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Helping others raises quality of life

When we volunteer our time to do something for others, such as helping out an elderly neighbour or taking part in a local community project, it can be good news for our health, our children’s education and even reduce the local crime rate too.

20 Sep 2004

Humans are in fact quite rational; they just do not trust what people in lab coats tell them

New research indicates that humans are in fact quite rational; they just do not trust what people in lab coats tell them. The research suggests that by taking doubt into account, psychologists have the opportunity to strengthen the predictive power of many commonly used models and potentially better understand human behavior.

18 Sep 2004

Research findings may help stave off full-blown diabetes

A new study by researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center sheds light on the key mechanisms by which new pancreatic beta cells normally form in response to insulin resistance. These findings may some day help researchers devise ways of staving off full-blown diabetes.

18 Sep 2004

Link between eosinophils and asthma

Mayo Clinic researchers have used a comparative genomic strategy to demonstrate a causative link between eosinophils, a rare type of white blood cell, and asthma.

18 Sep 2004

Inflammation could have important implications for modern-day health care

Starting in the mid-1850s, humans began living longer due, researchers believe, to improvements in living conditions, nutrition, income levels and medicine.

18 Sep 2004

Possibility of developing drug therapies that target eosinophils, white blood cells long known to be associated with the asthma

The studies discount a 2000 study published in The Lancet which concluded that eosinophils do not have a significant role in the development of asthma in humans.

18 Sep 2004

40 percent of women of childbearing age take folic acid

A record 40 percent of American women of childbearing age reported taking a daily multivitamin containing folic acid in 2004, up from 32 percent last year and the highest level since the March of Dimes began surveying women in the 1990s, according to the organization's latest survey, which was published today in Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.

18 Sep 2004

New culprit behind the brain injury suffered by stroke victims

Researchers have uncovered a new culprit behind the brain injury suffered by stroke victims. Their new study, published in the Sept. 17 issue of Cell, links brain cell damage to a rise in brain acidity following the oxygen depletion, or ischemia, characteristic of stroke.

18 Sep 2004

Nicaraguan deaf children create a new sign language entirely their own

At a school in Managua, Nicaragua, deaf children are speaking a new language entirely their own, which nonetheless has remarkable similarities to the world's other languages. Researchers studying these similarities suggest this week in Science that, in fact, children give language its most fundamental, universal features just by the way they learn it.

18 Sep 2004

So far only 4,000 of 50,000 slots have been filled in new demonstration prescription drug assistance program

The Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging is encouraging those on Medicare who have cancer and other serious diseases to consider signing up for a new demonstration prescription drug assistance program.

18 Sep 2004

Broadband users tend to be more social than dial-up users

People who use a fast Internet access also tend to be more social than those who use the dial-up method, a University of Michigan study shows.

18 Sep 2004

Red Baron's severe head injury nine months earlier the casue of him being shot down

Since he was shot down and killed in 1918, much speculation has been made of who shot down the German World War I flying ace dubbed the Red Baron.

18 Sep 2004

A misconception that eating wasabi decongests the nose

Wasabi, (Wasabia japonica) is commonly known as the Japanese horseradish used to enhance the enjoyment of sushi.

18 Sep 2004

Oral appliances effective in treating obstructive sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a disorder characterized by repeated episodes of reductions or cessation in breathing during sleep. Millions of Americans, both men and women, have this medical problem

18 Sep 2004

Botox injections may ease the irritation of tinnitus

A preliminary study indicates that Botox injections may ease the irritation of tinnitus, otherwise know as ringing in the ears, for some patients. Researchers say more study is needed, but initial results are promising.

18 Sep 2004

Further study is needed before link between gastroesophageal reflux disorder and otitis media can be firmly established

Does gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD) lead to middle ear infections in young children? Otitis media (OM) or ear infection, has the highest incidence, 62.9 percent, among all medical conditions in children younger than age five. Recent studies have suggested that GERD may cause OM.

18 Sep 2004

Patients with asthma have a higher incidence of nasal polyposis, nasal congestion, and olfactory disturbances

Some 37 million Americans suffer from sinusitis; some of those patients are unfortunate enough to also have asthma, an inflammatory disease of the lungs characterized by reversible airway obstruction.

18 Sep 2004

Cochlear implantation leads to a higher quality of life in elderly patients

According to health care experts, cochlear implantation in senior citizens seems to be not cost effective, due to a belief that elderly patients perform poorly in the postoperative audiological rehabilitation process due to degenerative processes in the central and peripheral auditory system.

18 Sep 2004

Adenotonsillectomy resolves child sleep disorders

Within the last ten years, the primary reason that children have had surgery to remove their tonsils and adenoids is not infection but obstructive sleep apnea.

18 Sep 2004

Study hints at antioxidants being able to prevent and restore hearing loss

In a preliminary study, researchers find that vitamin E may be effective in restoring sudden onset hearing loss of unknown origin (idiopathic sudden hearing loss). These findings suggest that further research may reveal the role of antioxidants in the prevention and restoration of hearing loss.

18 Sep 2004