Body

DALLAS – June 8, 2009 – The fuzzy pale mold that lines the glass tubes in Dr. Yi Liu's lab doesn't look much like a clock.

But this fungus has an internal, cell-based timekeeper nearly as sophisticated as a human's, allowing UT Southwestern Medical Center physiologists to study easily the biochemistry and genetics of body clocks, or circadian rhythms.

Waltham, MA —Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death worldwide and a major driver of medical and economic costs, especially among older adults. It has long been established that cardiac rehabilitation improves survival, at least in middle-aged, low- and moderate-risk white men. Now a large Brandeis University-led study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports that older cardiac patients benefit as much from cardiac rehab as their younger counterparts.

In this week's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS, Uppsala University scientists describe a new mechanism behind an important process that causes a rapid reduction of DNA in the chromosomes of bacteria. The findings advance our knowledge of how DNA content has been reduced, which is something that has occurred in bacteria that live as parasites inside the cells of other organisms.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida scientists have discovered why a paralyzing brain disorder speeds along more rapidly in some patients than others — a finding that may finally give researchers an entry point toward an effective treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Prenatal multivitamin supplements are associated with a significantly reduced risk of babies with a low birth weight compared with prenatal iron-folic acid supplementation, found a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pgE99.pdf (www.cmaj.ca).

Overweight individuals who ate a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet high in plant-based proteins for four weeks lost weight and experienced improvements in blood cholesterol levels and other heart disease risk factors, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. A high-carbohydrate, low-fat vegetarian diet also resulted in weight loss but without the additional cardiovascular benefits.

Although alcohol consumption is known to be associated with chronic pancreatitis, new evidence indicates that a threshold of five or more drinks per day is required to significantly raise risk; however, most patients with chronic pancreatitis do not drink this amount, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, smoking is an independent, dose-dependent risk factor.

Middle-aged adults who sleep fewer hours appear more likely to have high blood pressure and to experience adverse changes in blood pressure over time, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Women with multiple sclerosis who breastfeed exclusively for at least two months appear less likely to experience a relapse within a year after their baby's birth, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the August print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Children and especially boys diagnosed with intermittent exotropia, a condition in which the eye turns outward (away from the nose) only some of the time, appear more likely to develop mental illness by young adulthood than children without strabismus (when the eyes deviate or are misaligned when looking at an object), according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Being overweight is a health concern, and using only body mass index (BMI) to determine weight classification may not give an accurate picture of a person's health, according to an advisory published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

About one-third of the U.S. population is overweight — the middle range between normal weight and obesity. Overweight in adults is a BMI of 25.0 to 29.9. BMI is a numerical value of weight in relation to height.

Four well-known risk factors for heart attack significantly increased the size of the heart's left ventricle, a key precursor of heart failure, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

High blood pressure, excessive weight, smoking and diabetes were strongly correlated with greater size of the heart's left ventricle over the short term (four years) and the long term (16 years) in a study of more than 4,217 people.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - When female tiger salamanders choose a mate, it turns out that size does matter - tail size that is - and that's not the only factor they weigh.

TORONTO, Ont., June 8, 2009 — A majority of high-risk stroke patients are less likely to meet clinical treatment targets to prevent repeat stroke or heart attacks compared to those with heart disease, suggesting the need to examine new therapeutic strategies, according to a study led by St. Michael's Hospital neurologist Dr. Gustavo Saposnik. What's more, medical procedures or ongoing specialty care may improve patients' awareness and consequent treatment success.

(Boston) – In the normal lung, the airways are lined by a balanced mixture of ciliated, secretory and neuroendocrine cells which perform functions as diverse as air humidification, detoxification, and clearance of environmental particles. This balance can be altered dramatically by faulty adaptation responses of the lung to cigarette smoke or allergens in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma.