Body

A systematic survey of the scientific literature shows that stem cell therapy can have a statistically significant impact on animal models of spinal cord injury, and points the way for future studies.

The uptake rate of preventative dental care increased over a ten-year period in the United States, but there remains a large disparity among ethnic groups, reports one of the largest and most comprehensive studies on the subject, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Public Health.

Doctors see many couples who lead unnecessarily stressful lives by wanting to be right rather than happy.

But is it better to be right or to be happy?

In the Christmas edition of The BMJ, researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand try to answer this question by evaluating the effect of being right versus being happy on a couple's quality of life.

The study involved a married couple living in their own home.

At this time of year, many recount the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. But reports consistent with virgin births are also a modern day phenomenon, according to a study in the Christmas edition of The BMJ.

A team of US researchers has identified a number of pregnancies reported by virgins since the mid-1990s among a large group of young US adults.

Births in a Catalan region of Spain increased by 16% nine months after FC Barcelona won three major football trophies in 2009, finds a study in the Christmas edition of The BMJ.

The findings confirm reports of a spike in the birth rate, although they fall far short of the 45% increase reported by some media at the time.

Prescribing an apple a day to all adults aged 50 and over would prevent or delay around 8,500 vascular deaths such as heart attacks and strokes every year in the UK – similar to giving statins to everyone over 50 years who is not already taking them - according to a study in the Christmas edition of The BMJ.

Men with Hodgkin lymphoma who want to become fathers after their cancer treatment have greatly increased chances of doing so if they have frozen and stored semen samples beforehand, according to research published online today (Wednesday) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1].

SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 18, 2013 – In some mountain ranges, Earth's warming climate is driving rabbit relatives known as pikas to higher elevations or wiping them out. But University of Utah biologists discovered that roly-poly pikas living in rockslides near sea level in Oregon can survive hot weather by eating more moss than any other mammal.

High blood pressure affects approximately one in three adults in the Americas, Europe, some Asian countries and Australia, and one billion people worldwide. Because of this epidemic, The American Society of Hypertension, Inc.

Eighteen medical communication companies (MCCs) received about $100 million from 13 pharmaceutical and one device company that released data in 2010, and all or most of the 18 MCCs were for profit, conducted continuing medical education programs, and tracked website behavior, with some 3rd party information sharing, according to a study appearing in the December 18 issue of JAMA.

Among 7,000 older women who wore an accelerometer to measure their movement, about two-thirds of their waking time was spent in sedentary behavior, most of which occurred in periods of less than 30 minutes, according to a study appearing in the December 18 issue of JAMA.

Recent studies suggest sedentary behavior may be a risk factor for adverse health outcomes. However, few data exist on how this behavior is patterned (e.g., does most sedentary behavior occur in a few long periods or in many short periods), according to background information in the article.

For persons with type 2 diabetes and chronic periodontitis, nonsurgical periodontal treatment did not result in improved glycemic control, according to a study appearing in the December 18 issue of JAMA.

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 17, 2013) – Atrial fibrillation, long considered the most common condition leading to an irregular heartbeat, is a growing and serious global health problem, according to the first study ever to estimate the condition's worldwide prevalence, death rates and societal costs.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Medical science has known for years that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol actually have a reduced risk of death. In general, they are healthier and have better cardiovascular function that those who don't drink alcohol at all.

Now, new research from Oregon Health & Science University adds a fascinating twist: moderate drinking may actually bolster our immune system and help it fight off infection.

Bladder cancer will kill upward of 170,000 people worldwide this year, but bladder cancer isn't fatal in the bladder. Instead, in order to be fatal the disease must metastasize to faraway sites. The question has been this: does localized, non-muscle invasive (NMI) bladder cancer eventually become the more dangerous, muscle-invasive (MI) form of the disease, or are NMI and MI bladder cancers genetically distinct from the start?