http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers have long known that some repetitive DNA sequences can make human chromosomes "fragile," i.e. appearing constricted or even broken during cell divisions. Scientists at Tufts University have found that one such DNA repeat not only stalls the cell's replication process but also thwarts the cell's capacity to repair and restart it. The researchers focused on this CGG repeat because it is associated with hereditary neurological disorders such as fragile X syndrome and FRAXE mental impairment. http://www.physorg.com/news150905205.html Biology Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:06:45 EST news150905205 Counselling via the phone and internet can help weight management in overweight individuals, according to a Dutch study published in the open access journal, BMC Public Health. http://www.physorg.com/news150695972.html Medicine & Health Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:59:32 EST news150695972 Adolescents who misbehave at school are more likely to have difficulties throughout their adult lives, finds a 40-year study of British citizens published on bmj.com today. These difficulties cover all areas of life, from mental health to domestic and personal relationships to economic deprivation. http://www.physorg.com/news150695355.html Medicine & Health Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:49:15 EST news150695355 In the early days of the Internet, some scholars once predicted a lessening of racism and race-based discrimination in online interactions thanks to the anonymity and race-neutral nature of the medium. But according to a new study published by a University of Illinois professor who studies race and the Internet, adolescents are increasingly experiencing both individual and vicarious discrimination online, which in turn triggers stress, depression and anxiety. http://www.physorg.com/news150643577.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:26:17 EST news150643577 The drive toward containing health care costs could have the unintended consequence of reducing physician productivity, impairing quality and perhaps even increasing costs, two Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center physicians suggest in a New England Journal of Medicine "Perspective." http://www.physorg.com/news150571662.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:27:42 EST news150571662 Helping adolescents with arthritis develop the skills and secure resources to assure that their health care needs are met as they transition to adulthood is an important issue in the U.S. In general, the frequency of which young people with special health care needs receive transition services is low and, to date, no studies have examined this frequency. http://www.physorg.com/news150560329.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:18:49 EST news150560329 While some emerging technologies can create environments that require very little physical effort, one Kansas State University researcher thinks games like Nintendo's Wii Fit can help promote physical rather than sedentary activities for people of all ages. http://www.physorg.com/news150485556.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:32:36 EST news150485556 Many older adults want to remain active and independent for as long as possible. Seniors want to age in their own homes and avoid moving to institutions or nursing homes. University of Missouri researchers are using sensors, computers and communication systems, along with supportive health care services to monitor the health of older adults who are living at home. According to the researchers, motion sensor networks installed in seniors' homes can detect changes in behavior and physical activity, including walking and sleeping patterns. Early identification of these changes can prompt health care interventions that can delay or prevent serious health events. http://www.physorg.com/news150485444.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:30:44 EST news150485444 Questionnaires will soon be sent to thousands of men who donated their baby teeth half a century ago to scientists seeking to learn whether radioactive fallout in milk the donors drank as children affected their health later in life. It's the latest step in a study that began in the 1950s and 1960s at Washington University, but then stalled for decades. http://www.physorg.com/news150471812.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:43:32 EST news150471812 Ed Wagner, MD, MPH, knew there had to be a better way. He and Group Health colleagues set out 15 years ago to explore how best to engage patients with chronic diseases in effective care. With Robert Wood Johnson Foundation support, they developed the Chronic Care Model. More than 1,500 U.S. and international medical practices have adopted the Model. Now the largest roundup of evidence on how the Model performs in practice confirms that it works. This review is in the January/February 2009 issue of Health Affairs, focused on a key part of reforming health care: caring for chronic diseases in a "fragmented" health care system. http://www.physorg.com/news150448410.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:13:30 EST news150448410 Removing user fees for primary health care changed health utilization behaviour but did not improve health outcomes among households with children under the age of five in Ghana, says a new study published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news150447459.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:57:39 EST news150447459 As 2008 comes to a close, Akron, Ohio, Children's Hospital has compiled "10 Kids' Health Issues to Watch" in 2009. This year's list includes both mental and physical health issues. However, one common thread factors into many of these issues and so became the country's focus of attention: the economy. The financial crunch, here and around the world, will undoubtedly affect the physical and mental health of parents and kids throughout 2009 - and beyond. http://www.physorg.com/news150398654.