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CBO: Medicare spending growth slower than expected

The Congressional Budget Office released new projections for the country's economic outlook Wednesday, forecasting that despite slower-than-anticipated spending growth, Medicare will account for an even larger share of the economy in the next decade.

24 Aug 2012

Cocoa and blood pressure: an interview with Dr Karin Ried

The compounds in cocoa responsible for blood pressure reduction are called flavanols or polyphenols. Flavanols are also found in green tea, dark berries or red wine.

24 Aug 2012

State Department blog reflects on global hunger event

In this post in the U.S. Department of State's "Dipnote" blog, Tjada McKenna, deputy coordinator for development for Feed the Future, reflects on the Global Hunger Event that took place at the conclusion of the Olympic Games in London.

24 Aug 2012

Religion not a barrier to HIV testing, treatment, study finds

"Preachers who promise divine healing have often been blamed for turning desperate HIV-positive people against their life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) medication and risking their health, but recent research suggests that religious beliefs may not be a barrier to treatment after all," IRIN/Plus News reports.

24 Aug 2012

Study demonstrates how DBP production is modulated by daily variations of temperature

Numerous processes in our body fluctuate in a regular pattern during the day. These circadian (or daily) variations can be driven by local oscillators present within our cells or by systemic signals controlled by the master pacemaker, located in the brain. Ueli Schibler, professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, unveils a molecular mechanism by which body temperature rhythms influence the expression of 'clock genes' and synchronize local oscillators.

24 Aug 2012

White House issues first-ever national biosurveillance strategy

In an article on the U.S. Department of Defense webpage, the American Forces Press Service reports on the first U.S. National Strategy for Biosurveillance, issued by the White House "to quickly detect a range of global health and security hazards." According to the article, "the Defense Department has a running start in implementing the new plan, a senior defense official said," and "many of the activities described in the strategy are ongoing at DOD."

24 Aug 2012

Planned Parenthood in Texas braces for end to state funding

Officials are moving quickly to end state funding for Planned Parenthood, which for now remains a part of the Texas' Women's Health Program despite a judge's ruling that state funds can be stopped while a related lawsuit is pending.

24 Aug 2012

Certain human diseases may have evolutionary epigenetic origins

Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzee's genome is the same as a human's. It's the other 4 percent, and the vast differences, that pique the interest of Georgia Tech's Soojin Yi. For instance, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, even though chimps rarely develop the disease? In research published in September's American Journal of Human Genetics, Yi looked at brain samples of each species. She found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes.

24 Aug 2012

Kansas officials promise smooth transition for Medicaid overhaul

State officials and health insurance providers on Tuesday promised a smooth transition into KanCare, the proposed overhaul of Kansas' $2.9 billion Medicaid program. "There is nothing simple about Medicaid," said Joe Ewert, commissioner of survey and certification with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.

24 Aug 2012

Close contact strategy does not work for young people after suicide attempts

Researchers, doctors and patients tend to agree that during the high-risk period after an attempted suicide, the treatment of choice is close contact, follow-up and personal interaction in order to prevent a tragic repeat. Now, however, new research shows that this strategy does not work. These surprising results from Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen have just been published in the British Medical Journal.

24 Aug 2012

Presidential campaigns jockey for upper hand in Medicare debate

Just as new polls find that voters in three key swing states are more likely to trust President Barack Obama than GOP presumptive nominee Mitt Romney on Medicare, the Romney campaign is struggling to quiet controversies related to this issue.

24 Aug 2012

Study shows how astrocytes control new neuron generation in the brain

Researchers from the Laboratory of astrocyte biology and CNS regeneration headed by Prof. Milos Pekny just published a research article in a prestigious journal Stem Cells on the molecular mechanism that controls generation of new neurons in the brain.

24 Aug 2012

Longer looks: 15 minutes with your doctor; Ransoming health records

Built more like a former professional basketball player than an elementary schoolteacher nearing retirement, the patient dropped a bagful of prescription medications on the table in the examining room and fell back into a chair.

24 Aug 2012

Scientists develop reliable method to convert adult blood cells into iPSCs

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body.

24 Aug 2012

CMS moves forward with initiative to coordinate Medicare primary care

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Innovation Center will administer the program, which was created by the 2010 health law. Five hundred medical practices have been selected to participate.

24 Aug 2012

San Francisco to require employers pay more for employee health care

Employers in San Francisco with more than 100 employees will have to contribute more to their employees' health care starting in 2013.

24 Aug 2012

Gibbons use same vocal techniques as professional soprano singers

Have you ever heard an opera singing ape? Researchers in Japan have discovered that singing gibbons use the same vocal techniques as professional soprano singers. The study, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, explains how recording gibbons singing under the influence of helium gas reveals a physiological similarity to human voices.

24 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Cantaloupes and food safety; Diversity in health incentives

People don't ordinarily think of cantaloupes as killers, but over the last two summers 32 Americans have died after eating contaminated pieces of the popular fruit. ... Government is hyper-vigilant about terror attacks and problem airliners, which is good, but not so much about food - at least if you judge by the time it's taking the Obama administration to release new rules intended to prevent exactly the sort of food-borne outbreaks cantaloupes have caused.

24 Aug 2012

Researchers deciphered function of claudin-10 gene in the kidney

Sodium chloride, better known as salt, is vital for the organism, and the kidneys play a crucial role in the regulation of sodium balance. However, the underlying mechanisms of sodium balance are not yet completely understood.

24 Aug 2012

New disease causes AIDS-like symptoms but not spread through virus

"Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV," the Associated Press reports.

24 Aug 2012