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First Edition: June 20, 2012

Today's headlines include reports that the Veterans' Administration will increase its mental health staffing.

20 Apr 2012

Possible indicators of child abuse

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and experts at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt are urging all individuals to be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of child abuse, and to be aware that reporting suspected incidents of child abuse is the law in Tennessee and many other states.

20 Apr 2012

Preconception care before IVF can lead to lifestyle problems and health risks

Ninety-six per cent of women who attended a preconception clinic before undergoing IVF had three or more lifestyle problems and risk factors, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

20 Apr 2012

Scientists discover new ways to help detect and treat osteoporosis

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have discovered new ways to help detect and treat the debilitating brittle bone disease osteoporosis.

20 Apr 2012

Optimism could benefit the heart: A review of studies

A Harvard School of Public Health review of more than 200 studies suggests that optimism is good for the heart. The researchers looked at studies that had recorded psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. This revealed that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness appeared to be linked associated with a reduced risk of heart and circulatory diseases, regardless of a person's age, socio-economic status, smoking status or body weight. Disease risk was 50% lower among the most optimistic individuals.

19 Apr 2012

Physical exercise, meditation can change brains for the better

Practices like physical exercise, certain forms of psychological counseling and meditation can all change brains for the better, and these changes can be measured with the tools of modern neuroscience, according to a review article now online at Nature Neuroscience.

19 Apr 2012

Veterans with killing experience more likely to report suicidal thoughts

The experience of killing in war was strongly associated with thoughts of suicide, in a study of Vietnam-era veterans led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco.

19 Apr 2012

CAM may have several positive effects on people with type 2 diabetes

A new joint study by Group Health Research Institute and Bastyr University Research Institute found that type 2 diabetes patients who received naturopathic care (as an adjunct to conventional care) had lower blood-sugar levels, better eating and exercise habits, improved moods, and a stronger sense of control over their condition than did patients receiving only conventional care.

19 Apr 2012

Caring for wife with breast cancer can affect men's health

Caring for a wife with breast cancer can have a measurable negative effect on men's health, even years after the cancer diagnosis and completion of treatment, according to recent research.

17 Apr 2012

Individuals with low-quality genes may produce offspring with even more inferior chromosomes

Evolutionary biologists at the University of Toronto have found that individuals with low-quality genes may produce offspring with even more inferior chromosomes, possibly leading to the extinction of certain species over generations.

17 Apr 2012

MU wins Jeanne M. Priester Award for mind-body interaction program

The belief that the mind plays an integral role in physical health dates back to the earliest days of medicine. The Greek physician Hippocrates, often referred to as the founder of medicine, wrote "natural forces within us are the true healers of disease." A University of Missouri team has tapped into the science and practice of this mind-body interaction to develop an innovative and award-winning program.

17 Apr 2012

Study looks at quality measures provided by nursing homes

While nursing homes are the place where an estimated 30 percent of Americans die, there currently exists no way to compare which institutions do a better job at managing end of life care. A new study appearing this week in the Journal of Palliative Medicine is starting a discussion over the need to create end of life quality measures in order to both inform consumers and provide nursing homes with incentive to improve care.

17 Apr 2012

As fiscal years start to wind down, states confront Medicaid issues

Although their tax revenue has improved substantially since the worst of the recession, states continue to face severe fiscal challenges as they are called on to spend more because of the economic stress caused largely by continued high unemployment. Many states face increasing caseloads for Medicaid, the combined federal-state health program for the poor and disabled.

16 Apr 2012

SMART Heart improves cardiovascular surgical outcomes

Two years ago, 57-year-old Allus Brown underwent a simultaneous heart-kidney transplant and spent months in and out of the hospital after battling dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that enlarges and weakens the heart. Now fully recovered, Brown is still in and out of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute each week. Only nowadays when he visits, he's laughing it up, playing board games, and sharing accounts of his own struggles with heart disease as part of the Bluhm Institute's new and innovative program, SMART Heart, stress management and recreational therapy for heart patients.

16 Apr 2012

Physical activity reduces depression, enhances QOL during treatment for breast cancer

Women undergoing treatment for breast cancer might fight off distressing side effects and improve psychological well-being by staying off the couch. According to the University of Miami (UM) study, women who are physically active during treatment have less depression and an enhanced quality of life and report less debilitating fatigue.

16 Apr 2012

Females athletes more affected by overuse injuries

Overuse injuries -found most often in low-contact sports that involve long training sessions or where the same movement is repeated numerous times - make up nearly 30 percent of all injuries sustained by collegiate athletes.

16 Apr 2012

Four loci appear to decrease hippocampal volume

An international team of researchers led by Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has identified four loci that appear to be associated with decreasing the volume of the hippocampus.

16 Apr 2012

Attitude may play an important role in how exercise affects menopausal women

Attitude may play an important role in how exercise affects menopausal women, according to Penn State researchers, who identified two types of women -- one experiences more hot flashes after physical activity, while the other experiences fewer.

16 Apr 2012

HPA urges routine vaccination after surge of whooping cough cases

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said there have been 665 confirmed cases already this year, compared with 1,040 in the whole of 2011. Cases have been reported across all regions in England with some areas reporting clusters in schools, universities and healthcare settings.

15 Apr 2012

Mayo Clinic experts available to discuss mental health challenges faced by cancer survivors

April is National Cancer Control Month, which focuses on the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer and on efforts to improve the quality of life of the more than 11 million cancer survivors in the United States.

12 Apr 2012