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Who plans for their financial future?

Does planning ahead all depend on how much money you have - the rich can afford it and the poor can't? Or is it as much about what your background is and the social and cultural groups that you belong to?

12 May 2008

How your heart sounds could tell your heart attack risk

According to scientists in the United States, a doctor may be able to determine a person's risk of having a heart attack just by listening to their heart with a stethoscope.

11 May 2008

Men more likely to turn to alcohol when they feel down

Women and men tend to have different types of stress-related psychological disorders. Women have greater rates of depression and some types of anxiety disorders than men, while men have greater rates of alcohol-use disorders than women. A new study of emotional and alcohol-craving responses to stress has found that when men become upset, they are more likely than women to want alcohol.

11 May 2008

microRNAs provide more clues to genetics of schizophrenia

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have illuminated a window into how abnormalities in microRNAs, a family of molecules that regulate expression of numerous genes, may contribute to the behavioral and neuronal deficits associated with schizophrenia and possibly other brain disorders.

11 May 2008

Childhood and adolescent obesity impacts cardiac health

Study findings presented at the May 2008 Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting indicate that childhood and adolescent obesity negatively impacts vascular endothelial function, which relates to cardiac health.

11 May 2008

Blogging to bust cancer myths

The misinformation and confusion that often hovers around health and science stories will soon be dispelled by top science bloggers at Cancer Research UK.

9 May 2008

Study affirms effectiveness of medication for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that strikes children between the ages of newborn to 16 years. All children with JRA have joint pain, stiffness, and swelling and some also have fever and skin rashes.

9 May 2008

Young people are drinking and taking drugs to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex

Teenagers and young adults across Europe drink and take drugs as part of deliberate sexual strategies. Findings published in BioMed Central's open access journal, BMC Public Health, reveal that a third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex.

9 May 2008

Human cytomegalovirus mimics human protein to hijack cell division machinery

Viruses are masters of deception, duping their host's cells into helping them grow and spread. A new study has found that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) can mimic a common regulatory protein to hijack normal cell growth machinery, disrupting a cell's primary anti-cancer mechanism.

8 May 2008

Big differences in depressed brains

Depressed people may have far fewer of the receptors for some of the brain's "feel good" stress-response chemicals than non-depressed people, new University of Michigan Depression Center research shows.

8 May 2008

Hopkins researchers discover new link to schizophrenia

Neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered that mice lacking an enzyme that contributes to Alzheimer disease exhibit a number of schizophrenia-like behaviors. The finding raises the possibility that this enzyme may participate in the development of schizophrenia and related psychiatric disorders and therefore may provide a new target for developing therapies.

8 May 2008

Bird flu pandemic risk just as real and probably growing

Experts are warning that the risk of a human bird flu pandemic remains just as real and is in fact probably growing.

8 May 2008

Lack of motivation in schizophrenia linked to brain chemical imbalance

A study of patients with psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia suggests an alternative explanation for why many sufferers lack motivation. The research is described in BioMed Central's journal BMC Psychiatry.

8 May 2008

Breast cancer tumours grow faster in younger women

A new approach to estimating tumour growth based on breast screening results from almost 400,000 women is published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Breast Cancer Research.

8 May 2008

Platypus venom linked to pain relief

New research released today in the scientific research journal Nature reveals links between platypus venom and its potential benefits for advancing pain relief and antibiotic medication

7 May 2008

Vitamin D linked to reduced mortality rate in chronic kidney disease

For patients with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease (CKD), treatment with activated vitamin D may reduce the risk of death by approximately one-fourth, suggests a study in the August Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

7 May 2008

microRNAs appear essential for retinal health

Retinas in newborn mice appear perfectly fine without any help from tiny bits of genetic material called microRNAs except for one thing - the retinas do not work.

7 May 2008

A new search for causes of autism

Dr. Eric Fombonne, from the Research Institute of the MUHC at the Montreal Children's Hospital, is involved in a multi-site consortium to gather DNA samples from 2,000 autism patients and their families over the next three years.

7 May 2008

Nitrates in vegetables protect against gastric ulcers

Vegetables that are rich in nitrates protect the stomach from damage. This takes place through conversion of nitrates into nitrites by the bacteria in the oral cavity and subsequent transformation into biologically active nitric oxide in the stomach. The Swedish researcher Joel Petersson has described the process, which also means that antibacterial mouthwashes can be harmful for the stomach.

7 May 2008