In Mice, Alzheimer's-Linked Protein Shows Promise Against MS

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Vermillion ovarian cancer test shows positive result

Reuters – 2 hrs 55 mins ago (Reuters) - Diagnostics company Vermillion Inc said a clinical trial of its blood test for detecting ovarian cancer showed the test had a high chance of correctly identifying patients with cancer.

Shares of the company jumped 21 percent to $2.17 on the news.

The study, named OVA1, is a blood test for pre-surgical assessment of ovarian tumors for malignancy.

The study focused on two particularly challenging subgroups - women with early-stage ovarian cancer and pre-menopausal women.

"A key goal of the study was to investigate the challenging pre-menopausal setting, where benign cysts have a high incidence and early-stage cancer often goes undetected," Chief Executive Gail Page said.

The test had a 94 percent sensitivity in the pre-menopausal group, and a 91 percent sensitivity in the early-stage ovarian cancer group.

A diagnostic test's sensitivity refers to its ability to correctly identify those who are actually affected by the disease.

Overall, the test showed a 96 percent sensitivity.

OVA1 also had a low chance of mistakenly classifying a sick person as healthy.

Vermillion shares were up 11 percent at $2 in morning trade on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

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Weight Control Can Cut Women's Diabetes Risk, Study Shows

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AIDS rise in Uganda shows need for more resources

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UNAIDS report shows critical gaps in world response

"A woman holds an AIDS awareness banner in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2011. Deaths from HIV/AIDS are rising in parts of Asia and central Europe and the global response must accelerate, experts said after the release of a major report on the world AIDS epidemic. (AFP Photo/Rodger Bosch)" title

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Alzheimer's Treatment Shows Promise in Small, 3-Year Trial

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Gel Shows Promise as Future Male Contraceptive

HealthDay – 8 mins ago MONDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Men may one day have a birth-control option other than the condom or vasectomy -- if early research on a new contraceptive gel pans out.

Preliminary findings suggest that when applied to the skin, the gel dramatically lowers sperm counts, thus also lowering -- though not eliminating -- the risk for pregnancy.

This is the first time that a combination of testosterone and a synthetic progestin called Nestorone has been tested as a gel that could be applied topically. Previous research involved administering the combination by injection or via a patch, said study senior author Dr. Christina Wang, a professor of medicine at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.

The combination contraceptive needs to undergo further testing before it is commercially available.

Although men have sometimes received a bad rap for not being willing to assume responsibility for birth control, Dr. Joseph Alukal, an assistant professor of urology at NYU Langone Medical Center, in New York City, thinks this reputation may be somewhat undeserved.

"I think

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Gel Shows Promise as Future Male Contraceptive

HealthDay – 7 mins ago MONDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Men may one day have a birth-control option other than the condom or vasectomy -- if early research on a new contraceptive gel pans out.

Preliminary findings suggest that when applied to the skin, the gel dramatically lowers sperm counts, thus also lowering -- though not eliminating -- the risk for pregnancy.

This is the first time that a combination of testosterone and a synthetic progestin called Nestorone has been tested as a gel that could be applied topically. Previous research involved administering the combination by injection or via a patch, said study senior author Dr. Christina Wang, a professor of medicine at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.

The combination contraceptive needs to undergo further testing before it is commercially available.

Although men have sometimes received a bad rap for not being willing to assume responsibility for birth control, Dr. Joseph Alukal, an assistant professor of urology at NYU Langone Medical Center, in New York City, thinks this reputation may be somewhat undeserved.

"I think

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Disney to banish junk-food ads from kid shows

Disney says its programming will no longer be sponsored by junk food.

The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that it will become the first major media company to ban such ads for its TV channels, radio stations and websites intended for children. That means kids watching Saturday morning children's shows on Disney's ABC network will no longer see ads for fast foods and sugary cereals that don't meet company's nutrition standards.

The guidelines won't go into effect until 2015 because of existing advertising agreements.

First Lady Michelle Obama called the announcement a "game changer" in a statement.

