Meditation and music may help reverse early memory loss in adults at risk for Alzheimer’s Disease
Posted: 21 Jan 2017 04:08 PM PST
In a recent study of adults with early memory loss, scientists found that practice of a simple meditation or music listening program may have multiple benefits for older adults with preclinical memory loss.
Facts, beliefs, and identity: The seeds of science skepticism
Posted: 21 Jan 2017 03:32 PM PST
From climate skeptics to anti-vaxxers, psychologists are studying what motivates and drives our decisions to pay attention to some facts while ignoring others.
For health and happiness, share good news
Posted: 21 Jan 2017 03:32 PM PST
Service members, including both active and recently separated, have been called upon to fight overseas and to assist during natural disasters at home. They can face unique challenges when they return in both the workplace and at home. New research, focused on these service member couples in Oregon, confirms supportive, responsive partners provide a buffer to loneliness and sleep deficits among military couples.
Processing speed training can improve cognitive ability, lift depression in the elderly
Posted: 20 Jan 2017 04:38 PM PST
A new Processing Speed Training Game (PSTG) has been developed for a Tablet PC, which they say can significantly improve processing speed and inhibition among healthy older adults, while also reducing their depressive moods when played regularly.
We all need contacts: How organelles hug in cells
Posted: 20 Jan 2017 06:10 AM PST
Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how different compartments (or organelles) of human cells interact.
Obesity is barely covered in medical students' licensing exam
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 01:32 PM PST
Obesity is one of the most significant threats to health in the U.S. and is responsible for the development of multiple serious medical problems such as diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer. Yet obesity is barely covered in medical training, according to a new study. The licensing exams for graduating medical students have a surprisingly limited number of test items about obesity prevention and treatment.
Study uses social media, internet to forecast disease outbreaks
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 01:15 PM PST
When epidemiological data are scarce, social media and Internet reports can be reliable tools for forecasting infectious disease outbreaks, according to a study.
A role for mutated blood cells in heart disease?
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 11:35 AM PST
A new study provides some of the first links between relatively common mutations in the blood cells of elderly humans and atherosclerosis.
Bodywide immune response important for fighting cancer, researchers say
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 10:46 AM PST
Effective anti-tumor activity requires a systemic, rather than only a local, immune response at the tumor site. The findings from a new study may help clinicians pinpoint why only some cancer patients respond to immunotherapies.
Scientists aim to create the world's largest sickle cell disease stem cell library
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 10:46 AM PST
Scientists are creating an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based research library that opens the door to invaluable sickle cell disease research and novel therapy development.
HPV prevalence rates among US men, vaccination coverage
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 10:46 AM PST
Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, as well as a cause of various cancers, and a new study estimates the overall prevalence of genital HPV infection in men ages 18 to 59.
Computer-based cognitive training program may help patients with severe tinnitus
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 10:46 AM PST
Researchers evaluated the effect of a cognitive training program on tinnitus, and report positive results.
Balance may rely on the timing of movement
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 10:46 AM PST
Zebrafish learn to balance by darting forward when they feel wobbly, a principle that may also apply to humans. Researchers hope their work will one day help therapists to better treat balance problems.
'FishTaco' sorts out who is doing what in your microbiome
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 10:45 AM PST
How much do different bacterial species contribute to disease-associated imbalances in the human microbiome? A new computational method, dubbed FishTaco, is helping find out. The method looks at which microbes are present and what they are doing. Understanding imbalances in say, the human gut microbiome, might eventually suggest new ways to manage obesity, type 2 diabetes, or autoimmune diseases.
Atherosclerosis: Endogenous peptide lowers cholesterol
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 07:02 AM PST
Cells of the innate immune system that play an important role in development of atherosclerosis contain a protein that reduces levels of cholesterol in mice -- and thus helps to inhibit or mitigate the disease.
Disadvantaged women at greater risk of heart disease than men
Posted: 19 Jan 2017 05:46 AM PST
Women from low socioeconomic backgrounds are 25 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack than disadvantaged men, a major new study has found. A new study examined data from 22 million people from North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.