Women Health News

Always surrounded by an aura of mystery, the moon and its possible influence over human behavior has been object of ancestral fascination and mythical speculation for centuries. While the full moon cannot turn people into werewolves, some people do accuse it of causing a bad night's sleep or creating physical and mental alterations. But is there any science behind these … [Read more...]

In order to fight invading pathogens, the immune system uses "outposts" throughout the body, called lymph nodes. These are small, centimeter-long organs that filter fluids, get rid of waste materials, and trap pathogens, e.g. bacteria or viruses. Lymph nodes are packed with immune cells, and are know to grow in size, or 'swell', when they detect invading pathogens. But now, … [Read more...]

Three-hundred thirty-two thousand Americans have hip replacement every year. For most, the surgery requires a hospital stay, and weeks of rehabilitation.  Now, a different approach to surgery is getting patients back on their feet and out of the hospital faster than ever before. For 63-year-old Mary Farley, lifting up, stepping down and bending over are cause to celebrate. … [Read more...]

A protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the brain to regulate metabolism, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. The research potentially could lead to new therapies to treat obesity and diabetes, since the transcription factor involved -- spliced X-box binding protein 1 (Xbp1s) -- appears to influence … [Read more...]

A new study from UC San Francisco is the first to show that while the impact of life's stressors accumulate overtime and accelerate cellular aging, these negative effects may be reduced by maintaining a healthy diet, exercising and sleeping well. "The study participants who exercised, slept well and ate well had less telomere shortening than the ones who didn't maintain … [Read more...]

  Life events such as visiting another country or contracting a disease cause a significant shift in the make-up of the gut microbiota -- the community of bacteria living in the digestive system, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Biology. Two participants used smartphone apps to collect information every day for a year in the study by … [Read more...]

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have shown for the first time that people with higher levels of brown fat, or brown adipose tissue, in their bodies have better blood sugar control, higher insulin sensitivity and a better metabolism for burning fat stores. Their findings suggest that, because of the brown fat's ability to better regulate … [Read more...]

  A team of local researchers has proposed a molecular mechanism that may be responsible for the development of life-threatening diseases called amyloidoses. The best known of such diseases is Alzheimer's disease (AD), but there are many others that are receiving increased scrutiny, in part because of mounting evidence linking them to atherosclerosis and aging. The … [Read more...]

Exercise can have a positive influence on certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis: Patients who do yoga and aquatic exercise suffer less from fatigue, depression and paresthesia, as reported by researchers from the University of Basel and the Psychiatric University Clinics Basel in a joint study with colleagues in Iran. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive … [Read more...]

A new study in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry suggests that women are particularly susceptible to the pain-relieving placebo effect of vasopressin. Placebos are used to help accurately measure clinical responses/outcomes when studying the effects of medications, therapies, and other treatments. The well-known "placebo effect" is a phenomenon whereby a patient's … [Read more...]

Researchers from the University of Birmingham have found that extended rest intervals between sets of weight-lifting could help with muscle growth. The findings, published in Experimental Physiology, go against the conventional belief that favours shorter periods of rest. The study highlights that short rest intervals may actually impair the processes that control muscle … [Read more...]

Although there have been discussions about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition impacting 24 million Americans, and depression, there has been little research showing the impact depression has on patients with COPD. Two studies published in the April issue of the journal CHEST found one in four patients with COPD suffer from depressive symptoms, and if not … [Read more...]

A team of scientists have investigated a case of vaccine-associated chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and macrophagic myofasciitis in an individual demonstrating aluminium overload. This is the first report linking aluminium overload with either of the two conditions and the possibility is considered that the coincident aluminium overload contributed significantly to the … [Read more...]

Researchers from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio are exploring a possible link between metabolic defects and seizures. They determined that diet could influence susceptibility to seizures, and they have identified a common diabetes drug that could be useful in treating disorders such as epilepsy. Dr. Daniel Kuebler, the principal investigator behind the … [Read more...]

Researchers at McMaster University have found that a single minute of very intense exercise produces health benefits similar to longer, traditional endurance training. The findings put to rest the common excuse for not getting in shape: there is not enough time. "This is a very time-efficient workout strategy," says Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster … [Read more...]

