Body

Los Angeles, CA (September 23, 2014) While many believe that guardian angels watch over to keep them safe in a dangerous world, a new study finds that those who believe are actually less inclined to take risks despite this believed protection. This study was published today in the open access journal SAGE Open.

Researchers David Etkin, Jelena Ivanova, Susan MacGregor, and Alalia Spektor surveyed 198 individuals and found that of those who believe in guardian angels, 68% said that this belief affects how they take risks.

Charlottesville, VA (September 23, 2014). Researchers from the University of Toronto, directed by Drs. Gelareh Zadeh and Boris Krischek, investigated gene expression in normal vestibular nerves and vestibular schwannomas (VSs). Two important discoveries were made: 1) there is negligible difference between VSs that sporadically occur and those commonly associated with neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), a genetic disorder; and 2) the overexpressed PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in these tumors may be an excellent therapeutic target.

Most organisms, including humans, have parasitic DNA fragments called "jumping genes" that insert themselves into DNA molecules, disrupting genetic instructions in the process. And that phenomenon can result in age-related diseases such as cancer. But researchers at the University of Rochester now report that the "jumping genes" in mice become active as the mice age when a multi-function protein stops keeping them in check in order to take on another role.

Boston, MA – Up to 40 percent of patients undergoing breast cancer surgery require additional operations because surgeons may fail to remove all the cancerous tissue in the initial operation. However, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have successfully tested a tool they developed that will help surgeons better distinguish cancerous breast tissue from normal tissue, thereby decreasing the chances for repeat operations.

The study is published online the week of September 22, 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Such sponsorship could mislead the public into thinking these products work well and/or are good for health—for which there is no strong scientific evidence—suggest Simon Outram and Bob Stewart of the Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Active Living, in Melbourne, Australia.

Two years ago, research published in BMJ Open reached similar conclusions.*

Outram and Stewart accept that nutritional supplements and rehydration drinks don't compare with the unhealthiness of fast food, tobacco, or alcohol, all of which have been associated with major sporting events.

Butterflies eating food collected from cities around the Fukushima nuclear meltdown site showed higher rates of death and disease, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Antarctic fishes that manufacture their own "antifreeze" proteins to survive in the icy Southern Ocean also suffer an unfortunate side effect, researchers report: The protein-bound ice crystals that accumulate inside their bodies resist melting even when temperatures warm.

The finding is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 22, 2014) — Following a healthy lifestyle, including maintaining a healthy weight and diet, exercise, not smoking and moderating alcohol intake, could prevent four out of five coronary events in men, according to a new study publishing today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Pregnant women have an unusually strong immune response to influenza, an unexpected finding that may explain why they get sicker from the flu than other healthy adults, new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford has found.

The results were surprising because immune responses are thought to be weakened by pregnancy to prevent the woman's body from rejecting her fetus.

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 22, 2014 – After human ancestors controlled fire 400,000 to 1 million years ago, flames not only let them cook food and fend off predators, but also extended their day.

A University of Utah study of Africa's Kalahari Bushmen suggests that stories told over firelight helped human culture and thought evolve by reinforcing social traditions, promoting harmony and equality, and sparking the imagination to envision a broad sense of community, both with distant people and the spirit world.

The primary source of postnatal infection with cytomagelovirus (CMV, a common virus usually without symptoms) in very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants appeared to be maternal breast milk because no infections were linked to transfusions of CMV-seronegative and leukoreduced blood products writes author Cassandra D. Josephson, M.D., of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and colleagues.

Premature infants, especially those born with very low-birth-weight (VLBW), are particularly vulnerable to cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection because of their immature immune systems. CMV infection can cause serious disease and, in severe cases, lead to death.

Two important potential sources of CMV infection in premature infants are blood transfusions and breast milk. Neither source has previously been systematically examined in a large enough study, however, to quantify the specific risks of infection and identify risk factors to help guide prevention strategies.

About one quarter of commercially-insured children who are treated with medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder also receive psychotherapy, and the percentage is far lower in many parts of the country, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Published as a research letter in the Sept. 22 edition of JAMA Pediatrics, the study is the first to document the substantial variation in receipt of talk therapy among U.S. children treated with ADHD medication, varying more than six-fold across counties in the United States.

What exercise program can best fight the "epidemic" of teen obesity? According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, by combining aerobic exercise with resistance training.

Platelets, the tiny cell fragments whose job it is to stop bleeding, are very simple. They don't have a cell nucleus. But they can "feel" the physical environment around them, researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have discovered.

Platelets respond to surfaces with greater stiffness by increasing their stickiness, the degree to which they "turn on" other platelets and other components of the clotting system, the researchers found.