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Toenail clippings reveal environmental arsenic exposure

Scientists from Leicester and Nottingham have devised a method for identifying levels of exposure to environmental arsenic - by testing toenail clippings.

22 Feb 2009

Aching back? cholesterol drug Lovastatin might help

Back pain, a hallmark of degenerative disc disease, sends millions of people to their doctor. In fact, more than 80 percent of patients who undergo spine surgery do so because of disc degeneration.

22 Feb 2009

Stenting not necessary in late treatment of heart attacks

Two years ago, a major study found that many patients who receive delayed treatment for a heart attack do just as well with drugs alone as they do with drugs plus stents to prop open their blocked arteries.

20 Feb 2009

Robotic therapy may reduce stroke physical disability years later

Robot-assisted therapy may help stroke patients attain gains in their physical abilities long after the stroke, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2009.

20 Feb 2009

Kidney disease affects response to anticoagulant drug warfarin

Patients with reduced kidney function require lower doses of the anticoagulant drug warfarin, and may need closer monitoring to avoid serious bleeding complications, suggests a study in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology ( JASN ).

20 Feb 2009

Inhibiting proteins may prevent cartilage breakdown in arthritis patients

Current arthritis medications can ease the pain, but stopping the progression of the disease requires more aggressive treatments: use of very limited available drugs or surgical intervention.

20 Feb 2009

High-fat diets inflame fat tissue surrounding blood vessels

A study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that high-fat diets, even if consumed for a short amount of time, can inflame fat tissue surrounding blood vessels, possibly contributing to cardiovascular disease.

20 Feb 2009

Lynx2 gene linked to nervous behavior in mice

To measure anxiety in a mouse and suggest it's similar to anxiety in a person may seem like a stretch, but the metrics sound uncannily familiar.

20 Feb 2009

Racial disparities in colorectal cancer screening persist

Colorectal cancer screening among patients with Medicare coverage is increasing, but a persistent gap remains between whites - who are screened most frequently - and all other racial and ethnic groups, according to a new study by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Washington.

20 Feb 2009

Echoes discovered in early visual brain areas play role in working memory

Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered that early visual areas, long believed to play no role in higher cognitive functions such as memory, retain information previously hidden from brain studies.

20 Feb 2009

Collective religious rituals, not religious devotion, spur support for suicide attacks

In a new study in Psychological Science , a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Jeremy Ginges and Ian Hansen from the New School for Social Research along with psychologist Ara Norenzayan from the University of British Columbia conducted a series of experiments investigating the relationship between religion and support for acts of parochial altruism, including suicide attacks.

20 Feb 2009

Cancer death rates fall among African Americans - survival rates still low

While death rates from cancer continue to drop among African Americans, the group continues to be diagnosed at more advanced stages and have lower survival rates at each stage of diagnosis compared to whites for most cancer sites.

20 Feb 2009

Blood pressure drug losartan may benefit brain tumor patients

A widely used blood pressure medication may be the key to preventing brain function loss common after radiation treatment, according to a newly published study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

20 Feb 2009

Researchers study Actin - a globular protein

Actin, a globular protein found in all eukaryotic cells, is a workhorse that varies remarkably little from baker's yeast to the human body.

20 Feb 2009

Mutations in two genes linked to most common brain cancers

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Duke University Medical Center have linked mutations in two genes, IDH1 and IDH2, to nearly three-quarters of several of the most common types of brain cancers known as gliomas.

20 Feb 2009

Dreams affect people's judgment, behavior

While science tries to understand the stuff dreams are made of, humans, from cultures all over the world, continue to believe that dreams contain important hidden truths, according to newly published research.

18 Feb 2009

Tumor suppressor may weaken fibrotic disease

New research reveals a critical cellular signaling pathway that is responsible for generating excess connective tissue in multiple organs, similar to what is seen in human patients with scleroderma.

18 Feb 2009

New understanding on how inflammatory disease causes fatigue

New animal research in the February 18 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience may indicate how certain diseases make people feel so tired and listless.

18 Feb 2009

Cancer survivors more likely to be unemployed

An analysis of previous studies finds an association between being a cancer survivor and being unemployed, compared to healthy individuals, especially for survivors of breast and gastrointestinal cancers, according to an article in the February 18 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

18 Feb 2009

Medical prescription of heroin does not pose neighborhood risk

Providing heroin to drug addicts at medically supervised clinics does not pose risks to surrounding neighbourhoods, according to a new study by Serge Brochu, a researcher at the Université de Montréal School of Criminology.

18 Feb 2009