August 22nd, 2011 by Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D. in Opinion, Research
Tags: Anxiety, Depression, Eric Kim, Health and Retirement Study, Healthy Lifestyle, Martin Seligman, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Neuroticism, Optimism, Pessimism, Positive Health, Proactive, Research, Self-Reporting, Stroke Risk, University of Michigan, WHO, World Health Organization
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Way back in 1946, the chartering documents for a new agency of the UN—the World Health Organization—defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
We have made astounding progress in medicine and public health since the WHO charter was crafted, yet we have actualized only part of its comprehensive vision for health. What we call health care today is really just illness care. Even our disease prevention and health promotion programs focus on reducing risk factors for disease. It is the rare initiative indeed that encourages good health for its own sake. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*
August 21st, 2011 by Medgadget in Research
Tags: Brain, Cortical Areas, Cortical Mapping, David van Essen, In-Vivo, Journal of Neuroscience, Myelination, Post-Mortem, Research, T1- and T2-Weighted MRI, Washington University School of Medicine
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A technique to identify myelination in order to map the layout of cortical areas in the human brain has been developed by researchers led by David van Essen at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It is generally known that myelination levels are different throughout the cerebral cortex. The best way to assess it is to investigate the brain post mortem. Using the new technique of myelination mapping, it will be possible to accurately map individual cortical areas in vivo. The researchers used their method on a group of control subjects and found an excellent agreement between the spatial gradients of the myelin maps and already published anatomical and functional information about cortical areas, mostly based on post-mortem histology.
Using data from T1 and T2-weighted MRIs, the team has been able to Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
August 21st, 2011 by ChristopherChangMD in Research
Tags: Anti-viral antibiotics, Apoptosis, Common Cold, Cure, Dengue Fever, Double-Stranded RNA, DRACO, ds-RNA, Ebola, HIV, Medication, MIT, Polio, Treatment, Viral Infections, Viral Replication, virus
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For real… at least in mice, but has potential for human application if the promise holds out!
MIT researchers have developed a radical new approach to eradicating viral infections no matter what the virus may be… common cold, HIV, Ebola, polio, dengue fever, etc.
The usual anti-viral antibiotics in use today target the viral replication process which unfortunately often fails with time as the virus adapts and develops resistance to the medication.
The new medication dubbed “DRACO” (Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizers) approaches viral infections using a totally different approach. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Fauquier ENT Blog*
August 20th, 2011 by American Journal of Neuroradiology in Research
Tags: American Society of Neuroradiology, Auditory Hallucination, Brain, Brain MR Imaging, Encephalitis, Facial Spasms, Focal Edema, Japan, Mumps Virus, Neurology, Neuroradiology, Postinfectious Demyelination, Seizures, Symmetric Claustrum Lesions, Tongue Tremors, University of Tsukuba, Visual Hallucination
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Bilateral symmetric claustrum lesions shown on MR imaging are rarely reported, especially transient and reversible lesions associated with seizures, such as herpes simplex encephalitis,1 unidentified encephalopathy,2 and acute encephalitis with refractory repetitive partial seizures.3 To our knowledge, there are no reports of symmetric bilateral claustrum lesions with mumps encephalitis.
A 21-year-old man had been experiencing cold like symptoms with headache and fever for a week when he vomited and had a tonic-clonic seizure and was subsequently taken to a nearby emergency hospital (day 1). He had been noticing spasms on the left side of his face for 2 days. On his last visit to the hospital, he reported disorientation accompanied by fever; however, a brain MR imaging and CSF analysis showed no abnormalities. Because he was instatus epilepticus on hospitalization, midazolam was administered by intravenous infusion at 3.0 mg/h. Around this time, the patient started to experience visual hallucinations and reported seeing Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at AJNR Blog*
August 20th, 2011 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Research
Tags: Africa, Allergic Reactions, Flavivirus, Hemorrhagic Virus, Live Virus, NEJM, Nonreplicating Vaccine, Research, South America, Vaccination, Vaccine, Yellow Fever
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Yellow fever is an affliction caused by a potentially lethal viral (flavivirus) hemorrhagic (causes bleeding) virus common in parts of Africa and South America. A highly effective vaccine made from live virus (known as the “17D vaccine”) is currently used to inject persons to prevent yellow fever; this vaccine is known to rarely cause serious adverse effects, namely, onset of allergic reactions, or a life-threatening or fatal infection that resembles yellow fever.
So, there is need for a safer (“nonreplicating”—in other words, not based on live virus) vaccine. In a recent article, “An Inactivated Cell-Culture Vaccine against Yellow Fever,” Thomas Monath, MD and his coauthors described their experience with a potentially safer vaccine (NEJM, 2011;364:1326-33). In their study, Read more »
This post, Advancement In Research For A Safer Yellow Fever Vaccine, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
