_ Successful Approaches to Stopping HRT By article Many women will try to stop using hormone pills and patches intended to control menopausal symptoms but fail because the symptoms return, according to Katherine Newton, PhD at the University of Washington and colleagues. The team’s article, published online in the January 20th 2014 issue of Journal of Women’s Health. The researchers identified key characteristics of hormone therapy cessation that can increase the likelihood of success.
Juggling Points to Better Prostheses & Tx for Ataxia By article A study led by Johns Hopkins engineers has used the skill of juggling to gather critical clues about how vision and the sense of touch help control the way humans and animals move their limbs in a repetitive way, such as in running. The findings eventually may aid in the treatment of people with neurological diseases and could lead to prosthetic limbs and robots that move more efficiently. The study has been published online by the Journal of Neurophysiology and will be the cover article for the journal's March 2014 print edition.
Fatigue Helps You Make Good Health Decisions By Jane Farrell article Researchers say there might be one good thing about being fatigued: we make better health-care decisions when we’re feeling tired and run down. “We proposed that people are more motivated to engage in healthful behavior when they are depleted and perceive their safety to be at stake,” write authors Monika Lisjak, of Erasmus University, and Angela Y. Lee, of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
_ Marriage Double Dating Keeps Romance Alive By Jane Farrell article Just in time for Valentine’s Day, researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit have found that going on a double date may be more effective at reigniting passion in your own relationship than the classic candlelit dinner for two. That result appears to be because striking up a friendship with another couple in which you discuss personal details of your life will bring you closer to your own partner. The study will be presented the week of February 10th 2014 at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Austin, Texas.
_ Beyond Emotional Intelligence By article John Mayer, the University of New Hampshire psychologist who co-developed with Peter Salovey the groundbreaking theory of emotional intelligence popularized by Daniel Goleman in the book “Emotional Intelligence”, has introduced another paradigm-shifting idea.
_ Exercise Better Design for Running Shoes on the Horizon By article If running is your exercise of choice, you may soon have the option of wearing dramatically improved shoes when you train. A study of how foot muscles support the arch of the foot, led by researchers at t he University of Queensland in Australia used retro-reflective skin markers for three-dimensional motion capture on the right foot of each participant. The results were published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface on January 29th 2014.
_ Hemp Oil Could Be Used for Cooking By Jane Farrell article Researchers are well on the way to making hemp oil good for cooking. The experts, from the University of York in the UK, have developed hemp plants with a substantially increased content of oleic acid. That development means hemp oil can now be a cooking oil similar to olive oil. The new oil has a much longer shelf life and can be used for industrial as well as domestic purposes. The research was published in Plant Biotechnology Journal.
_ Age-Related Decline in Motor Skills May Not be Inevitable By Jane Farrell article Researchers have pinpointed a source of age-related motor decline, and that could lead to targeted treatments to deal with the condition. The investigators, from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, discovered evidence that so-called “set points” in the nervous system are not inevitably determined during development but can be “reset” with age.
_ Helping Spinal Cord Patients Breathe on Their Own By article Diaphragm pacing, a system that gained nationwide attention when Raymond Onders, MD of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Clevelandimplanted the stimulator in actor Christopher Reeve, has now been shown to be successful not only in weaning patients from mechanical ventilators but also in bridging patients to independent respiration. The study, done at the center, was published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
Diabetes: 7 New Genetic Regions By article Seven new genetic regions associated with type 2 diabetes have been identified in the largest study to date of the genetic basis of the disease. DNA data was brought together from more than 48,000 patients and 139,000 healthy controls from four different ethnic groups. The research was conducted by an international consortium of investigators from 20 countries on four continents, co-led by investigators from Oxford University's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. The study is published in the February 2014 issue of journal Nature Genetics.
_ Heart Health Spousal Supportiveness = Better Heart Health By Jane Farrell article Supportiveness from a spouse can help people fare better in their overall cardiovascular health, according to a new study. The findings, by researchers from the University of Utah, show that when partners perceive the support they get from each other as ambivalent – sometimes helpful, sometimes stressful – their levels of coronary artery calcification (CAC) tend to be high. The findings were published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
_ The Benefits of ΓÇ£TelehealthΓÇ¥ By Sondra Forsyth article “Telehealth”, an approach to saving costs and improving patient care in hospitals, goes far beyond videoconferenced doctor visits, according to researchers at the University of Michigan who conducted the first survery of how broadly web-based technologies are being used nationwide. The team found that 42 percent of U.S. hospitals use some type of "telehealth" approach. The study, published in the February 2014 issue of the journal Health Affairs, breaks down adoption rates by state.
Simulated Blindness Sharpens Hearing By article Researchers at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University have overturned the long-held belief that adult brains can’t be re-wired to improve hearing by simulating vision loss. The findings, published February 5th in the journal Neuron, may lead to treatments for people with hearing loss or tinnitus, according to lead author Patrick Kanold and his research partner Hey-Kyoung Lee.
_ Hospitals Don't Follow Infection Prevention Rules By article The most comprehensive review of infection control efforts at U.S. hospitals in more than three decades found lax compliance even in intensive care units where patients are more likely to be treated with devices linked to preventable infections – such as central lines, urinary catheters and ventilators. That is the finding of research done at Columbia University School of Nursing and published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
_ Curcumin Improves Chemotherapy Treatment By article A special form of the spice curcumin may improve cancer treatment, both directly with its activity against cancer cells and indirectly by sensitizing cancer cells to the effects of chemotherapy. That is the finding of a study done at Baylor University Mdical Center in Dallas and published in the journal PLoS ONE. A release from the university notes that the researchers also showed that BCM-95 Curcumin reduces cellular DNA damage that can lead to cancer.
_ Heart Health Knowing Your "Heart Age" Leads to Healthier Behavior By Jane Farrell article People who know their “heart age” are likelier to engage in healthier behavior, according to a new study.
_ Aging Well Well-being Feeling in Control Can Increase Longevity By article People who feel in control and believe they can achieve goals despite hardships are more likely to live longer and healthier lives, especially among those with less education, according to a study by Brandeis University and the University of Rochester and published online in the Journal of Health Psychology. Previous studies have shown that people with a high school diploma or less education tend to die younger than those with a college degree or graduate training. Yet, that’s not a hard and fast rule. Why?
_ Nerve Block Eases Hot Flashes By article Injecting a little anesthetic near a nerve bundle in the neck cut troublesome hot flashes significantly, according to a study done at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Chicago and published in the journal Menopause. the a new randomized, controlled trial published online today in Menopause,