"With this new initiative, Disney is doing what no major media company has ever done before in the U.S.

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Humans Can Sniff Out Old Age in Others, Study Shows

HealthDay – 4 hrs ago WEDNESDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- How old do you think you smell? A new study suggests that humans possess the ability to judge whether a person has reached their senior years just by sniffing their body odor.

People in the study correctly gauged whether the former wearer of an underarm pad was elderly or not just by sniffing it. And for the record, most didn't think "old-people smell" was off-putting at all.

The finding "shows that there's yet another signal hidden in the body odor that we are somehow able to extract and make use of," said study co-author Johan Lundstrom, an assistant professor at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, in Philadelphia.

As for the notion that "old-people smell" doesn't leave people as disgusted as you might expect, Lundstrom said the odor's power -- or lack thereof -- appears to have a lot to do with whether the elderly are actually physically present. "Lacking a context, the negativity of the body odors disappear," he said.

The study authors launched their research as part of an effort to better understand the chemical signals that people detect in body odor. Previous research had suggested that we can pick up signs of sickness in other people's body odor and even get a sense of whether someone is related to us, Lundstrom said.

Animals appear to be able to detect age through body odor, he said, although it's not clear why it might matter to them. One theory is that the signal could let other animals know that an animal is older and thus more likely to produce offspring because it's managed to stay alive so long, he said.

In the new study, 56 people -- 20 young (20 to 30 years old), 20 middle-aged (45 to 55), and 16 elderly (75 to 95) -- wore clean T-shirts and underarm pads while sleeping. The pads soaked up a sample of each individual's body odor.

The researchers then asked 41 young people to smell the resulting odors -- from pads kept in glass jars -- and try to tell them apart.

Participants were generally able to discriminate between the age groups, but they weren't much better at it than chance, Lundstrom said. However, they were able to do a better job of grouping together body odors from older people and identifying them as coming from the elderly.

"The old-age body odor sticks out," Lundstrom said, but it didn't do so in a negative way. In fact, the subjects tended to think the old age body odors were more pleasant and less intense than those of other age groups.

One factor might explain that: Older men smell more like women, possibly because they've lost testosterone, Lundstrom said.

He also noted that the people who provided their body odor for the study were healthy. That means the older people did not suffer from problems that can occur among seniors that might affect their body odors, such as incontinence.

The "popular prejudice" against the odor of the elderly probably reflects people's distaste for odors in geriatric wards and nursing homes, noted one expert, Tim Jacob, a professor of biosciences at Cardiff University, in England, who studies smell and is familiar with the new study's findings.

"This is obviously an unfair association," he said. "But if people know where the smell originates

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New Drug Shows We Must Overcome Taboos About Stem-Cell Research

This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor COMMENTARY

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Study Shows We Need to Take Overweight Kids Seriously

This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor COMMENTARY

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In Rat Study, Eye Device Shows Promise for Restoring Sight

HealthDay – 1 hr 38 mins ago SUNDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- A new type of artificial eye system could one day restore sight to people who have lost their vision due to degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration, according to the results of research with rats.

The system uses tiny solar panel-like cells that are surgically placed beneath the retina, along with a specially designed pair of goggles equipped with a miniature camera, and a pocket PC that processes the visual data, the Stanford University School of Medicine team explained.

Visual images are displayed on a liquid crystal microdisplay embedded in the goggles, similar to what's used in video goggles for gaming. The images are beamed from the liquid crystal display to the cells implanted in the retina, which then sends the images to the brain.

The research is published online May 13 in the journal Nature Photonics.

"It works like the solar panels on your roof, converting light into electric current. But instead of the current flowing to your refrigerator, it flows into your retina," senior study author Daniel Palanker, an associate professor of ophthalmology, said in a Stanford news release.

The scientists are currently testing the system in rats and are seeking a sponsor to support tests in humans. Research that seems promising in animal studies often fails to offer similar benefits to humans.

The researchers hope their system can eventually help people with retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in North America and about 1.5 million people worldwide have lost their sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, according to the nonprofit group Foundation Fighting Blindness.

