Potter magic helps accident-prone children
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Boy wizard Harry Potter has already cast his spell on millions worldwide, but new research shows his magic has a hitherto unimagined effect.
He has been shown to protect accident-prone children.
Trend of earlier puberty continues among US girls
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The age at which girls in the U.S.A. reach puberty is continuing to dip, with heavier weights and changing national demographics playing important roles, according to a new study.
Research over the years has documented a gradual decline in the average age at which U.S. girls have their first menstrual period - from the age of 12.75 in the 1960s to about 12.5 in the early 1990s.
College students not alone in dangerous drinking
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Though getting drunk is often seen as a traditional college pastime, other young adults, particularly men, have similarly high rates of potentially hazardous drinking, new research shows.
In a study of nearly 2,000 young adults who’d been followed since high school, researchers found that by the age of 24, both college graduates and those with no more than a high school diploma had comparably high rates of heavy drinking.
College students not alone in dangerous drinking
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Though getting drunk is often seen as a traditional college pastime, other young adults, particularly men, have similarly high rates of potentially hazardous drinking, new research shows.
In a study of nearly 2,000 young adults who’d been followed since high school, researchers found that by the age of 24, both college graduates and those with no more than a high school diploma had comparably high rates of heavy drinking.
Successful aging may be partly in the genes
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If you make it to a ripe old age with all your marbles, credit might go to the gene you inherited.
Researchers have identified genes related to reaching age 90 with preserved brain function. Their study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and reported at a medical conference in Hawaii, is among the first to identify genetic links to long-lived mental powers.
Fish oil curbs heart trouble linked to pollution
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Daily supplementation with omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil) prevents a potentially-deadly decline in heart rate variability (HRV) associated with exposure to indoor air pollution, researchers from the US and Canada report.
HRV measures the variability in the intervals between heartbeats, with lower variability being associated with higher risks of heart disease and death.
Aquaporin related to obesity
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Dr. Gema Fruhbeck, director of the Metabolic Research Laboratory of the University Hospital of the University of Navarra, has published a commentary in the latest issue of Nature. The article presents aquaporin as a new modulator of the biology of the adipocyte. It is a new concept concerning how the permeability of glycerol in fat cells is able to modulate the size of the adipocyte and, as a result, can contribute to the development of obesity.
Aquaporins are related to the transport of water through cell membranes, but only recently has they been linked to weight control and adiposity. There is a subfamily, the aquaglyceroporins, which transport water as well as smaller solutes, such as glycerol. It has been shown that if one eliminates the specific aquaporin of the adipose tissue, aquaporin-7, glycerol is no longer able to leave the fat cell and instead accumulates in the cell interior.
Discovery reveals how malaria infects humans
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Researchers at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in India and a unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in France have made a key discovery about a molecule that helps the malaria parasite infect human cells. India is one of the countries most affected by this disease, which has infected 300 million people across the world and leads to over one million fatalities per year. The breakthrough, which was achieved at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, may represent an important step towards finding new therapies. The study appears in this week’s online edition of Nature (December 21).
Malaria is caused by a one-celled organism called Plasmodium, which is passed to humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes.
Mice breathing bad air suffer heart disease
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Breathing polluted air found in urban areas promotes heart disease, especially when accompanied by a fatty diet, researchers who tested the theory on mice said on Tuesday.
The animal study was aimed at determining how air pollution—specifically small airborne particles spewed by car exhaust and power plants—combined with a high-fat diet sped up the deterioration of the body’s cardiovascular system.
“We established a causal link between air pollution and atherosclerosis,” said the study’s lead author, Lung Chi Chen of New York University’s School of Medicine.
Diabetes Guidelines Should Change - Lower Blood Sugar Needed
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A Pennington Biomedical Research Center researcher and diabetes expert believes that physicians with diabetic patients should aim for much lower levels of blood glucose than current guidelines suggest. He believes the current recommendations for blood-sugar levels are not low enough to avoid a major complication of diabetes: heart disease.
Citing research published in this month’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), PBRC researcher William Cefalu, M.D., says that if the medical community believes long-term control of blood sugar levels can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, then “a reassessment of our clinical goals may be in order.”
The work, to be published December 22, shows that more aggressive control of blood sugar levels, by use of a more intensive insulin regimen, appears to help avoid long-term cardiovascular disease. Cefalu made his remarks in an editorial in the same issue of the NEJM.
Prostate cancer hormone therapy triggers bone loss
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Men with advanced prostate cancer may be given therapy to stop their production of testosterone, which may drive tumor growth. However, androgen deprivation therapy, or ADT, appears to trigger a rapid loss of bone mineral density (BMD), researchers report.
Dr. Susan L. Greenspan of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues note in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism that although bone loss is associated with ADT, little is known about when this may occur.
Roche says US OKs Tamiflu for prevention in young
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U.S. regulators approved Roche AG’s request to market antiviral drug Tamiflu for preventing influenza in children ages 1 through 12, the company said on Wednesday.
Tamiflu is being stockpiled by countries in case of an avian flu pandemic in people. The drug previously was approved for preventing infection in adults and adolescents age 13 and older and for treating the flu in anyone 1 year old or older.
Canadians can have group sex in clubs
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Group sex between consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday, dismissing arguments that the sometimes raucous activities of so-called “swingers” clubs were dangerous.
In a ruling that radically changes the way Canadian courts determine what poses a threat to the population, the court threw out the conviction of a Montreal man who ran a club where members could have group sex in a private room behind locked doors.
UK docs urged to fight heart disease aggressively
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Britain’s generalist doctors (GPs) on Wednesday were given tougher targets to help prevent the nation’s biggest killer—heart disease—including prescribing more drugs for at-risk groups as well as some seemingly healthy people.
Issuing new guidelines, the Joint British Societies - a group of six medical bodies, said: “For all high risk people a number of drugs from different classes will reduce the risk of recurrent disease and increase life expectancy.”
Less coronary disease seen in black diabetics
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Compared to whites with type 2 diabetes, blacks with type 2 diabetes suffer more heart attacks, strokes, and end-stage renal disease, but African Americans appear to have significantly lower rates of clinical coronary artery disease than whites.
Dr. Barry I. Freedman and colleagues from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina report the finding in the December issue of Diabetologia.
