Here is an interesting story showing that the development of autism has a strong genetic component. A number of parents who used the same sperm donor had children who developed autism. The sperm donor was an individual with high intelligence and other desirable characteristics according to the sperm bank information.
The first child described is [...]
Standard antidepressant medications work well for many patients with depression but not for everyone . Other options exist but are used much less often. Treatments like electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT )are reserved for only a few patients. Other treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation ( TMS ) appear to hold promise but are still in [...]
A report in the May 28 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, rperts that gabapentin (aka Neurontin), a drug often prescribed for chronic pain and seizures, helps to decrease alcohol intake in alcohol addicted rats by improving chemical communication between brain cells, that is affected by chronic alcohol use.
The central amygdala, a component [...]
Chocolate has gotten a great deal of press lately and most of the news has been positive. The latest news is again good and it suggests that drinking hot cocoa is good for you if you have type 2 diabetes. The beneficial effects are caused by an improvement in blood flow following consumption of cocoa [...]
Herbal Medicine that is used in non-western medicine may have some promise in compounds to treat many diseases. A new study by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Kimmel Cancer center has identified a compound that appears to have value as an anticancer drug against pancreatic cancer cells. The compound thymoquinone is a derivative of Nigella Sativa [...]
Huge bugs that don’t bite,look interesting and make strange sounds–that’s what has made Madagascar hissing cockroaches popular pets and teaching tools. But the giant cockroaches also have an undesireable trait: Their hard shells and their waste products contain numerous mold species that can trigger allergies in children and adults who handle the bugs, according [...]
A different class of anticancer medication that works by turning off cancer genes appears to effectively halt the progress of prostate cancer development in experimental animals. The new class of anticancer drugs are called histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. The new medication prevented mice with a precancerous lesion from getting an advanced prostate cancer.
While receiving the [...]
Bisphenol A, or BPA a chemical found in numerous plastics that contain our foods and make up some water bottles and baby bottles has been linked to the development of obesity.
Bisphenol A, or BPA exposure during the development of a fetus in the womb and exposure while in infancy is associated with obesity later in [...]
Scientists from the University of Washington have located gene abnormalities that could explain how schizophrenia develops in some patients. Researchers identified gene deletions and extra (duplicated) segments of DNA which are more frequent in people with the schizophrenia. It was discovered that abnormalities occur in genes related to the [...]