Everything you eat or drink affects your intestinal bacteria, and is likely to have an impact on your health. That is the finding of a large-scale study led by RUG/UMCG geneticist Cisca Wijmenga into the effect of food and medicine on the bacterial diversity in the human gut, which is published this Friday in the research journal Science. In this study researchers collected … [Read more...]

Call it personalized medicine for depression -- but the prescription in this case is exercise, which University of Florida Health researchers have found helps people with certain genetic traits. A UF study has found that specific genetic markers that put people at risk for depression also predict who might benefit from exercise, according to a study published recently in The … [Read more...]

A culturally sensitive lifestyle intervention showed promise at motivating Latinas living in the U.S. to eat better and exercise more by connecting healthy-living behaviors with the lives of saints and prominent religious figures, new studies found. Several recent papers about the project, including a new study published in the Journal of Aging and Health, add to a growing … [Read more...]

Taking B vitamins doesn't slow mental decline as we age, nor is it likely to prevent Alzheimer's disease, conclude Oxford University researchers who have assembled all the best clinical trial data involving 22,000 people to offer a final answer on this debate. High levels in the blood of a compound called homocysteine have been found in people with Alzheimer's disease, and … [Read more...]

  Recently, a study in the Journal of Internal Medicine suggested that women who avoid sun exposure are twice as likely to die as compared to those who receive sun exposure. The study attempts to link low vitamin D levels with this increased death rate. However, even the study authors admit that this is speculation on their part. Encouraging sun exposure to get … [Read more...]

We are all aware of the health benefits of dietary fiber. But what is dietary fiber and how do we metabolize it? Research at the University of Michigan Medical School, the University of York's Structural Biology Laboratory, and institutions in Canada and Sweden, has begun to uncover how our gut bacteria metabolize the complex dietary carbohydrates found in fruits and … [Read more...]

Japanese researchers have determined that sarcopenia -- a loss of skeletal muscle mass -- increases risk of sepsis and mortality risk in patients undergoing live donor liver transplantation. Findings published in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, suggest that … [Read more...]

Irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and anorexia nervosa may all have a common origin according to researchers. They speculate that all three disorders may be caused by antibodies to the body's own nerve cells because of a mistake by the immune system following infection. At the moment, the ultimate cause of these illnesses remains a mystery. Writing in … [Read more...]

For the first time in history, researchers have isolated the parts of the human genome that could explain the differences in how humans experience happiness. These are the findings of a large-scale international study in over 298,000 people, conducted by VU Amsterdam professors Meike Bartels (Genetics and Wellbeing) and Philipp Koellinger (Genoeconomics). The researchers found … [Read more...]

Over the last 50 years, political rights for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals have significantly broadened in some countries, while they have narrowed in others. In many parts of the world, political and popular support for LGB rights hinges on questions about the prevalence, causes, and consequences of non-heterosexual orientations. In a new report, a team of … [Read more...]

Spanish researchers have analysed the effect of endurance running training on the stiffness index, a variable that is directly related to bone quality. The results confirm that the greater the race distance that is trained, the better; this can be used, therefore, to prevent the progressive decline in bone mineral density that occurs with age. In healthy individuals, bone … [Read more...]

Global studies have shown that women are underrepresented in some science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and fields. Even in countries with higher gender equality, sex differences in math and technical scores persist. Now, using international data, a team of psychologists from the University of Missouri, the University of California-Irvine and the … [Read more...]

  A recent study from the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (JACN), examines the safety and efficacy of a vitamin/mineral enhanced plant-sourced calcium supplement [AlgaeCal (AC)] in female consumers who had taken the supplement from 1 to 7 years. The article "A 7-Year Longitudinal Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of a Vitamin/Mineral Enhanced … [Read more...]

Lack of sleep has previously been found to impact the activation of the immune system, inflammation, carbohydrate metabolism and the hormones that regulate appetite. Now University of Helsinki researchers have found that sleep loss also influences cholesterol metabolism. The study examined the impact of cumulative sleep deprivation on cholesterol metabolism in terms of both … [Read more...]