More information

The U.S. National Eye Institute has more about age-related macular degeneration.

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Stricter Seat Belt Laws Get Teens to Buckle Up, Study Shows

HealthDay – 1 hr 24 mins ago MONDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- Teen drivers and passengers are more likely to use seat belts if they're in states with primary-enforcement seat belt laws, often promoted as "click it or ticket" laws, a new study finds.

A primary law allows police to stop and ticket drivers solely for not wearing a seat belt. Under a secondary law, police can only ticket unbelted drivers if they are stopped for other reasons, such as speeding.

Primary seat belt laws have been proven to reduce death rates in traffic collisions, according to the report published in the April 19 online edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

In the new study, researchers examined data from more than 3,000 U.S. high school student drivers who took part in the 2006 National Young Driver Survey. The analysis revealed that teens in states with secondary laws were 12 percent less likely to wear a seat belt when driving and 15 percent less likely to do so as a passenger than teens in states with primary laws.

In addition, the investigators found that in states with secondary laws, teens' use of seat belts decreased as they progressed from learner to unrestricted license holder. This did not occur in states with primary laws.

The findings also revealed that blacks, rural residents, academically challenged students and those who drove pick-up trucks had particularly low rates of seat belt use.

"This study showed that primary-enforcement safety belt laws may play a key role in mitigating the disparity in safety belt use among certain teenaged subpopulation groups," lead study author Dr. J. Felipe Garcia-Espana, of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a journal news release.

"Because some teenaged subpopulations have lower safety belt use, even with primary enforcement laws, combined approaches that include upgrades to laws with campaigns and enforcement might be warranted," the study authors concluded.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says parents are the key to safe teen drivers.

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Lack of sleep is linked to obesity, new evidence shows

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2012) — Can lack of sleep make you fat? A new paper which reviews the evidence from sleep restriction studies reveals that inadequate sleep is linked to obesity. The research, published in a special issue of the The American Journal of Human Biology, explores how lack of sleep can impact appetite regulation, impair glucose metabolism and increase blood pressure.

See Also:Health & MedicineSleep Disorder ResearchInsomnia ResearchObesityMind & BrainSleep DisordersInsomniaObstructive Sleep ApneaLiving WellReferenceCircadian rhythm sleep disorderSleep deprivationSeparation anxiety disorderRapid eye movement

"Obesity develops when energy intake is greater than expenditure. Diet and physical activity play an important part in this, but an additional factor may be inadequate sleep," said Dr Kristen Knutson, from the University of Chicago. "A review of the evidence shows how short or poor quality sleep is linked to increased risk of obesity by de-regulating appetite, leading to increased energy consumption."

Dr Knutson accumulated evidence from experimental and observational studies of sleep. Observational studies revealed cross-sectional associations between getting fewer than six hours sleep and increased body mass index (BMI) or obesity.

The studies revealed how signals from the brain which control appetite regulation are impacted by experimental sleep restriction. Inadequate sleep impacts secretion of the signal hormones ghrelin, which increases appetite, and leptin, which indicates when the body is satiated. This can lead to increased food intake without the compensating energy expenditure.

"In the United States 18% of adults are estimated to get less than 6 hours of sleep, which equates to 53 million short sleepers who may be at risk of associated obesity," said Knutson. "Poor sleeping patterns are not random and it is important to consider the social, cultural and environmental factors which can cause inadequate sleep so at-risk groups can be identified."

The evidence suggests the association between inadequate sleep and higher BMI is stronger in children and adolescents. It also shows that sleep deficiency in lower socioeconomic groups may result in greater associated obesity risks.

The majority of the studies Dr Knutson examined came from Western countries, which highlights the need for more research to understand sleep's role in disease risk. However other research papers in the special issue focus on obesity in the United Arab Emirates, Samoa, and Brazil.

"These findings show that sleeping poorly can increase a person's risk of developing obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease," concluded Knutson. "Future research should determine whether efforts to improve sleep can also help prevent the development of these diseases or improve the lives of patients with these conditions."

