Gardening gives older adults benefits like hand strength and self esteem

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Researchers at Kansas State University already have shown that gardening can offer enough moderate physical activity to keep older adults in shape.

In research to be published in February in the journal HortScience, the researchers discovered that among the other health benefits of gardening is keeping older hands strong and nimble.

"One of the things we found is that older adults who are gardeners have better hand strength and pinch force, which is a big concern as you age," said Candice Shoemaker, K-State professor of horticulture.

Study shows that primary care doctors miss opportunities to recommend colon cancer screening

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(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — While it is known that patients with few primary care doctor's office visits are less likely to receive colorectal cancer screening, new research indicates that even patients who see their physicians regularly also do not receive screening.

The study, which appears in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, was conducted by a team of researchers at UC Davis, the University of Washington and Group Health Cooperative in Seattle.

Regular physical activity linked to better quality of life in early-stage lung cancer survivors

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Survivors of early-stage lung cancer who take part in regular physical activity have a better quality of life, according to a study in the February issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, available online now. Patients who are more physically active report better mood, more vigor, and greater physical functioning, the study shows.

Automation increases worker efficiency in greenhouses, nurseries

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BILOXI, MS – A report published in the October 2008 issue of HortTechnology measures the socioeconomic impact of automation and mechanization on sales, employment, workers' earnings, safety and worker retention in nurseries and greenhouses.

Research suggests public funding for specialty crops inadequate

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DAVIS, CA—Specialty crops, including fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and nursery crops, have become increasingly important compared to other categories of agriculture in the United States over the past 50 years. These crops have continued to grow in production value, but this growth has not been matched by growth in public agricultural research spending. In fact, spending on specialty crops research has remained constant during a time period when the value of production for these crops has increased significantly.

Drugs may be 'magic bullet' for infants born with rare form of diabetes

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Infants born with a rare form of inherited diabetes might avoid irreversible damage to their pancreases if they are treated immediately with sulfonylurea drugs rather than insulin, according to a new report in the February 4th issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication.

New clues to pancreatic cells' destruction in diabetes

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Researchers have found what appears to be a major culprit behind the loss of insulin-producing β cells from the pancreases of people with diabetes, a critical event in the progression of the disease.

Fat-free diet reduces liver fat in fat-free mice, UT Southwestern researchers report

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DALLAS – Feb. 3, 2009 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have uncovered crucial clues about a paradoxical disease in which patients with no body fat develop many of the health complications usually found in obese people.

The findings in mice, appearing online today in Cell Metabolism,have led to the initiation of a National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trial to determine whether eating an extremely low-fat diet could prevent many of the metabolic complications brought on by lipodystrophy.

Potential new herpes therapy studied

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new therapy being developed at the University of Florida could, in time, produce another weapon for the fight against herpes.

The gene-targeting approach uses a specially designed RNA enzyme to inhibit strains of the herpes simplex virus. The enzyme disables a gene responsible for producing a protein involved in the maturation and release of viral particles in an infected cell. The technique appears to be effective in experiments with mice and rabbits, but further research is required before it can be attempted in people who are infected with herpes.

Cardiff researchers could herald a new era in fundamental physics

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Cardiff University researchers who are part of a British-German team searching the depths of space to study gravitational waves, may have stumbled on one of the most important discoveries in physics according to an American physicist.

Craig Hogan, a physicist at Fermilab Centre for Particle Astrophysics in Illinois is convinced that he has found proof in the data of the gravitational wave detector GEO600 of a holographic Universe – and that his ideas could explain mysterious noise in the detector data that has not been explained so far.