Women Health News

In a survey of high-achieving physician-scientists, nearly a third of women reported experiencing sexual harassment. "This is a sobering reminder that our society has a long way to go before we achieve gender equity," says study author Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., associate professor and deputy chair of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan Medical … [Read more...]

Women who attended religious services more than once per week were more than 30% less likely to die during a 16-year-follow-up than women who never attended, according to a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Frequent attendees also had significantly lower risk both from cardiovascular- and cancer-related mortality. "Our results suggest that there may be … [Read more...]

Vitamin D is important for the absorption and metabolism of calcium, as well as for maintaining healthy bones and muscles. Danes generally have too low a level, and this is mainly because the sun -- the main source -- is absent for much of the year. Getting an intake of vitamin D through the diet will therefore be relevant for many, but are consumers actually interested in … [Read more...]

A combination of two compounds found in red grapes and oranges could be used to improve the health of people with diabetes, and reduce cases of obesity and heart disease. The find has been made by University of Warwick researchers who now hope that their discovery will be developed to provide a treatment for patients. Professor Thornalley who led research said: "This is … [Read more...]

Taking calcium and vitamin D can help prevent broken bones in older women. However, this benefit may be cancelled out by an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. With the highest reported risk of hip fractures in the word, Norway has good reason to consider the benefits and risks of calcium supplements. The challenge is that too little calcium and vitamin D in your diet … [Read more...]

Logging on to social media sites frequently throughout the week or spending hours trolling various social feeds during the day is linked to a greater risk of young adults developing eating and body image concerns, a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine analysis discovered. Gender, specific age, race and income did not influence the association; the study found that … [Read more...]

Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relive past traumas again and again, bound in a virtual prison of their memories. Researchers in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio now report a biological mechanism that might explain why these individuals are less able to extinguish the fear of past dangers. The … [Read more...]

Eating tree nuts appears to help reduce two of the five markers for metabolic syndrome, a group of factors that raise the risk for heart disease and other health problems such as diabetes and strokes, a new research paper says. The paper found a "modest decrease" in blood fats known as triglycerides and blood sugars among people who added tree nuts to their diets compared to … [Read more...]

There is currently no specific diagnostic test for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but now researchers have identified a combination of 16 different substances in the breath that, when measured together, can accurately distinguish IBS patients from people without the condition. Investigators analyzed breath samples from 170 IBS patients and 153 healthy controls, as well as … [Read more...]

New findings regarding the pathology of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are bringing Griffith University researchers closer to identifying the cause of this disabling illness. This is the news from a team at the National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases at the Menzies Health Institute Queensland. Professors Marshall-Gradisnik and Don Staines and their … [Read more...]

A team of researchers led by McMaster University's Charu Kaushic has revealed for the first time how estradiol, a female sex hormone present during the menstrual cycle and found in oral contraceptives, may work to protect women against sexually transmitted viral infections. In a study published in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens, Kaushic and colleagues describe the … [Read more...]

Always surrounded by an aura of mystery, the moon and its possible influence over human behavior has been object of ancestral fascination and mythical speculation for centuries. While the full moon cannot turn people into werewolves, some people do accuse it of causing a bad night's sleep or creating physical and mental alterations. But is there any science behind these … [Read more...]

In order to fight invading pathogens, the immune system uses "outposts" throughout the body, called lymph nodes. These are small, centimeter-long organs that filter fluids, get rid of waste materials, and trap pathogens, e.g. bacteria or viruses. Lymph nodes are packed with immune cells, and are know to grow in size, or 'swell', when they detect invading pathogens. But now, … [Read more...]

Three-hundred thirty-two thousand Americans have hip replacement every year. For most, the surgery requires a hospital stay, and weeks of rehabilitation.  Now, a different approach to surgery is getting patients back on their feet and out of the hospital faster than ever before. For 63-year-old Mary Farley, lifting up, stepping down and bending over are cause to celebrate. … [Read more...]

A protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the brain to regulate metabolism, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. The research potentially could lead to new therapies to treat obesity and diabetes, since the transcription factor involved -- spliced X-box binding protein 1 (Xbp1s) -- appears to influence … [Read more...]

