ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

How pancreatic cancer cells sidestep chemotherapy Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:14 PM PST One reason pancreatic cancer can be so challenging to treat is because its cells have found a way to sidestep chemotherapy, research shows. They hijack the vitamin D receptor, normally associated with bone health, and re-purposed it to repair the damage caused by chemotherapy.

DNA clock helps to get measure of people's lifespans Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:29 AM PST A biological clock that provides vital clues about how long a person is likely to live has been discovered by researchers. Researchers studied chemical changes to DNA that take place over a lifetime, and can help them predict an individual's age. By comparing individuals' actual ages with their predicted biological clock age, scientists saw a pattern emerging.

Repeated head blows linked to smaller brain volume, slower processing speeds Posted: 29 Jan 2015 03:51 PM PST The Impact of repeated head blows is evident at relatively young age, researchers report, and is linked to a heightened risk of cognitive impairment. Researchers warn that there do seem to be important indicators of brain damage linked to repeated blows to the head, which could be used to inform future regulations.

More than one-third of kids in England are overweight/obese Posted: 29 Jan 2015 03:51 PM PST More than one-third of kids in England are overweight/obese, researchers report, however there does seem to be some evidence that rates may be leveling off in younger children.

Testing for EGFR mutations, ALK rearrangements is cost-effective in NSCLC. Posted: 29 Jan 2015 02:04 PM PST Multiplexed genetic screening for epidermal growth factor receptor and anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene rearrangements and subsequent biomarker-guided treatment is cost-effective compared with standard chemotherapy treatment without any molecular testing in the metastatic non-small cell lung cancer setting in the United States, researchers report.

Gut bacteria byproduct linked to chronic kidney disease for the first time Posted: 29 Jan 2015 02:03 PM PST For the first time, researchers have linked trimethylamine N-oxide -- a gut metabolite formed during the digestion of egg-, red meat- or dairy-derived nutrients choline and carnitine -- to chronic kidney disease.

Survival of very premature infants is improving in France Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:55 AM PST Since 2011, nearly 7,000 premature infants have been enrolled in the Inserm EPIPAGE 2 study. This study is aimed at assessing the survival of infants born between 22 and 34 weeks' gestation, and their subsequent outcomes. Compared with data from the EPIPAGE 1 cohort in 1997, the proportion of infants born in 2011 from the 25th week of gestation, who survived without severe neonatal disease, showed a definite increase. However, survival is still rare for infants born before 25 weeks.

Study on dopamine neurons could instruct research into mobility and neurological disorders Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:55 AM PST For the first time, researchers have shown when and why dopamine releasing cells in the forebrain are activated. The team has examined transparent hatchling zebrafish to gain new insights into the working of neurons in areas of the brain that are normally difficult to access. As a result, they have discovered for the first time both when and why the particular cells in the brain that affect movement are active.

Brain circuit that controls compulsive overeating and sugar addiction discovered Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:54 AM PST Compulsive overeating and sugar addiction are major threats to human health, but potential treatments face the risk of impairing normal feeding behaviors that are crucial for survival. A new study reveals a reward-related neural circuit that specifically controls compulsive sugar consumption in mice without preventing feeding necessary for survival, providing a novel target for the safe and effective treatment of compulsive overeating in humans.

How negative stereotyping affects older people Posted: 29 Jan 2015 07:42 AM PST The most comprehensive analysis to date of research on the effect of negative stereotypes on older people's abilities has concluded that these stereotypes create a significant problem for that demographic.