Nerve activity News and Research

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CPAP treatment restores brain stem function, reverses health changes linked to heart disease

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are a commonly prescribed treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder in which muscles in the airways collapse during sleep, blocking breathing.

2 Sep 2015

New review article explains link between PTSD and increased cardiovascular disease risk

A growing number of patient studies show that people who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and heart attack. A new review article in American Journal of Physiology—Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology examines the recent scientific literature to explain how the two are linked.

15 Jul 2015

High-frequency tympanometry testing can help identify middle-ear problems in newborn babies

Screening newborn babies who are in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using a testing process called high-frequency tympanometry can help identify middle-ear problems earlier, according to newly published research from a local team of researchers.

10 Jul 2015

Study on spider venom may lead to new class of potent painkillers

New research shows that seven compounds of the countless found in spider venom block a key step in the body's ability to pass pain signals to the brain. The hunt for a medicine based on just one of these compounds, which would open up a new class of potent painkillers, is now a step closer according to new research published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

4 Mar 2015

Saluda Medical receives $10 million in Series B financing

Saluda Medical has today announced that it has received $10 million in Series B financing bringing a breakthrough treatment for chronic pain one step closer to reality.

20 Feb 2015

Eight clinical researchers selected as finalists for Outstanding Investigator Award at Cardiology 2015

Pediatric cardiology researchers and clinicians from numerous centers from around the world are gathering at the Cardiology 2015: the 18th Annual Update on Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Disease conference, sponsored by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Phoenix Children's Hospital on Feb. 11 to Feb. 15 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

16 Feb 2015

Stimulating nerves in ear could improve heart health

Stimulating nerves in your ear could improve the health of your heart, researchers have discovered. A team at the University of Leeds used a standard TENS machine like those designed to relieve labour pains to apply electrical pulses to the tragus, the small raised flap at the front of the ear immediately in front of the ear canal.

20 Aug 2014

Higher-fit children have more compact white-matter tracts in the brain than lower-fit peers

A new study of 9- and 10-year-olds finds that those who are more aerobically fit have more fibrous and compact white-matter tracts in the brain than their peers who are less fit. "White matter" describes the bundles of axons that carry nerve signals from one brain region to another. More compact white matter is associated with faster and more efficient nerve activity.

19 Aug 2014

Pelvic anatomy changes after prostatectomy linked to LUTS

Japanese researchers have identified certain pelvic anatomic features in men who have undergone radical prostatectomy that are associated with specific lower urinary tract symptoms.

4 Aug 2014

Professor receives grant to study stress-induced hypertension, its effects on neuroimmune system

Paul Marvar, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, was awarded a $721,435 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study stress-induced hypertension and its effects on the neuroimmune system.

22 May 2014

Smart drugs have lasting side-effects on young people's brain

Over a million American students misuse prescription drugs or take illegal stimulants to increase their attention span, memory, and capacity to stay awake. Such "smart drugs" become more and more popular due to peer pressure, stricter academic requirements, and the tight job market. But young people who misuse them risk long-term impairments to brain function, warn Kimberly Urban at the University of Delaware and Wen-Jun Gao at Drexel University College of Medicine, USA, in a NIH-funded review published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience.

14 May 2014

Microvascular coronary dysfunction in women may be triggered by emotional stress, say researchers

Researchers at the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found that emotional stressors - such as those provoking anger - may cause changes in the nervous system that controls heart rate and trigger a type of coronary artery dysfunction that occurs more frequently in women than men.

14 Mar 2014

Doctors devise new way to treat atrial fibrillation

Doctors in the U.S. and Japan have devised a way to treat atrial fibrillation by adding a little alcohol to minimally invasive therapies that target a cluster of misbehaving nerves known to trigger arrhythmia. In the most recent Journal of the American College of Cardiology (online before print), the researchers say the new therapy may dull or stop the transmission of electrical impulses that cause atrial fibrillation.

4 Mar 2014

Treatable factors linked to blood pressure variability in diabetes

Some factors that are associated with variability in home blood pressure in patients with Type 2 diabetes may be open to intervention, research suggests.

25 Feb 2014

New study looks at hormone/SNS relationship in women taking hormone contraceptives

After menopause, women's levels of estrogen and progesterone fall. Their formerly lower risk for heart disease equals, even surpasses, men's risk. One possible contributing explanation for the change in risk is that sex hormones affect the sympathetic nervous system, which controls constriction of blood vessels and participates in the fight or flight response.

7 Nov 2013

Research finds that aging elicits changes in taste preferences

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, found that aging elicits changes in taste preferences and that such changes appear to be independent of taste nerve activity.

31 Jul 2013

Michigan Tech study: Fish oil supplements may protect the heart in stressful situations

Fish oil supplements may protect the heart in stressful situations, according to a recent study. Jason Carter, a researcher at Michigan Technological University, conducted the study with 67 healthy volunteer test participants in their 20s.

5 Jun 2013

Fish oil may counteract the detrimental effects of mental stress on heart

The omega 3 fatty acids in fish oil have long been thought to protect against cardiovascular disease-so much so that the American Heart Association currently recommends eating at least two servings of fish a week, particularly fatty varieties rich in omega 3s.

23 May 2013

Renal denervation reduces blood pressure for patients not responding to drug therapy

Up to 10 per cent of patients with high blood pressure are resistant to treatment, which puts them at increased risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks. Clinical trials show that catheter-based renal denervation reduces blood pressure in patients who do not respond to conventional drug therapy.

26 Apr 2013

Targeting pathway may lead to better hypertension treatments for at-risk patients

Obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure (hypertension) are all related, but understanding the molecular pathways that underlie cause and effect is complicated.

12 Apr 2013