Keeping watch on mental health

Increasingly popular smart watches can be used to help clinicians identify early warning signs of mental health disorders and monitor the success of treatment. Used by millions of people every day, new research by Flinders University has found wearable technology and smart phone apps could be an effective tool in improving the treatment of mental health disorders – by increasing […]

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Polygenic scores to classify cancer risk

Polygenic risk scores could be useful to stratify the risk of several cancers among patients in medical centers, allowing for the potential discovery of new associations between genes, disease and secondary effects, according to a University of Michigan study. Researchers at U-M’s School of Public Health conducted a phenome-wide association study in 28,260 unrelated, genotyped patients of recent European ancestry […]

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The Healthiest Soup Choices at Panera Bread

If you’re wary of preservatives and artificial ingredients, you can now order any of Panera’s soups with confidence—in January, the fast-casual chain officially removed all artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives from its soups, part of a larger plan announced to “clean up” the entire menu by the end of 2016. While we couldn’t be more pleased about this news, […]

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US approves new drug for prevention of migraines

Migraine sufferers on Thursday got some relief from US regulators who approved the first of a new class of drugs for migraine prevention. The United States Food and Drug Administration said it endorsed Aimovig for prevention of migraine in adults, through monthly self-injections. Aimovig is the first in a new class of drugs that work by blocking the activity of […]

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Learning music or speaking another language leads to more efficient brains

Whether you learn to play a musical instrument or speak another language, you’re training your brain to be more efficient, suggests a Baycrest study. Researchers found that musicians and people who are bilingual utilized fewer brain resources when completing a working memory task, according to recently published findings in the journal, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Individuals […]

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Mass-drug administration curbs scabies for asylum seekers in the Netherlands

In a new article published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Sofanne J. Ravensbergen of the University of Groningen, and colleagues, found that a scabies intervention program (SIP) was effective in reducing the severity of scabies when introduced to the newly arrived Eritrean and Ethiopian asylum seekers who volunteered to take part in the program. Scabies, a skin infestation caused by […]

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Automated system better identifies patients at risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia

An automated system for identifying patients at risk for complications associated with the use of mechanical ventilators provided significantly more accurate results than did traditional surveillance methods, which rely on manual recording and interpretation of individual patient data. In their paper published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team report that their system—using an […]

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Four questions—chronic pain and how it affects the brain

Chronic pain affects an estimated 100 million Americans, and its impact goes beyond physical discomfort. New research, led by University of Arizona psychologist Stephen Cowen, illustrates how chronic pain may impact cognitive abilities, such as decision making, as well. Cowen and UA professor of pharmacology Frank Porreca, along with their collaborators at Eli Lilly, investigated how pain impacts cognitive flexibility, […]

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‘Lone wolf’ protein offers new pathway to cancer treatments

Structural biologists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered how a key protein functions to trigger cell’s suicide machinery, called apoptosis. The scientists found that the protein, called BOK, is controlled separately from the rest of the apoptosis process—offering the potential for new drugs to more selectively kill cancer cells. Led by Tudor Moldoveanu, Ph.D., an assistant member of […]

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