Newsline — Friday, January 9, 2015 13:00
Hepatitis C Ruled Out as Cause of Mental Impairment in HIV Patients
Female Meth Users Face Substantially Higher Risk for Parkinson’s Disease
Friday, January 9, 2015 9:00
According to research conducted by the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare, methamphetamine users are three times more at risk for getting Parkinson’s disease compared to non-illicit drug users. Researchers also observed that women who use methamphetamine may be nearly five times more likely to get Parkinson’s disease compared to women who don’t use drugs. Published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the study looked at more than 40,000 records in the Utah Population Database, a unique compilation of genealogical, medical and government-provided information on Utah families. This study confirms a previous one conducted using 250,000 California hospital discharge records, which also found a similar risk for Parkinson’s disease among meth users. Methamphetamine has become an increasingly popular drug of choice in the West, where it’s used more commonly than in other parts of the country. In Utah, the trend toward meth use is particularly pronounced in women in their late 20s, who may start taking the drug due to pressure from a partner or spouse. The reason female meth users are more at…
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Insomnia Can Predict Back Pain in Adults
Thursday, January 8, 2015 17:00
According to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Haifa and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, insomnia is a marker for the increased risk of back pain. About 50 percent of back-pain sufferers also complain of insomnia, which increases a person’s sensitivity to pain. Additionally, those suffering are more likely to suffer from spontaneous pain more often (when compared to others without insomnia). This study is the first to show a direct connection between insomnia and back pain. Researchers diagnosed participants’ back pain by using two criteria: confirmation of the patient’s medical records by a doctor’s examination at least once during the previous 12 months, and interviews confirming consistency of back pain for at least three months. Results of the study (conducted from 2003-2011) also found that the chances of those suffering from insomnia and back pain were nearly 150 percent greater compared to those who sleep normally. Among women, the correlation between insomnia and back pain was even higher. “We examined healthy, employed adults, over three periods of time. After…
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Migraines May Double Risk for Facial Paralysis
Thursday, January 8, 2015 10:16
According to a new study published in the journal Neurology, migraine headaches may double the risk of a nervous system condition that causes facial paralysis, called Bell’s palsy. Affecting between 11 and 40 per 100,000 people each year, people with Bell’s palsy usually recover completely. However, headaches are the most common disorder of the nervous system, affecting about 12 percent of the U.S. population. During the study, two groups of 136,704 people ages 18 and older (one group with migraine and one without), were followed for an average of three years. During that time, 671 people in the migraine group and 365 of the non-migraine group were newly diagnosed with Bell’s palsy. People with migraine were twice as likely to develop Bell’s palsy even after researchers accounted for other factors that could increase the risk of the condition, such as gender, high blood pressure or diabetes. “Infection, inflammation or heart and vascular problems could be shared causes for these diseases,” noted the lead author of the study. “If a common link is identified and confirmed,…
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Bat Nav: Animals’ 3D Brain Compass Found
Tuesday, January 6, 2015 13:00
A study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovat, Israel, has used new technology to discover an internal navigation system within the brains of bats that allows them to maneuver while flying. First published in the journal Nature, the study utilized a small brain activity recording device that gave in-depth readings while allowing the animals to freely move in flight without any interference. Building on previous research that determined that rats had a three dimensional sense of their surroundings, bats were found to have a sense of both pitch and roll, which enabled them to maintain full spatial awareness during even the most acrobatic movements. The lead researcher explained, “Bats and rats are separated by millions of years of evolution. And yet, if you look at the same brain regions of these two species, you find place cells, head-direction cells, and you find grid cells. That’s why we think this might be relevant for humans too.” Future efforts will attempt to find similar functions in other animals to better understand how mammal brains perceive location, hopefully leading…
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Researchers Study Prescription Rate of Psychotropic Drugs for Kentucky Kids
Tuesday, January 6, 2015 9:00
