Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Research behind the news: Accupuncture works - the how and why

The News:
As explained in this presentation at ArsTechica.com, the researchers discovered that acupuncture needles reduce pain by tricking the body into producing high levels of its own natural pain killer, called adenosine. Working with mice, they found that acupuncture treatments increased levels of adenosine by some 24 times above normal, and that the levels of the pain killer remained high even well after the treatment ended. More from the article by Carl Laron in the Consumersearch blog from June 3, 2010.


The Research:
Read the research behind this story: "Adenosine A1 receptors mediate local anti-nociceptive effects of acupuncture," by Nanna Goldman, Michael Chen, et al. in Nature Neuroscience, published online: 30 May 2010.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Research News: Less Salt Could Mean Fewer Heart Attacks, Strokes and Deaths

The News:
"Even Small Dietary Reductions in Salt Could Mean Fewer Heart Attacks, Strokes and Deaths" Reducing salt in the American diet by as little as one-half teaspoon (or three grams) per day could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths each year, according to a new study. Such benefits are on par with the benefits from reductions in smoking and could save the United States about $24 billion in healthcare costs, the researchers add. ... more in Science Daily ... more at NPR


The Research:
Read the research behind this story in New England Journal of Medicine, Projected Effect of Dietary Salt Reductions on Future Cardiovascular Disease, Bibbins-Domingo K, et al., Jan. 20, 2010.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Research News: One Dose May Be Enough

The News: Study shows one dose of H1N1 vaccine may be enough for children...
Australian researchers find that more than 90% of those in study had effective immunity after a single dose, but the 15-microgram dose of antigen is twice that used in the United States. Australian researchers have shown that a single dose of vaccine against pandemic H1N1 influenza can provide effective immunity against the swine flu virus in infants and children, a finding that, if corroborated, could help damp the spread of the virus by reducing the logistical complications associated with the currently recommended regimen of two doses. (Read more)


The Research:
Read the research behind this story in JAMA: the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Research News: Study Links Anesthesia To Learning Disabilities

The News:

Study Links Anesthesia To Learning Disabilities
by Joseph Shapiro
Morning Edition, March 25, 2009 · Children who have had multiple surgeries under general anesthesia by the age of 4 may be at a higher risk of developing learning disabilities, according to a new study by scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Dr. Robert Wilder, a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist, says his study was motivated by recent research on baby rats and other young animals. Those studies, conducted in the last several years, show that exposure to anesthesia at a very young age can kill off brain cells. But results in rodents don't necessarily translate to humans.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in Anesthesiology.