Women Health

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...]

  Recently, a study in the Journal of Internal Medicine suggested that women who avoid sun exposure are twice as likely to die as compared to those who receive sun exposure. The study attempts to link low vitamin D levels with this increased death rate. However, even the study authors admit that this is speculation on their part. Encouraging sun exposure to get … [Read more...]

We are all aware of the health benefits of dietary fiber. But what is dietary fiber and how do we metabolize it? Research at the University of Michigan Medical School, the University of York's Structural Biology Laboratory, and institutions in Canada and Sweden, has begun to uncover how our gut bacteria metabolize the complex dietary carbohydrates found in fruits and … [Read more...]

Japanese researchers have determined that sarcopenia -- a loss of skeletal muscle mass -- increases risk of sepsis and mortality risk in patients undergoing live donor liver transplantation. Findings published in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, suggest that … [Read more...]

Irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and anorexia nervosa may all have a common origin according to researchers. They speculate that all three disorders may be caused by antibodies to the body's own nerve cells because of a mistake by the immune system following infection. At the moment, the ultimate cause of these illnesses remains a mystery. Writing in … [Read more...]

For the first time in history, researchers have isolated the parts of the human genome that could explain the differences in how humans experience happiness. These are the findings of a large-scale international study in over 298,000 people, conducted by VU Amsterdam professors Meike Bartels (Genetics and Wellbeing) and Philipp Koellinger (Genoeconomics). The researchers found … [Read more...]

Over the last 50 years, political rights for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals have significantly broadened in some countries, while they have narrowed in others. In many parts of the world, political and popular support for LGB rights hinges on questions about the prevalence, causes, and consequences of non-heterosexual orientations. In a new report, a team of … [Read more...]

Spanish researchers have analysed the effect of endurance running training on the stiffness index, a variable that is directly related to bone quality. The results confirm that the greater the race distance that is trained, the better; this can be used, therefore, to prevent the progressive decline in bone mineral density that occurs with age. In healthy individuals, bone … [Read more...]

Global studies have shown that women are underrepresented in some science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and fields. Even in countries with higher gender equality, sex differences in math and technical scores persist. Now, using international data, a team of psychologists from the University of Missouri, the University of California-Irvine and the … [Read more...]

  A recent study from the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (JACN), examines the safety and efficacy of a vitamin/mineral enhanced plant-sourced calcium supplement [AlgaeCal (AC)] in female consumers who had taken the supplement from 1 to 7 years. The article "A 7-Year Longitudinal Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of a Vitamin/Mineral Enhanced … [Read more...]

Lack of sleep has previously been found to impact the activation of the immune system, inflammation, carbohydrate metabolism and the hormones that regulate appetite. Now University of Helsinki researchers have found that sleep loss also influences cholesterol metabolism. The study examined the impact of cumulative sleep deprivation on cholesterol metabolism in terms of both … [Read more...]

Researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA found that cardiovascular disease patients who have high muscle mass and low fat mass have a lower mortality risk than those with other body compositions. The findings also suggest that regardless of a person's level of fat mass, a higher level of muscle mass helps reduce the risk of death. This findings indicate … [Read more...]

The school a girl attends can affect her chance of being diagnosed with an eating disorder. That's the conclusion of research carried out by a joint UK-Swedish team. The results were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Researchers from Oxford University, UCL, the University of Bristol, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Karolinska … [Read more...]

Tiny structures in our cells, called centrioles, control both cell division and motility. The number of these structures is highly monitored, with deviations causing infertility, microcephaly and accelerating cancer. But how do mother cells know they provide the right number of centrioles to their daughters? They do it by copying those structures only once, so that each … [Read more...]

Live longer thanks to fruit, an active lifestyle, limited alcohol and no cigarettes. This is the conclusion of a study by public health physicians at the University of Zurich who documented for the first time the impact of behavioural factors on life expectancy in numbers. The results are to be taken over into prevention and health counselling in primary care. Cardiovascular … [Read more...]

Older adults who met twice-weekly strength training guidelines had lower odds of dying in a new analysis by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Columbia University. The study is the first to demonstrate the association in a large, nationally representative sample over an extended time period, particularly in an … [Read more...]

The devastating consequences of sexual trauma in the military reported by 25 percent of female and 1 percent of male veterans who served in the U.S. armed forces don't end with psychological and physical trauma, but are associated with a much higher risk for homelessness, a study led by Utah researchers has found. An examination of the records of 601,892 veterans who served … [Read more...]

Women in the U.S. who live in homes surrounded by more vegetation appear to have significantly lower mortality rates than those who live in areas with less vegetation, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The study found that women who lived in the greenest surroundings had a 12% lower overall mortality rate … [Read more...]

In as little as a few months, antipsychotic medications can tame the delusions and hallucinations that characterize schizophrenia. But the medications do little to reverse the less familiar brain-based problems that accompany the illness. Affecting memory, the speed at which the brain processes information, attention, problem-solving skills and emotional intelligence, these … [Read more...]