A new study from UC San Francisco is the first to show that while the impact of life's stressors accumulate overtime and accelerate cellular aging, these negative effects may be reduced by maintaining a healthy diet, exercising and sleeping well. "The study participants who exercised, slept well and ate well had less telomere shortening than the ones who didn't maintain … [Read more...]

  Life events such as visiting another country or contracting a disease cause a significant shift in the make-up of the gut microbiota -- the community of bacteria living in the digestive system, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Biology. Two participants used smartphone apps to collect information every day for a year in the study by … [Read more...]

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have shown for the first time that people with higher levels of brown fat, or brown adipose tissue, in their bodies have better blood sugar control, higher insulin sensitivity and a better metabolism for burning fat stores. Their findings suggest that, because of the brown fat's ability to better regulate … [Read more...]

  A team of local researchers has proposed a molecular mechanism that may be responsible for the development of life-threatening diseases called amyloidoses. The best known of such diseases is Alzheimer's disease (AD), but there are many others that are receiving increased scrutiny, in part because of mounting evidence linking them to atherosclerosis and aging. The … [Read more...]

Exercise can have a positive influence on certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis: Patients who do yoga and aquatic exercise suffer less from fatigue, depression and paresthesia, as reported by researchers from the University of Basel and the Psychiatric University Clinics Basel in a joint study with colleagues in Iran. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive … [Read more...]

A new study in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry suggests that women are particularly susceptible to the pain-relieving placebo effect of vasopressin. Placebos are used to help accurately measure clinical responses/outcomes when studying the effects of medications, therapies, and other treatments. The well-known "placebo effect" is a phenomenon whereby a patient's … [Read more...]

Researchers from the University of Birmingham have found that extended rest intervals between sets of weight-lifting could help with muscle growth. The findings, published in Experimental Physiology, go against the conventional belief that favours shorter periods of rest. The study highlights that short rest intervals may actually impair the processes that control muscle … [Read more...]

Although there have been discussions about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition impacting 24 million Americans, and depression, there has been little research showing the impact depression has on patients with COPD. Two studies published in the April issue of the journal CHEST found one in four patients with COPD suffer from depressive symptoms, and if not … [Read more...]

A team of scientists have investigated a case of vaccine-associated chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and macrophagic myofasciitis in an individual demonstrating aluminium overload. This is the first report linking aluminium overload with either of the two conditions and the possibility is considered that the coincident aluminium overload contributed significantly to the … [Read more...]

Researchers from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio are exploring a possible link between metabolic defects and seizures. They determined that diet could influence susceptibility to seizures, and they have identified a common diabetes drug that could be useful in treating disorders such as epilepsy. Dr. Daniel Kuebler, the principal investigator behind the … [Read more...]

Researchers at McMaster University have found that a single minute of very intense exercise produces health benefits similar to longer, traditional endurance training. The findings put to rest the common excuse for not getting in shape: there is not enough time. "This is a very time-efficient workout strategy," says Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster … [Read more...]

Everything you eat or drink affects your intestinal bacteria, and is likely to have an impact on your health. That is the finding of a large-scale study led by RUG/UMCG geneticist Cisca Wijmenga into the effect of food and medicine on the bacterial diversity in the human gut, which is published this Friday in the research journal Science. In this study researchers collected … [Read more...]

Call it personalized medicine for depression -- but the prescription in this case is exercise, which University of Florida Health researchers have found helps people with certain genetic traits. A UF study has found that specific genetic markers that put people at risk for depression also predict who might benefit from exercise, according to a study published recently in The … [Read more...]

A culturally sensitive lifestyle intervention showed promise at motivating Latinas living in the U.S. to eat better and exercise more by connecting healthy-living behaviors with the lives of saints and prominent religious figures, new studies found. Several recent papers about the project, including a new study published in the Journal of Aging and Health, add to a growing … [Read more...]

Taking B vitamins doesn't slow mental decline as we age, nor is it likely to prevent Alzheimer's disease, conclude Oxford University researchers who have assembled all the best clinical trial data involving 22,000 people to offer a final answer on this debate. High levels in the blood of a compound called homocysteine have been found in people with Alzheimer's disease, and … [Read more...]