Health News

Some heart patients ride roller coasters and other thrill-seeking activities despite warnings

Adults with an inherited thickening of the heart muscle, often don’t stop participating in thrill-seeking activities despite recommendations that they should. And while some experienced minor consequences, only a few suffered serious health effects as a result, according to preliminary research from an online survey to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association’s […]

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Nerve cells in the human brain can ‘count’

How do we know if we’re looking at three apples or four? Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Tübingen are now one step closer to answering this question. They were able to demonstrate that some brain cells fire mainly for quantities of three, others for quantities of four and others for other quantities. A […]

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First biomarker evidence of DDT-autism link: National birth cohort study finds DDT metabolites in the blood of pregnant women are associated with elevated odds of autism in offspring

A study of more than 1 million pregnancies in Finland reports that elevated levels of a metabolite of the banned insecticide DDT in the blood of pregnant women are linked to increased risk for autism in the offspring. An international research team led by investigators at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the […]

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How the brain biases beliefs: Proposed neural circuit may underlie motivation to cling to desirable notions about the future

People’s motivation to cling to desirable notions about future outlooks results from interactions between prefrontal cortex regions, according to a human neuroimaging study published in JNeurosci. Bojana Kuzmanovic and colleagues uncovered circuits in the brain that support belief updating by asking participants to estimate their own and a peer’s likelihood of experiencing an adverse life […]

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Over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements and their effect on lab test results: Patients’ reluctance to disclose OTC drug use can lead to inaccurate test results

Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and dietary supplements are widely used and popular, with US households spending an average of almost USD 350 annually on OTC products. In 2006 an average of EUR 67.50 was spent per person on OTC products in Germany. The use of various OTC drugs and dietary supplements is highly prevalent in Europe […]

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Brain iron levels may predict multiple sclerosis disabilities

A new, highly accurate MRI technique can monitor iron levels in the brains of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and help identify those at a higher risk for developing physical disability, according to a study published in the journal Radiology. MS is a disease that attacks three critical components of the central nervous system: the neurons […]