Nutrition And Balanced Diet

Researchers at Schepens Eye Research Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, say a visual aid they invented promises to improve the visual abilities of people with tunnel vision. In the first study to evaluate this small high tech device, the research team saw a significant increase in the effectiveness and speed with which visually impaired individuals found objects. The study — in the recent issue of the Journal of Investigative……..

You’ll find more than faces in these places. Stanford University scientists have taken the closest look yet at a region of the brain that was believed to be devoted solely to face recognition and discovered that this particular patchwork of neurons does much more: It also responds to such objects as cars, animals and sculptures……..

The survey results were announced earlier this month at the Florida Obstetric and Gynecological Society (FOGS) annual meeting in West Palm Beach. Aaron Deutsch, MD, lead author of the study and chief resident in the USF Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, presented the findings. The paper received the 2006 first-place resident research award from FOGS……..

For mothers at low risk, infant and neonatal mortality rates are higher among infants delivered by cesarean section than for those delivered vaginally in the United States, as per recent research reported in the latest issue of Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed over 5.7 million live births and nearly 12,000 infant deaths over a four-year period. In general, neonatal (less than 28 days of age) deaths were rare for infants of low-risk women (about 1 death per 1,000 live births). However, neonatal mortality rates among infants delivered by cesarean section were more than twice those for vaginal deliveries, even after adjustment for socio-demographic and medical risk factors……..

Scientists here have discovered how a specific chemotherapy drug helps a cancer-killing virus. The virus is being tested in animals for the therapy of incurable human brain tumors. The virus, a modified herpes simplex virus, is injected directly into the tumor, where it enters only the cancer cells and kills them. The study found, however, that within hours of the injection, infection-fighting immune cells are drawn into the tumor to attack the virus, reducing the therapy’s effectiveness……..

Stress hormones appear to rapidly exacerbate the formation of brain lesions that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, as per scientists at UC Irvine. The findings suggest that managing stress and reducing certain medications prescribed for the elderly could slow down the progression of this devastating disease……..

As per the most comprehensive survey yet completed of mental health among Hurricane Katrina survivors from Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the proportion of people with a serious mental illness doubled in the months after the hurricane in comparison to a survey carried out several years before the hurricane. The study also observed that thoughts of suicide did not increase despite the dramatic increase in mental illness. The authors suggest that this low rate of suicide thoughts is due to optimistic beliefs about the success of future recovery efforts. The research, which was published recently in a special online edition of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, was led by scientists from Harvard Medical School (HMS)……..

People who are routinely exposed to lead on the job are 50 percent more likely to die from brain cancer than people who are not exposed, as per a University of Rochester Medical Center study. More than 18,000 brain and spinal cord tumors will be diagnosed in the United States this year. Yet little is known about what causes brain cancer; the only established risk factor is radiation, as per the American Cancer Society……..

A newly discovered enzyme inhibitor, identified by scientists originally looking for biological pest controls, may lead to pain relief for sufferers of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, say scientists at the University of California, Davis. The finding, hailed by a noted inflammatory disease expert “as the most important discovery in inflammation in more than a decade,” may also reduce side effects linked to the painkiller, Vioxx……..

Researchers looking at mice may have discovered why certain people are hairier than others in what could provide clues as to the reason some men go bald prematurely. The University of Manchester team has laid bare the molecular processes that determine which embryonic skin cells will form into hair follicles and determine the body’s hair pattern……..