familymednews.com
Sometimes the end of an intestinal infection is just the beginning of more misery. Of those who contract traveler’s diarrhea, for example, an unlucky few go on to develop irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic inflammation of the intestinal tract. Scientists aren’t sure exactly how this happens, but some think an infection may contribute to IBS by damaging the gut […]
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If you have ever smoked, or know someone who has—they might tell you that smoking a cigarette probably felt disgusting at first. Taryn Grieder has a personal interest in understanding why people continue to smoke despite the initial revulsion and countless health risks. “In my family we have six people and five of us—everyone but me—smoke, or at least they […]
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A national team of scientists has identified a circuit in the brain that appears to be associated with psychiatric disorders ranging from overeating to gambling, drug abuse and even Parkinson’s disease. “We discovered the brain connections that keep impulsivity in check,” said Scott Kanoski, a neuroscientist and associate professor at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “The key […]
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Neuroscientists at the University of Alberta have identified a mechanism that may help build memories during deep sleep. In a study published last month in eNeuro, the researchers focused on the role of the nucleus reuniens, an area of the brain that connects two other brain structures involved in creating memories and may co-ordinate their activity during slow-wave sleep. “Slow […]
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Sarcomas—cancers that arise from transformed mesenchymal cells (a type of connective tissue)—are quite deadly. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common human sarcoma and are initiated by activating mutations in the KIT receptor tyrosine kinase. Micro-GISTs are a smaller variation of clinical GISTs and are found in one-third of the general population without clinical symptoms. Although the micro-GISTs and […]
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Columbia researchers have restored normal working memory to a mouse model of schizophrenia, eliminating a core symptom of the disorder that, in people, has proven virtually impossible to treat. Working memory is a fundamental brain process used to retain and recall information on the fly, such as remembering a new phone number long enough to dial it. It is severely […]
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Scientists know that the solution to preventing breast cancer won’t come easily, but a collaborative team of scientists at Purdue University and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)/Institut de Cancérologie de L’Ouest (ICO) in Nantes, France, say they’ve recently discovered one of the missing pieces of the puzzle when it comes to cancer prevention. […]
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Scientists have determined a new way to protect the hair follicle from chemotherapy in an effort to prevent hair loss as a result of cancer treatments. Researchers based at The University of Manchester have discovered a new strategy for how to protect hair follicles from chemotherapy, which could lead to new treatments that prevent chemotherapy-induced hair loss—arguably one of the […]
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Scientists from the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, have, for the first time, discovered a family of proteins that are associated with lower blood sugar levels among obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Their research is published today in the international journal Nature Communications. The study showed that patients with type 2 diabetes who have high levels of the […]
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Researchers have demonstrated a universal decoding system in humans that determines how we perceive vibrations of different frequencies through touch. Their findings, published in eLife, suggest that this decoding system overrules our tactile sensory channels when we perceive vibrotactile stimuli. The system depends on neural discharge (or spike) patterns, regardless of the type of receptor that receives the stimuli, challenging […]
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