used for treating asthma, allergies and arthritis.

20 Dec 2011

Weight loss pill without major side effects coming soon

Scientists are on their way to develop a perfect diet pill. The drug, which switches off appetite using hormones that are created naturally in the stomach when it is full, could be the first to be effective in weight loss without side effects.

19 Dec 2011

Smoking in women associated with skin cancer: Study

A new study has found a link between tobacco use and skin cancer especially in women. The study found that women who had squamous cell skin cancer were more likely to have smoked than those who were free from the disease. And those who smoked at least 20 years were twice as likely to develop squamous cell skin cancer - a less aggressive form of skin cancer as melanoma.

19 Dec 2011

Many maternal deaths from pre-eclampsia in the UK linked with substandard care

An editorial published this week in the Lancet online highlights the shocking fact that many maternal deaths in the UK are associated with substandard care and are potentially preventable.

17 Dec 2011

Researchers discover miR-520 blocks cancer-promoting signaling pathway

MicroRNAs or miRNAs are tiny RNA molecules that have only about 20 nucleotides and do not code for proteins. They regulate many important processes in cells by binding to target messenger RNAs - the instructions for protein production -, thus blocking production of the respective protein. In cancer, the production of some miRNAs is often reduced or amplified. This particularly affects miRNAs that regulate the activity of cancer-promoting genes.

17 Dec 2011

Vaginal progesterone decreases odds of premature delivery in women

A new study co-authored by the University of Kentucky's Dr. John O'Brien found that applying vaginal progesterone to women who are at a high risk of preterm birth significantly decreased the odds of a premature delivery.

16 Dec 2011

Serotonin, wnt are in charge of asymmetrical right-left development in embryos

Spleen to the left, appendix to the right: In order for the body to sort itself out properly, two substances have to trigger a complex chain reaction, according to the latest findings at the University of Hohenheim.

16 Dec 2011

Medicaid spending claims increasingly larger share of state budgets

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, Medicaid spending by the states has steadily gone up during the last three years, and this trend is likely to continue. Media outlets also report on Medicaid developments in Texas, Florida, New York and California.

15 Dec 2011

Vaginal progesterone safe and effective in preventing preterm birth

Women with a short cervix should be treated with vaginal progesterone to prevent preterm birth, according to a landmark study by leading obstetricians around the world. Vaginal progesterone decreased the rate of preterm birth by 42%, and significantly reduced the rate of respiratory distress syndrome and the need for mechanical ventilation, as well as a composite of several complications of premature newborns.

15 Dec 2011

Vaginal progesterone reduces rate of preterm birth and neonatal complications

A team of investigators of the National Institutes of Health housed at the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) and Wayne State University (WSU) published today that performing a cervical ultrasound in all pregnant women and treating those with a short cervix with vaginal progesterone reduces the rate of preterm birth and neonatal complications.

15 Dec 2011

H2S plays critical role in signaling pathway linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

Something rotten never smelled so sweet. This is what members of a team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) are telling one another as they discuss a new finding they did not expect to make. They have discovered that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) - the flammable, highly toxic gas that we usually associate with the smell of rotten eggs in landfills and sewers - plays an important role in the regulation of a signaling pathway implicated in biological malfunctions linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, among others.

14 Dec 2011