ScienceDaily Health Headlines -- for Sunday, December 4, 2011

ScienceDaily Health Headlines

for Sunday, December 4, 2011

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Tumor-targeting compound points the way to new personalized cancer treatments (December 3, 2011) -- One major obstacle in the fight against cancer is that anticancer drugs often affect normal cells in addition to tumor cells, resulting in significant side effects. Yet research into development of less harmful treatments geared toward the targeting of specific cancer-causing mechanisms is hampered by lack of knowledge of the molecular pathways that drive cancers in individual patients. ... > full story

Innovative approaches help sleep apnea sufferers benefit from CPAP (December 3, 2011) -- People with obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to stick to prescribed treatment when a partner or parent is involved with their treatment, according to a team of sleep researchers. ... > full story

Even unconsciously, sound helps us see (December 3, 2011) -- Imagine you are playing ping-pong with a friend. Your friend makes a serve. Information about where and when the ball hit the table is provided by both vision and hearing. And this is how the senses interact in how we perceive the world. ... > full story

Vegetables, fruits, grains reduce stroke risk in women (December 2, 2011) -- Swedish women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet had fewer strokes especially if they had no history of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study. The findings persisted even after statistics were adjusted for other risk factors such as smoking and physical activity. Women with the highest level of antioxidants in their diet consumed about half their antioxidants from fruits and vegetables. ... > full story

Research improves diagnosis and potential treatment of neuromyelitis optica (December 2, 2011) -- Researchers have identified critical steps leading to myelin destruction in neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a debilitating neurological disease that is commonly misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis. The findings could lead to better care for the thousands of patients around the world with NMO. ... > full story

Impatient people have lower credit scores, study finds (December 2, 2011) -- Is there a psychological reason why people default on their mortgages? A new study finds that people with bad credit scores are more impatient -- more likely to choose immediate rewards rather than wait for a larger reward later. ... > full story

Cell molecule identified as central player in the formation of new blood vessels (December 2, 2011) -- Scientists have identified a cellular protein that plays a central role in the formation of new blood vessels. The molecule is the protein Shc, and new blood vessel formation, or angiogenesis, is seriously impaired without it. ... > full story

Fecal microbiota transplants effective treatment for C. difficile, inflammatory bowel disease, research finds (December 2, 2011) -- Growing evidence for the effectiveness of fecal microbiota transplants as a treatment for patients with recurrent bouts of Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea is presented in three studies -- including a long-term follow-up of colonoscopic fecal microbiota transplant for recurrent C. difficile Infection that included 77 patients from five different states. ... > full story

Moral dilemma: Would you kill one person to save five? (December 2, 2011) -- Nine out of 10 people would kill one person to save five others, according to a provocative new morality study. ... > full story

New evidence of an unrecognized visual process (December 2, 2011) -- We don't see only what meets the eye. The visual system constantly takes in ambiguous stimuli, weighs its options, and decides what it perceives. This normally happens effortlessly. Sometimes, however, an ambiguity is persistent, and the visual system waffles on which perception is right. Such instances interest scientists because they help us understand how the eyes and the brain make sense of what we see. ... > full story

World's first view of Type 1 diabetes as it unfolds (December 2, 2011) -- A war is being waged in the pancreases of millions of people throughout the world. The siege leads to the development of Type 1 diabetes and has been a battlefield largely hidden from view -- until now. Researchers have created the first cellular movies showing the destruction underlying Type 1 diabetes in real-time in mouse models. ... > full story

Amplification of multiple cell-growth genes found in some brain tumors (December 2, 2011) -- A small percentage of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas, which usually resist treatment with drugs targeting mutations in cell-growth genes, appears to contain extra copies of two or three of these genes at the same time. The surprising discovery has major implications for the understanding of tumor biology – including the evolution of tumor cell populations – and for targeted cancer therapies. ... > full story