As people age, the brain develops inflammation. Levels of certain neurotransmitters go down, and the result is numerous ailments ranging from memory impairment and depression to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But in a long-term study with implications to treat these and other conditions, researchers have found that an experimental drug, taken chronically, has the ability to [...]
Interventional cardiologists (Drs. Hijazi, Kavinsky and Amin) at Rush University Medical Center ( Chicago,Il ) are performing minimally invasive nonsurgical valve replacement procedure for patients with congenital heart disease that doesn’t involve open heart surgery.
Rush is one of 3 sites participating in an investigational study of minimally-invasive pulmonary valves and successfully implanted the [...]
THC reduces the response to threat in a specific portion of the brain. Volunteers were given delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, and shown photographs of emotional faces, which represented signals of social communication. Results, of brain scans showed that THC reduces the response to threat in a brain region called the amygdala. This [...]
Commonly prescribed anticholinergic meds (examples –Detrol LA, Ditropan-XL, Pro-Banthine) , for urinary incontinence and other common problems like motion sickness, could lead to a decline in their thinking skills.
Newly presented research , indicates that the effects of taking medication with anticholinergic properties led to cognitive deterioration as much as one and a half times as [...]
Survival of out of hospital cardiac arrest patients is worse on weekends than weekdays.
The flu strains that make millions of people ill each winter and kill tens of thousands of Americans are complicated viruses that come from a virus “reservoir” which experts now believe exists in warmer parts of the planet (latitudes near the equator). There are many different viral strains of these viruses that are found in [...]
Dementia can occur in younger patients (less than 45 years old). While it is more unusual than the dementia of old age , it may be more serious and is often related to immune system disorders such as lupus, or degenerative nerologic diseases like Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. The early onset dementia is more [...]
Researchers at Rutgers have demonstrated that using a combination of twowidely used drugs Celebrex (celecoxib) and Lipitor (atorvastatin) blocks the transition of early stage prostate cancer to its more aggressive and deadly stage. The researchers objective was to find a way to indefinitely delay the change in the tumor to an aggressive form (this keeps [...]
Loss of a small part of chromosome number 16, (16p11.2), is linked with autism researchers report (University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago Medical Center, and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute)
Researchers think that the 16p11.2 microdeletions may be a risk factor for autism spectrum disorders and may cause mild autism in some [...]
The effects of nicotine and opiates on the brain’s reward system are both equally strong and occur in central pleasure sensing portions of the brain (nucleus accumbens).
By looking at rat brain tissues, a remarkable overlap occurs between the effects of nicotine and opiates in dopamine signaling pathways in the brain’s pleasure and reward centers.the control [...]