At-risk children in Kentucky are twice as likely to be prescribed psychotropic medications, according to a research team from the Child and Adolescent Health Research Design and Support Unity at the University of Louisville. According to Medicaid records, 14 percent of the 600,000 children receiving coverage in Kentucky have been prescribed antipsychotics, antidepressants, attention deficit disorder treatments, anti-anxiety medications or mood stabilizers. This is double the national rate of 7 percent. Notably, 42 percent of children in the foster care system were reported as having at least one prescription, compared to a national rate of 26.6 percent. The research team, operating on a grant from Passport Health Plan, has begun a three-phase plan to understand and evaluate these statistics in order to determine if the prescriptions were justified, or were caused by a lack of support resources within the healthcare system. Physicians who demonstrate higher rates of prescriptions will be questioned, and the results will determine whether the study will confirm the need for these drugs, or if proactive solutions should be proposed to alleviate…
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Unpacking Brain Damage in ALS
Monday, January 5, 2015 10:25
In a recent study published in the journal Neuron, researchers found a common gene mutation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that generates a deadly protein which may cause the damage in the brain that leads to the disease. In 2011, researchers discovered that about five percent of ALS patients carry an altered version of a gene called C9orf72, which in ALS patients contains hundreds of repeat sequences that are otherwise not present in healthy individuals. However, the original theory, that the C9orf72 mutation in ALS disrupts the gene’s normal function in the cell did not hold up — suggesting that the C9orf72 gene is not essential to neuronal health. The most compelling discovery from the more recent study came from five distinct proteins generated from RNA sequences of the C9orf72 gene. The researchers found that one of the five caused the greatest amount of damage to the cells. The protein chain made from the amino acids proline and arginine, known as a poly-PR chain, accumulated in the nucleolus and rapidly killed the neuron that produced it. By tracking the life cycle…
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Obese Children’s Brains More Responsive to Sugar
Tuesday, December 16, 2014 15:00
In a recent study published in the journal International Journal of Obesity, researchers from the University of California found that the brains of obese children respond more intensely when tasting sugar. This elevated sense of “food reward,” which involves being motivated by food could mean some children have brain circuitries that predispose them to crave more sugar throughout life. After scanning the brains of 23 children, 10 who were obese and 13 who had healthy weights, the researchers found that obese children had heightened activity in the insular cortex and amygdala, regions of the brain involved in perception, emotion, awareness, taste, motivation and reward. “Any obesity expert will tell you that losing weight is hard and that the battle has to be won on the prevention side,” said the lead author of the study. “The study is a wake-up call that prevention has to start very early because some children may be born with a hypersensitivity to food rewards or they may be able to learn a relationship between food and feeling better faster than…
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Researchers Link Late Evenings to Repetitive Negative Thoughts
Tuesday, December 16, 2014 13:00
Researchers from Binghamton University have published a study in the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research analyzing the link between sleep cycles and overall negative thinking. The study surveyed 100 young adults at Binghamton University with an extensive array of questionnaires in order to determine their tendencies to obsess over negative thoughts, internally debate a topic and their general anxiety levels. These participants were then questioned about their sleeping habits, waking hours and general preferences for mornings or evenings. Researchers found that participants who engaged in sleep later than others and generally slept less reported a higher rate of negative thinking. The findings suggest that the disrupted sleep cycle may be causing instances of negative thinking during late evening hours, and that simply engaging in an earlier sleep schedule may avoid this window of increased risk for negative rumination. “Making sure that sleep is obtained during the right time of day may be an inexpensive and easily disseminable intervention for individuals who are bothered by intrusive thoughts,” explained the author. Future research will determine the exact…
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Major Brain Pathway Rediscovered After Century-old Confusion, Controversy
Monday, December 15, 2014 15:45
Researchers from the University of Washington have stumbled upon a neural pathway which has been lost to medical science for over a century, allowing it to be studied for the first time with modern techniques. According to the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MRI scans revealed a bundle of fibers in the section of the brain associated with vision and recognition which was not found in any modern anatomy textbook. The research team later located a reference to the pathway in a record that had been stored since 1912, which reported that the pathway had been discovered in the late 1880s. It was reported in multiple publications under several different names due to inconsistent naming practices of the era. The researcher tasked with the historical analysis explained, “When we started, it was just for our own knowledge and curiosity. But, after a while, we realized that there was an important story to tell that contained a series of missing links that have been buried for so long within…
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