From the monthly archives:

October 2009

Pumpkin Skin May Scare Away Germs

October 30, 2009 News & Research

The skin of that pumpkin you carve into a Jack-o’-Lantern to scare away ghosts and goblins on Halloween contains a substance that could put a scare into microbes that cause millions of cases of yeast infections in adults and infants each year. That’s the conclusion of a new study. In the study, Kyung-Soo Hahm, Yoonkyung Park and colleagues note that some disease-causing microbes are becoming resistant to existing antibiotics. As a result, scientists…

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Statins Show Dramatic Drug And Cell Dependent Effects In The Brain

October 29, 2009 Cardiovascular Research

Besides their tremendous value in treating high cholesterol and lowering the risk of heart disease, statins have also been reported to potentially lower the risks of other diseases, such as dementia. However, a study in the October Journal of Lipid Research finds that similar statin drugs can have profoundly different effects on brain cells -both beneficial and detrimental. These findings reinforce…

Tagged as: Brain, Heart

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Answering That Age-old Lament: Where Does All This Dust Come From?

October 28, 2009 News & Research

Where does it come from? Scientists in Arizona are reporting a surprising answer to that question, which has puzzled and perplexed generations of men and women confronted with layers of dust on furniture and floors. Most of indoor dust comes from outdoors. Their report is scheduled for the Nov. 1 issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal. In the study, David Layton and Paloma Beamer point out that household dust consists of a potpourri that includes …

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Moderate Amounts Of Protein Per Meal Found Best For Building Muscle

October 28, 2009 Muscles

For thousands of years, people have believed that eating large amounts of protein made it easier to build bigger, stronger muscles. Take Milo of Croton, the winner of five consecutive Olympic wrestling championships in the sixth century BC: If ancient writers are to be believed, he built his crushing strength in part by consuming 20 pounds of meat every day. No modern athlete would go to such extremes, but Milo’s legacy survives in the high-protein diets of…

Tagged as: Muscle

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Why Antidepressants Don’t Work For So Many

October 27, 2009 News & Research

More than half the people who take antidepressants for depression never get relief. Why? Because the cause of depression has been oversimplified and drugs designed to treat it aim at the wrong target, according to new research from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The medications are like arrows shot at the outer rings of a bull’s eye instead of …

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Survival After Heart Attack Improves In Younger Women

October 26, 2009 Cardiovascular Research

In recent years, women, particularly younger women, experienced larger improvements in hospital mortality after myocardial infarction (MI) than men, according to a study published in the Oct. 26, 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Over the last decade several studies showed that younger women, but not older ones, are more likely to die in the hospital after MI than age-matched…

Tagged as: Heart

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Latest Analysis Confirms Suboptimal Vitamin D Levels In Millions Of US Children

October 26, 2009 Cardiovascular Research

National data suggest non-whites are especially at risk. Millions of children in the United States between the ages of 1 and 11 may suffer from suboptimal levels of vitamin D, according to a large nationally representative study published in the November issue of Pediatrics, accompanied by an editorial. The study, led by Jonathan Mansbach, MD, at Children’s Hospital Boston, is the most up-to-date analysis of vitamin D levels…

Tagged as: Heart, Vitamin D

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Angina In The Legs? Time To Alert Patients And Physicians

October 26, 2009 Cardiovascular Research

Angina in the legs? Time to alert patients and physicians. Edmonton researchers recommend that people over age 40 be screened for peripheral artery disease (PAD), which puts people at high risk for serious medical complications including heart disease, stroke, and possible lower limb amputation. It contributes to thousands of deaths every year yet nobody knows for sure how many…

Tagged as: Heart

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Sleep Deprivation Impairs cAMP Signalling In The Hippocampus.

October 26, 2009 Cognitive Function

Sleep deprivation impairs cAMP signalling in the hippocampus. Millions of people regularly obtain insufficient sleep. Given the effect of sleep deprivation on our lives, understanding the cellular and molecular pathways affected by sleep deprivation is clearly of social and clinical importance. One of the major effects of sleep deprivation on the brain is to produce memory deficits in learning models that are dependent on the hippocampus. Here we have identified a molecular mechanism by which brief sleep deprivation alters hippocampal…

Tagged as: Brain, Sleep

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Heart Attack Myth: Women Do Have Same The Heart Attack Symptoms As Men, Study Shows

October 26, 2009 Cardiovascular Research

The gender difference between men and women is a lot smaller than we’ve been led to believe when it comes to heart attack symptoms, according to a new study presented to the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. “Both the media and some patient educational materials frequently suggest that women experience symptoms of a heart attack very differently from men,” says…

Tagged as: Heart

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Light At Night Linked To Symptoms Of Depression In Mice

October 21, 2009 Insomnia Research

Too much light at night can lead to symptoms of depression, according to a new study in mice. Researchers found that mice housed in a lighted room 24 hours a day exhibited more depressive symptoms than did similar mice that had a normal light-dark cycle. However, mice that lived in constant light, but could escape into a dark, opaque tube when …

Tagged as: Sleep

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Cherry Juice May Prevent Muscle Damage Pain

October 20, 2009 Arthritis Research

The familiar “no pain, no gain” phrase usually associated with exercise may be a thing of the past if results from a study on cherry juice published in the online version of the British Journal of Sports Medicine prove true in future research. Historically, a number of approaches to prevent exercise-induced muscle pain and damage have been examined, but few have been effective. Declan Connolly, associate professor of education and director of the human performance laboratory at the…

Tagged as: Muscle

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