Women Health

Like the treadmills and stationary bikes that become rec room coatracks, fitness and other health-related smartphone apps are acquired in large numbers by Americans, but over time, many are left unused by those who download them. According to results of an online national survey analyzed by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center, 58 percent of 1,604 adult smartphone users … [Read more...]

Endurance expert suggests drugs could help 'lazy people' exercise In what has been described as 'doping for lazy people' a University of Kent endurance expert has advocated the use of psychoactive drugs to encourage sedentary people to exercise. Together with lack of time, physical exertion is one of the main perceived barriers to exercise. This is not surprising because … [Read more...]

Eating a diet rich in both soy protein and isoflavones can protect menopausal women from bone weakening and osteoporosis, according to the results of a preliminary study presented at the Society for Endocrinology annual conference in Edinburgh. Osteoporosis is a common condition where bones become brittle and fragile from tissue loss, causing 9 million fractures worldwide … [Read more...]

A new study of sleepwalkers found an intriguing paradox: Although sleepwalkers have an increased risk for headaches and migraines while awake, during sleepwalking episodes they are unlikely to feel pain even while suffering an injury. Results show that sleepwalkers were nearly 4 times more likely than controls to report a history of headaches (odds ratio = 3.80) and 10 times … [Read more...]

Talking about sex with parents, especially mothers, had an effect on safer sex behavior among adolescents, especially girls, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Risky sexual behavior among adolescents is a serious public health problem because of the risk of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. Communication between parents and … [Read more...]

A study of the brains of mice shows that structural deterioration associated with old age can be prevented by long-term aerobic exercise starting in mid-life, according to the authors of a research article publishing in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology on October 29th. Gareth Howell, Ileana Soto and their colleagues at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine (USA) found … [Read more...]

Research conducted at the University of Warwick indicates that chronic pain sufferers could benefit from therapy to help them sleep better. The University of Warwick academics found that cognitive behavioural therapies (CBT) were either moderately or strongly effective in tackling insomnia in patients with long-term pain. They also discovered that chronic pain sufferers … [Read more...]

A study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers suggests that awakening several times throughout the night is more detrimental to people's positive moods than getting the same shortened amount of sleep without interruption. As they report in the November 1 issue of the journal Sleep, researchers studied 62 healthy men and women randomly subjected to three sleep … [Read more...]

Washing those dreadful dishes after a long day seems like the furthest thing from relaxation. Or is it? Student and faculty researchers at Florida State University have found that mindfully washing dishes calms the mind and decreases stress. Published in the journal Mindfulness, the study looked at whether washing dishes could be used as an informal contemplative practice … [Read more...]

Patients who are divorced, separated or widowed had an approximately 40 percent greater chance of dying or developing a new functional disability in the first two years following cardiac surgery than their married peers, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published in this week's JAMA Surgery. "While … [Read more...]

A ballet dancer's grace is not just because the dancer constantly practices moving with poise. New research published in Journal of Neurophysiology reports that professional ballet dancers' years of physical training have enabled their nervous system to coordinate their muscles when they move more precisely than individuals who have no dance training. The nervous system is … [Read more...]

Patients who stop taking cholesterol medications before surgery are following outdated recommendations, and significantly increasing their risk of death if they don't resume taking the medications within two days after surgery, according to a study of more than 300,000 patients being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2015 annual meeting. One in four Americans, aged 40 and … [Read more...]

On average, 80% of American adults watch 3.5 hours of television per day and multiple observational studies have demonstrated a link between TV viewing and poorer health. In this new study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, investigators reported an association between increasing hours of television viewing per day and increasing … [Read more...]

Anxious patients heading into surgery often receive medication to ease their fears, but a few calming words from their physicians might actually be more effective medicine. In fact, "conversational hypnosis" as the approach is known, may do a better job than pills for relaxing patients before anesthesia and surgery, suggests research being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2015 … [Read more...]

Posing as a 15-year-old athlete wanting to bulk up during strength training, a researcher asked more than 200 health food stores whether he should take a sports performance supplement containing creatine. Despite recommendations against using creatine under age 18 by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American College of Sports Medicine, more than two-thirds of … [Read more...]

There is a pre-existing assumption that women place less importance on their careers than men. A new study by an Ithaca College professor challenges this assumption by evaluating how much men and women consider their careers a central part of their identity. "Are Women Less Career Centric Than Men? Structure, Culture and Career Investments" by Stephen Sweet, analyzes data … [Read more...]

It is widely recognised that our physical fitness is reflected in our mental fitness, especially as we get older. How does being physically fit affect our aging brains? Neuroimaging studies, in which the activity of different parts of the brain can be visualised, have provided some clues. Until now, however, no study has directly linked brain activation with both mental and … [Read more...]

Acromio-clavicular joint dislocation is one of the most common shoulder injuries orthopedic surgeons treat. Severe dislocations are often treated with surgery, but patients who opt for non-surgical treatment typically experience fewer complications and return to work sooner, according to new research published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma. The AC joint is located at … [Read more...]

Resistance and endurance exercises affect the body very differently. These differences suggest that adapting to exercise involves many processes, but scientists have observed that one gene in particular, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator PGC-1a, controls many of them. New research in Physiological Reports shows that although both resistance and … [Read more...]

Researchers at University Jean Monnet of Saint-Etienne, France have succeeded in developing a vaginal silicone ring that delivers molecules that act on both HIV and herpes virus. This research is presented at the 55th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC/ICC). "We succeeded in creating a ring that can deliver hydrophilic molecules such as … [Read more...]

A joint study by UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Health & Hospital System investigators found that a multicomponent outreach program increased completion of the three-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination series that reduces the risk of cervical cancer caused by the virus. "Delivery of the HPV vaccine in safety-net settings is critically important … [Read more...]

Many viral infections, such as the common cold, cause mild illnesses that the body's immune system eventually defeats. But when viruses cause severe disease, doctors have few options for effective treatment. Studying mice with a variety of viral infections, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine? in St. Louis have demonstrated a way to dial up the body's … [Read more...]

Drowsy mice make poor stem cell donors, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. A sleep deficit of just four hours affects by as much as 50 percent the ability of stem cells of the blood and immune system to migrate to the proper spots in the bone marrow of recipient mice and churn out the cell types necessary to reconstitute a … [Read more...]

People undergoing root canals may have gained a powerful, if tiny, new ally. Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have found that using nanodiamonds to fortify a material used in the procedure could significantly improve outcomes for patients. A paper on their research is published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal ACS Nano. Nanodiamonds are tiny … [Read more...]

  It's tempting to believe that people these days aren't getting enough sleep, living as we do in our well-lit houses with TVs blaring, cell phones buzzing, and a well-used coffee maker in every kitchen. But new evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 15 shows that three ancient groups of hunter-gatherers--living in different parts of the … [Read more...]

  Working in mice, researchers at Duke University have discovered a potential new class of drugs that may prevent the development of temporal lobe epilepsy, one of the most common and devastating forms of epilepsy. Temporal lobe epilepsy is particularly debilitating because it strikes the areas of the brain responsible for memory and mood. As a result, patients have … [Read more...]

Researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine may have identified a way to assess who is at risk for developing a urinary tract infection (UTI) following pelvic-floor surgery. These findings were reported in the latest issue of PLOS ONE. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common type of bacterial infection and have estimated treatment costs … [Read more...]