Body

In Lewis Carroll's 1871 classic novel Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

Over the years, evolutionary biologists have used the Red Queen's statement to refer to the "Red Queen" hypothesis, which describes how living organisms, including humans, manage to survive in a changing environment by adapting through sexual reproduction. According to a University of Iowa researcher, the hypothesis is supported.

The percentage of people reporting angina or chest pain dropped in the last two decades among Americans 65 and older and whites 40 and older — but not among blacks, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Multiplexed testing of lung cancer tumors identified genetic alterations that were helpful in selecting targeted treatments. Patients that received matched therapy for lung cancer lived longer than patients who did not receive directed therapy, although randomized clinical trials are required to determine if this treatment strategy improves survival, according to a study in the May 21 issue of JAMA.

NEW YORK, May 20, 2014 — New data from a study led by Memorial Sloan Kettering physicians that used targeted therapy for patients with the most common type of lung cancer has helped transform treatment for the disease.

DALLAS – May 20, 2014 – A lean "Supermodel" mouse type has revealed the potentially critical role played by a largely unknown gene that regulates metabolism, findings that could provide new insight into diseases ranging from diabetes to obesity, a new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggests.

Boston, MA – Primary care providers who engaged in an online game to solve clinical cases about hypertension management improved blood pressure control of their patients in a shorter amount of time compared to non-gamers, according to a new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.

The study was published May 20, 2014 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

ATS 2014, SAN DIEGO ─Both high and low frequency hearing impairment have been linked with sleep apnea in a new study of nearly 14,000 individuals.

"In our population-based study of 13,967 subjects from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, we found that sleep apnea was independently associated with hearing impairment at both high and low frequencies after adjustment for other possible causes of hearing loss," said lead author Amit Chopra, MD, currently at the Albany Medical Center in New York.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A proven approach to slow the aging process is dietary restriction, but new research in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University helps explain the action of a drug that appears to mimic that process – rapamycin.

Rapamycin, an antibiotic and immunosuppressant approved for use about 15 years ago, has drawn extensive interest for its apparent ability – at least in laboratory animal tests – to emulate the ability of dietary restriction in helping animals to live both longer and healthier.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An aging population poses challenges for governments around the globe as nations grapple with how to satisfy the physical, social and economic needs of older adults. About 126 million adults 65 years and older live in China - the country with the largest population of senior citizens, while 40 million adults 65 years and older live in the United States.

Can plants and animals evolve to keep pace with climate change? A study published May 19 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that for at least one widely-studied plant, the European climate is changing fast enough that strains from Southern Europe already grow better in the north than established local varieties.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — As the largest purchaser of wholesale produce in Santa Barbara County, UC Santa Barbara's residential dining services provided the perfect avenue for a pilot project incorporating local pesticide-free or certified organic produce into an institutional setting.

New Rochelle, NY, May 19, 2014—Two studies of the anti-depressive drug duloxetine, a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), compared its effectiveness and safety to either fluoxetine or placebo in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD).

An online game that teaches doctors and nurses blood pressure-lowering options resulted in their patients reaching a normal blood pressure faster than patients whose healthcare providers received the same information in a traditional online posting, according to research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.

Researchers found that patients of clinicians playing the game lowered their blood pressure to their target level in 142 days compared to 148 days for those who read an online posting.

Washington, DC—Exercise may be the best way for obese women to keep heart disease and related metabolic problems at bay, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Although obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease, some people who are overweight or obese are able to delay or avoid developing related key risk factors, including prediabetes, high blood pressure and unfavorable cholesterol profiles. This phenomenon is described as metabolically healthy obesity.

Washington, DC—Couples may take longer to conceive a child when one or both partners has high cholesterol, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance found in all cells of the body. About a third of American adults – 71 million – have high levels of low-density lipoprotein, or "bad" cholesterol, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only one of every three adults with high LDL cholesterol has the condition under control.