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Brain scans can predict weight gain and sexual activity, research shows

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2012) — At a time when obesity has become epidemic in American society, Dartmouth scientists have found that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans may be able to predict weight gain. In a study published April 18, 2012, in The Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers demonstrated a connection between fMRI brain responses to appetite-driven cues and future behavior.

See Also:Health & MedicineDiet and Weight LossBrain TumorObesityMind & BrainDieting and Weight ControlPsychologyBrain InjuryLiving WellStrange ScienceReferenceFunctional neuroimagingBone scanMirror neuronSleep deprivation

"This is one of the first studies in brain imaging that uses the responses observed in the scanner to predict important, real-world outcomes over a long period of time," says Todd Heatherton, the Lincoln Filene Professor in Human Relations in the department of psychological and brain sciences and a coauthor on the study. "Using brain activity to predict a consequential behavior outside the scanner is pretty novel."

Using fMRI, the researchers targeted a region of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens, often referred to as the brain's "reward center," in a group of incoming first-year college students. While undergoing scans, the subjects viewed images of animals, environmental scenes, appetizing food items, and people. Six months later, their weight and responses to questionnaires regarding interim sexual behavior were compared with their previously recorded weight and brain scan data.

"The people whose brains responded more strongly to food cues were the people who went on to gain more weight six months later," explains Kathryn Demos, first author on the paper. Demos, who conducted the research as part of her doctoral dissertation at Dartmouth, is currently on the research faculty at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

The correlation between strong food image brain responses and weight gain was also present for sexual images and activity. "Just as cue reactivity to food images was investigated as potential predictors of weight gain, cue reactivity to sexual images was used to predict sexual desire," the authors report.

The paper stresses "material specificity," noting that the participants who responded to food images gained weight but did not engage in more sexual behavior, and vice versa. The authors go on to say that none of the non-food images predicted weight gain.

Heatherton and William Kelley, associate professor of psychological and brain science and a senior author on the paper, have a longstanding interest in psychological theories of self-regulation, also called self-control or willpower.

"We seek to understand situations in which people face temptations and try to not act on them," says Kelley.

The researchers note that the first step toward controlling cravings may be an awareness of how much you are affected by specific triggers in the environment, such as the arrival of the dessert tray in a restaurant.

"You need to actively be thinking about the behavior you want to control in order to regulate it," remarks Kelley. "Self-regulation requires a lot of conscious effort."

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Study shows possible breakthrough for cerebral palsy

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New Study Shows The Most Effective Way To Lose Weight

Why Fad Diets Don't Work! Fad Diets have become a growing problem in our society today. Why? Primarily, due to the fact that fad diets do not cause an individual to change any of the bad habits, that caused their excess weight problems in the first place. Instead, fad diets lead you on a wild… By: The Diet Solutions Team in  Health and Fitness  >  Popular Diets   Jan 12, 2012   0   Likes: 0

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Politics May Get in the Way of Empathy, Research Shows

THURSDAY, April 12 (HealthDay News) -- A new study finds that empathy -- the ability to understand and share someone else's feelings -- vanishes when people have different political views.

U.S. researchers asked the study participants to read a short story about a person -- either a Democrat or a Republican -- who went hiking in winter and got lost with no food, water or extra clothes. People who had the same politics as the fictional hiker felt empathy for the hiker, while those with opposing political views did not.

The study appears in the March issue of the journal Psychological Science.

"Political values are emotionally charged. People get really fired up," study co-author Ed O'Brien, of the University of Michigan, said in a news release from the Association for Psychological Science.

The findings suggest that people are less likely to feel empathy for others they regard as very different from themselves, the researchers said.

For example, people may be less opposed to torture if it's used on people who are nothing like them, O'Brien said. Or people may have little sympathy for the homeless because they can't relate to their situation.

"Even if you're feeling shared pain, you may not let that connection affect your opinions of people who are very, very different from you," O'Brien added.

More information

Utah State University has more about teaching empathy.

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Most Anal Lesions Don't Cause Cancer in Men, Research Shows

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