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Fear of back pain from care work is predictive of actually developing it

Whether from heaving, twisting, bending or bad lifting postures, it's well known that caring for the sick or elderly can lead to back pain. This often results in time off work or dropping out of caring professions altogether. Now Danish research published in the online open access journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders suggests that the fear of getting back pain from care work is predictive of actually developing it.

24 Sep 2009

Research study links cancer to excess body weight

At least 124,000 new cancers in 2008 in Europe may have been caused by excess body weight, according to estimates from a new modelling study. The proportion of cases of new cancers attributable to a body mass index of 25kg/m2 or more were highest among women and in central European countries such as the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

From The University of Manchester 24 Sep 2009

Women usually tightlipped about bladder problems

Women may be known as the more talkative sex, but when it comes to a certain sensitive health topic, their lips are sealed, according to a new "Bladder Talk" survey of 780 women aged 35 and older in North America (U.S. and Canada) sponsored by TENA(R), the worldwide leader in the management of bladder protection, and conducted by Harris Interactive.

24 Sep 2009

Study on leisure experiences of women with intellectual disabilities in group homes

Brenda Rossow-Kimball, who did post-graduate research with Donna Goodwin, in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, investigated the leisure experiences of five women with intellectual disabilities in two group homes. They found major differences in how leisure was experienced in each group home. In one, the women were provided with support and encouraged to make their own decisions about how they used their leisure time; there was a genuine interest in the women engaging in independent spontaneous leisure, according to Rossow-Kimball. In the other home leisure was supervised by the staff, scheduled into the activities of the home, and managed by the staff, which, the researchers say, doesn't teach the women how to discover what they like to do for leisure.

24 Sep 2009

Research study links high-fructose diet to increased blood pressure in men

A high-fructose diet raises blood pressure in men, while a drug used to treat gout seems to protect against the blood pressure increase, according to research reported at the American Heart Association's 63rd High Blood Pressure Research Conference.

24 Sep 2009

Study on adults living with autism spectrum disorders in England

The first ever major study into adults living with autism was published today (Tuesday 22nd September) by the NHS Information Centre. The report, entitled 'Autism Spectrum Disorders in adults living in households throughout England 2007' was written by Professor Terry Brugha, a Consultant Psychiatrist with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Leicester with a team of UK researchers.

23 Sep 2009

Depression, obesity and alcoholism interrelated in young women

There is new evidence that depression, obesity and alcohol abuse or dependency are interrelated conditions among young adult women but not men. Usinng data collected when young adults were 24, 27 and 30 years of age, a team of University of Washington researchers found that nearly half the sample of 776 young adults tracked during the study met the criteria for one of these conditions at each of these time points.

23 Sep 2009

Macrophages play a crucial role in muscle regeneration

For scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, what seemed like a disappointing result turned out to be an important discovery.

22 Sep 2009

Study reveals effectiveness of targeted heat therapy in addition to chemotherapy

Patients with soft-tissue sarcomas at high risk of spreading were 30% more likely to be alive and cancer free almost three years after starting treatment if their tumours were heated at the time they received chemotherapy, according to new research. The finding bolsters the case for intensifying exploration of the strategy in other types of cancer.

22 Sep 2009

Hormone therapy for treating prostate cancer is linked to heart problems

Berlin, Germany: New research has found that hormone therapy used to treat men with advanced prostate cancer is associated with an increased chance of developing various heart problems. Some choices of therapy appear, however, to be less risky than others.

22 Sep 2009

Poor money management: A sign of developing Alzheimer's disease

New research finds poor money management skills may indicate that a person with mild memory problems will soon develop Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the September 22, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

22 Sep 2009

Matching parent-child pairs not dependent on race or culture

Scientists have ample evidence that individuals use a variety of cues to identify their own kin. People can also detect resemblances in families other than their own. A new study shows that their success in doing so is the same, whether or not those families are the same race as themselves.

22 Sep 2009

Importance of residual thymopoiesis in aged adults

Doctor Manuel Leal is managing the Experimental Immune Virology Laboratory (in Virgen del Rocío University Hospital and Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBIS), where clinic and basic science researchers work) where he leads a project to establish the functional nature of the thymus gland in adults. So far, it has been proven that this gland keeps on producing lymphocytes in the old age (Ferrando-Martínez et al. AGE, in press), which is a novelty because until very recently it was considered that this organ lost its immune capacity after the puberty.

22 Sep 2009

Patients with higher levels of vitamin D are less likely to die from skin cancer

New research shows higher levels of vitamin D may help improve survival for both bowel and skin cancer patients.

22 Sep 2009

Gene variant shows a strong gender bias for cancer predisposition

Cancer predisposition resulting from the presence of a specific gene variant shows a strong gender bias, researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have demonstrated.

22 Sep 2009

Research reveals that thin people influence the way others around them eat

Thin friends who eat a lot could put your waistline at risk, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, which examines how other peoples' weight and food choices influence how much we eat.

22 Sep 2009

Older adults with vitamin D deficiency at a greater risk of heart disease and death

A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows vitamin D plays a vital role in reducing the risk of death associated with older age. The research, just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, evaluated the association between vitamin D levels in the blood and the death rates of those 65 and older. The study found that older adults with insufficient levels of vitamin D die from heart disease at greater rates that those with adequate levels of the vitamin.

22 Sep 2009

New study reveals that large abdominal fat cells contribute to type 2 diabetes in women

Middle-aged women with large abdominal fat cells have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life compared to women with smaller fat cells. Waist circumference divided by body height can also be used to determine which women are at risk. This is shown in a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

21 Sep 2009

Researchers find new technique for long-term treatment of DVT

Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) is a serious condition that involves the formation of a blood clot inside of a deep vein usually in the legs. A patient with DVT is typically treated with anticoagulants (blood thinners) however researchers have found that image-guided interventional radiology procedures may play a more central role in the long-term treatment of DVT, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR).

21 Sep 2009

Postmenopausal women benefit as much from exercise as younger women

In two papers based on the experiments and published in recent months, UC Berkeley researchers report that postmenopausal women can achieve the same health benefits from regular, vigorous exercise as younger women do.

21 Sep 2009