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Immune system plays important role in heart's response to injury

The immune system plays an important role in the heart's response to injury. But until recently, confusing data made it difficult to distinguish the immune factors that encourage the heart to heal following a heart attack, for example, from those that lead to further damage.

16 Jan 2014

Babies born to smoking mothers have 47% increase in odds of becoming overweight

Many women are encouraged to quit smoking when they become pregnant using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) whether as gum, transdermal patches, nasal spray or lozenges.

16 Jan 2014

Wyden's Medicare proposal portends new powerful post

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the likely next Senate Finance Committee chairman, is flexing his political muscles by proposing a change to how Medicare treats and pays for care for chronically ill patients. Wyden is in line to take over chairmanship of the committee when Sen. Max Baucus is confirmed as U.S. ambassador to China.

16 Jan 2014

Research shows biological link between paternal diet and health of offspring

Research involving rats suggests that there is a biological link between paternal diet, bodyweight and health at the time of conception and the health of his offspring. In a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal, scientists show that if male rats ate a high fat diet, had diabetes and were obese, their offspring had altered gene expression in two important metabolic tissues--pancreas and fat (even though they were not yet obese).

16 Jan 2014

Higher vitamin D levels linked with better cognition and less depression in PD patients

A new study exploring vitamin D levels in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) opens up the possibility of a new avenue of early intervention that may delay or prevent the onset of cognitive impairment and depression. The findings are published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease.

16 Jan 2014

Federal judge upholds health law's subsidies

Critics of the overhaul argued that, as passed by Congress, the statutory language limited the use of subsidies to purchase health insurance only to consumers in states that are running their own online marketplaces -- not to those who are shopping for health plans on the federal exchange. The judge's ruling, which upholds a central element of the health law, is a victory for the Obama administration.

16 Jan 2014

Study explores the role of DNA in predisposing individuals to diseases

A group of international researchers, led by a research fellow in the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife, published a paper today in Cell describing a study aimed at better understanding how inherited genetic differences, or variants, predispose certain individuals to develop diseases such as type 2 diabetes.

16 Jan 2014

Questions surround future of some troubled state exchanges

State insurance exchanges in Maryland, Oregon and Colorado are under the microscope and drawing criticism. Meanwhile, Republican state lawmakers in Tennessee and Texas propose legislation to undermine the health law in those states. And a cybersecurity official at the Department of Health and Human Services tells congressional investigators that testing of healthcare.gov, the federal online exchange, was inadequate.

16 Jan 2014

New dye more effective in detecting, measuring cardiolipin in cell membranes

A team that includes Dartmouth College researchers has discovered a new way to detect cardiolipin, a key indicator of heart diseases and some genetic disorders.

16 Jan 2014

Study links a discrete area of the brain to cognitive deficit in people at early stage of PD

Research by a team of investigators in Finland suggests that the free recall memory deficits common even in early stages Parkinson's disease are related to structural changes in the brain, specifically parietal cortical gray matter volume. Their findings are published in the current issue of the Journal of Parkinson's Disease.

16 Jan 2014

Insurers again extend payment deadlines for customers who signed up for Jan. 1 coverage on exchanges

News outlets in California offer examples of companies that are giving new customers more time to pay their first month's premiums while in Connecticut, one insurer is beginning to get a handle on the crush of enrollment.

16 Jan 2014

Research findings may offer new way to treat prion diseases

New research from David Westaway, PhD, of the University of Alberta and Jiri Safar, PhD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has uncovered a quality control mechanism in brain cells that may help keep deadly neurological diseases in check for months or years.

16 Jan 2014

Cedars-Sinai researcher to receive 2014 Troland Research Award

Ueli Rutishauser, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery and director of human neurophysiology research in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Neurology at Cedars-Sinai, will receive a 2014 Troland Research Award at the National Academy of Sciences annual meeting April 27.

16 Jan 2014

Researchers find new way to boost survival of pediatric patients suffering cardiac arrest

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford have found a new way to boost the survival of pediatric patients whose hearts stop while they are hospitalized.

16 Jan 2014

Facing Medicare funding cuts, Virginia hospitals push for Medicaid expansion

Expanding the program for low-income residents would help bring new revenue to the hospitals. Meanwhile, supporters of Medicaid expansion offer a new proposal in Nebraska and a young man in Utah diagnosed with cancer faces treatment problems because he lost his Medicaid coverage.

16 Jan 2014