Body

Case Western Reserve and University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center researchers and physicians have discovered that the molecule known as coenzyme A plays a key role in cell metabolism by regulating the actions of nitric oxide. Cell metabolism is the ongoing process of chemical transformations within the body's cells that sustains life, and alterations in metabolism are a common cause of human disease, including cancer and heart disease.

A new epidemiology paper says that randomized controlled trials (the gold standard method of evaluation) show that few currently available screening tests for major diseases where death is a common outcome have documented reductions in disease-specific mortality. Screening for disease is a key component of modern healthcare. However, several popular screening tests have met with controversy, with breast cancer screening for women aged 40-49 and prostate cancer screening in healthy men losing their endorsement in the United States.

With the dawn of the modern era of new chemotherapeutic and biologic agents available for managing their disease, patients with metastatic colorectal cancer are undergoing less surgery for the removal of their primary tumors, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

This year's flu shot is not a good match against this year's influenza strain. That is not news by now, nor is the fact that this has happened before.

But now researchers at McMaster University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York say that a universal flu vaccine may be on the horizon, thanks to the recent discovery of a new class of antibodies that are capable of neutralizing a wide range of influenza A viruses.

A brisk 20 minute walk each day could be enough to reduce an individual's risk of early death, according to new research published today. The study of over 334,000 European men and women found that twice as many deaths may be attributable to lack of physical activity compared with the number of deaths attributable to obesity, but that just a modest increase in physical activity could have significant health benefits.

At some doses, the medication lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, a drug approved to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, was effective compared with placebo in decreasing binge-eating (BE) days in patients with binge-eating disorder (BED), a public health problem associated symptoms of mental illness and obesity and for which there are no approved medications, according to a new study.

In the United States, lung cancer is responsible for 27% of all cancer deaths, claiming an estimated 160,000 lives per year [1]. While smoking is linked to as many as 90% of lung cancer cases, this new study suggests that atmospheric oxygen may play a role in lung carcinogenesis.

Researchers have identified hyaluronon (HA) as a critical substance made by the body that protects against premature births caused by infection. Pre-term birth from infection is the leading cause of infant mortality in many countries according to the World Health Organization.

The findings of the study, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, are the first to identify the specific role that HA plays in the reproductive tract.

Researchers at the Montreal Heart Institute announced today results showing that patients with cardiovascular disease and the appropriate genetic background benefit greatly from the new medication dalcetrapib, with a reduction of 39% in combined clinical outcomes including heart attacks, strokes, unstable angina, coronary revascularizations and cardiovascular deaths. These patients also benefit from a reduction in the amount of atherosclerosis (thickened walls) in their vessels. The detailed results are published in the prestigious Journal Circulation Cardiovascular Genetics.

Epigenetic signals help determine which genes are activated at which time in a given cell. A novel analytical method enables systematic characterization of the relevant epigenetic tags, and reveals that the system adapts to the loss of single epigenetic writer and eraser enzymes.

"May contain nuts" is a common warning label because that is a requirement. Some people have a severe reaction to some allergens. But most people don't. Like "I have the flu", severe allergy is subjective and often misused yet there are even labels like 'produced in a factory which also handles peanuts', which is valuable for people who can go into anaphylactic shock but confusing for everyone else.

For most people, how much is too much?

A new paper in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism investigated the nutritional benefits of novel beverages (vitamin waters, energy drinks, and novel juices) sold in Canadian supermarkets by assessing their micronutrient compositions.

Bacteria that have evolved to help us digest the yeast that give beer and bread their bubbles could support the development of new treatments to help people fight off yeast infections and autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease, researchers report.

The study shows how microbes in our digestive tract have learned to unravel the difficult to break down complex carbohydrates that make up the yeast cell wall. It's published by scientists from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and the University of Michigan Medical School.

For patients with spinal stenosis, long-term outcomes are comparable with surgery or conservative treatment, according to a new study.

Women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), commonly known as Depo-Provera or the birth control shot, have a moderately increased risk of becoming infected with HIV, a large meta-analysis of 12 studies involving more than 39,500 women published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases has found. Other forms of hormonal contraception, including oral contraceptive pills, do not appear to increase this risk.