Body

Although adolescents need just as much sleep as younger children, sleep times decrease over the course of development, leaving many teens chronically sleep-deprived. Studies have consistently indicated that insufficient sleep can have a negative effect on many aspects of adolescents' lives, leading to mood disturbances, poorer physical health, and academic difficulties. But few studies have examined how sleep affects the ways adolescents function on a daily basis or how the effects of sleep change over time.

Cincinnati, OH, March 31, 2011 -- Roughly 15% of children suffer from migraines, and approximately one-third of these affected children have migraines with aura, a collection of symptoms that can include weakness, blind spots, and even hallucinations. Although the causes of migraines are unclear, a new study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics suggests a connection between migraine headaches in children and a heart defect called patent foramen ovale, which affects 25% of people in the U.S.

ANAHEIM, March 30, 2011 — In the first report on the uptake and internal processing of triclocarban (TCC) in fish, scientists today reported strong evidence that TCC — an antibacterial ingredient in some soaps and the source of environmental health concerns because of its potential endocrine-disrupting effects — has a "strong" tendency to bioaccumulate in fish. They presented the findings here today at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

ANAHEIM, March 30, 2011 — Military personnel and contractors stationed in Iraq risk not only enemy gunfire, suicide bombers, and roadside bombs, but the very air they breathe often is polluted with dust and other particles of a size and composition that could pose immediate and long-term health threats, scientists reported today at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Speaking at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science meeting later today (30 March), Professor Miguel Forte will describe research into a new cell therapy for chronic inflammatory conditions such as Crohn's disease. Patient's own blood cells are used to produce a type of cell – Type 1 T regulatory lymphocyte – that can reduce the extent of the disease.

A three-drug cocktail can eliminate the hepatitis C virus in patients far more effectively than the current two-drug regimen, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital.

"This study represents a remarkable advance and a potential cure for people with hepatitis C who have not responded to previous therapy," says co-author Stuart C. Gordon, M.D., section chief for the Division of Hepatology at Henry Ford Hospital.

(PHILADELPHIA) Giving girls with Turner syndrome low doses of estrogen, as well as growth hormone, years before the onset of puberty, increases their height and offers a wealth of other benefits, say a team of researchers led by Thomas Jefferson University. Their report is published in the March 31st issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

ST. LOUIS – The drug boceprevir helps cure hard-to-treat hepatitis C, says Saint Louis University investigator Bruce R. Bacon, M.D., author of the March 31 New England Journal of Medicine article detailing the study's findings. The results, which were first reported at the 61st annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease's last November, offer a brighter outlook for patients who have not responded to standard treatment.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30, 2011 –The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) weighed in on today's FDA announcement to continue to allow pharmacies to compound hydroxyprogesterone caproate, also known as 17P. This FDA announcement comes in response to an outcry from SMFM, ACOG and others regarding the costs of the just-released pharmaceutical version of the drug. The new drug, Makena, made by KV Pharmaceuticals, is being sold at $1,500 per dose as opposed to the pharmacy compound which typically costs $10 to $20 per dose.

34 new beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup have been discovered and University of Rhode Island researcher Navindra Seeram confirmed that 20 compounds discovered last year in preliminary research play a key role in human health.

Today at the 241st American Chemical Society's National Meeting in Anaheim, Calif. the URI assistant pharmacy professor is telling scientists from around the world that his URI team has now isolated and identified 54 beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup from Quebec, five of which have never been seen in nature.

Breast cancer patients who become resistant to tamoxifen may have low levels of a protein called Rho GDI-alpha, according to a study published online March 30 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Women whose tumors have estrogen receptors (ERs) often take tamoxifen after surgery to prevent recurrence of the cancer and keep it from metastasizing to other parts of the body. Some patients, however, become resistant to the drug even though their tumors remain ER-positive.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — UC Davis cancer researchers have found that older men with early-stage testicular cancer who opt for surveillance with regular CT scans over lymph node removal are at greater risk for secondary cancers. The findings, published online last week in the journal Cancer, indicate that physicians should consider the risk of new cancers with surveillance when discussing treatment options with their patients.

(ST. LOUIS): The Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) has played a significant role in identifying a new genus, Yasunia, with two confirmed species from Ecuador and Peru, Y. quadrata and Y. sessiliflora.

New species are often found among the samples that are gifted to the Missouri Botanical Garden for identification. While hundreds of new plant species are identified each year, new genera are extremely uncommon, and being coupled with the two new species makes Yasunia very distinctive.

They say the best things in life are free, but when it comes to online scientific publishing, a new research report in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) suggests otherwise. In the report, Philip M. Davis from Cornell University shows that free access to scientific journal articles leads to increases in downloads, but not to increases in citations (their use), a key factor used in scientific publishing to assess a research article's relative importance and value.

UCLA researchers have demonstrated that a key regulator of cholesterol and fat metabolism in the liver also plays an important role in the development of liver fibrosis — the build-up of collagen scar tissue that can develop into cirrhosis. Cirrhosis, in turn, is a major cause of premature death and is incurable without a liver transplant.