Women Health

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...]

Using unique demographic records on 140,600 reproducing individuals from the Utah Population Database (USA), a research team led from Uppsala University has come to the conclusion that lowered birth rates are one reason why women outlive men in today's societies. The study is published in Scientific Reports. The causes underpinning sex differences in lifespan are hotly … [Read more...]

As many as one in four women in the U.S. suffer from chronic pelvic pain. A lot of times medication, steroid injections or physical therapy will help, but for women whose pelvic pain comes from the pudendal nerve, the pain goes much deeper. Now, an Atlanta doctor is trying a procedure that may be the non-invasive cure millions of women are looking for. Kristan Leeper can … [Read more...]

Essential biological processes are managed by an internal timer or body clock. When the body clock gets out of whack, conditions such as metabolic syndrome can occur. A research team led by biochemists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) conducted an investigation to see if improving the body clock would protect against metabolic syndrome … [Read more...]

After vigorous exercise, some 3,000 genes go to work to aid recovery by boosting muscles and blood vessels, but in the presence of high doses of antihistamines almost 27 percent of the gene response is blunted, according to University of Oregon researchers. Whether the antihistamine effect on 795 affected genes might suggest a problem for competitive athletes and devoted … [Read more...]

Suppose you were trying to design a vaccine to combat next season's influenza virus. Having a detailed map that tells you exactly how various strains of the flu bug will evolve would be extremely helpful. Creating just that sort of map is the goal of evolutionary biologists who study a conceptual tool called the fitness landscape, which provides a way to visualize and … [Read more...]

Attractive and smart but unlucky in love? New research suggests you might not have luck to blame but rather your own negative traits. Researchers found that when evaluating potential mates, people give more weight to negative qualities than to positive ones. That is, even if someone has a number of positive qualities, one or two negative qualities can be enough for others to … [Read more...]

Researchers led by Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich's Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel, have performed a feat that many specialists had until now held to be impossible: they have extracted stem cells from a 50-year-old test subject's fatty tissue and applied genetic reprogramming to make them mature into … [Read more...]

An internal clock within the kidneys plays an important role in maintaining balance within the body, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Many of the body's processes follow a natural daily rhythm or circadian clock that is based on regular light-dark cycles as Earth rotates. Dmitri Firsov, PhD, … [Read more...]

New research demonstrates that the six-step hand-hygiene technique recommended by the World Health Organization is superior to a three-step method suggested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in reducing bacteria on healthcare workers' hands. The study was published online in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for … [Read more...]

We're all aware of the physical advantages of exercising and the emotional advantages have also been well-documented. But how much do we know about the psychological impact of engaging in physical activity? This study from Cognition and Emotion demonstrates the positive impact of acute aerobic exercise on individuals experiencing emotion regulation difficulties. Emily E. … [Read more...]

Our ability to fight off recurrent infections, such as colds or flu, may lie in the 'immunological memory' found in a newly discovered class of gene regulatory elements, according to research from the University of Birmingham, supported by the BBSRC and Bloodwise. The research, published in The EMBO J, identifies one way in which the immune system is able to provide a quick … [Read more...]

A small percentage of people diagnosed with a mysterious neurological condition may only experience psychiatric changes -- such as delusional thinking, hallucinations, and aggressive behavior -- according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, people who had previously been diagnosed with this disease, … [Read more...]

Researchers in the U.K. report that non-restorative sleep is the strongest, independent predictor of widespread pain onset among adults over the age of 50. According to the study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology (formerly Arthritis & Rheumatism), a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), anxiety, memory impairment, and poor physical health among … [Read more...]

Josep Rodes-Cabau, M.D., of Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, and colleagues randomly assigned 171 patients with an indication for atrial septal defect (ASD) closure and no history of migraine to receive dual antiplatelet therapy (aspirin + clopidogrel [the clopidogrel group], n = 84) or single antiplatelet therapy (aspirin + placebo [the placebo group], n = 87) for 3 … [Read more...]

New research from the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project shows that genetics plays a role in sleep/wake timing of seizures. Researchers studied 1,395 individuals with epilepsy in families containing multiple people with epilepsy to determine whether sleep/wake timing of seizures runs in families. The study found that seizures in relatives were likely to occur at the same time … [Read more...]