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:24:14 EST news150398654 The study of ancient microbes may not seem consequential, but such pioneering research at the University of Oklahoma has implications for the state of modern human health. Cecil Lewis, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, says results of this research raise questions about the microbes living on and within people. http://www.physorg.com/news150397619.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:06:59 EST news150397619 People with substance abuse disorders cost Medicaid hundreds of millions of dollars annually in medical care, suggesting that early interventions for substance abuse could not only improve outcomes but also save substantial amounts of money, according to a comprehensive study that examined records of nearly 150,000 people in six states. http://www.physorg.com/news150374094.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:34:54 EST news150374094 Researchers at the University Of Southern California, School Of Dentistry release results of clinical data that links oral bisphosphonates to increased jaw necrosis. The study is among the first to acknowledge that even short-term use of common oral osteoporosis drugs may leave the jaw vulnerable to devastating necrosis, according to the report appearing in the January 1 Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA). http://www.physorg.com/news150034433.html Medicine & Health Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:13:53 EST news150034433 Two years ago, Holly Calvillo signed up for a new type of health insurance that was just starting to get popular. It had a nice low premium but a high deductible. Calvillo and her husband were young and healthy. She figured that with her employer's contributions to a health savings account, they would save money. http://www.physorg.com/news149842011.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:46:51 EST news149842011 Need another reason to add "Quit Smoking" to your New Year's resolutions list? How about the fact that even if you choose to smoke outside of your home or only smoke in your home when your children are not there - thinking that you're keeping them away from second-hand smoke - you're still exposing them to toxins? In the January issue of Pediatrics, researchers at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and colleagues across the country describe how tobacco smoke contamination lingers even after a cigarette is extinguished - a phenomenon they define as "third-hand" smoke. Their study is the first to examine adult attitudes about the health risks to children of third-hand smoke and how those beliefs may relate to rules about smoking in their homes. http://www.physorg.com/news149774815.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:06:55 EST news149774815 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week in order to maintain and improve optimal health. This recommendation is especially important for older Americans, who can be less likely to fulfill this requirement, yet are more at risk for chronic diseases associated with aging. http://www.physorg.com/news149768698.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:24:58 EST news149768698 For the first time, researchers have established a clear link between family rejection of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and negative health outcomes in early adulthood. The findings will be published in the January issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a peer-reviewed article entitled "Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes in White and Latino Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young Adults." http://www.physorg.com/news149748964.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:56:04 EST news149748964 (PhysOrg.com) -- At the end of July 2008, major news agencies reported an outbreak of jalapeņo-related salmonella that sickened more than 1,000 people in Mexico and the United States. It was the biggest outbreak of its kind in decades. http://www.physorg.com/news149346537.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:08:57 EST news149346537 Gay and bisexual black men are less likely to be tested for prostate cancer than men of any other racial and ethnic backgrounds regardless of their sexual orientation, according to a recent study by a researcher at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. http://www.physorg.com/news149344384.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:33:04 EST news149344384 More people who need mental health services will seek follow-up care if the price is right, Brown University researchers have found. http://www.physorg.com/news149271928.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:25:28 EST news149271928 Clinical pharmacy services can significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs and save money elsewhere in the health care system, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. http://www.physorg.com/news149270450.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:00:50 EST news149270450 Access to maternal health-care is extremely limited and poor nutrition, anemia and malaria are widespread in eastern Burma, which increases the risk of pregnancy complications, says new research published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. Human rights violations -such as displacement and forced labur -are also widely present, and in some communities forced relocation doubled the risk of women developing anemia and greatly decreased their chances of receiving any antenatal care. http://www.physorg.com/news149247869.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:44:29 EST news149247869 The editorial in this month's PLoS Medicine examines how the health needs of the homeless are underrepresented in the medical literature, leading to the failure of health and social systems to address them. At a time when charities warn that the risk of homelessness is closer for many people than has previously been assumed, the editorial argues that "imaginative and collaborative solutions from across the whole spectrum of health and social care providers are needed." http://www.physorg.com/news149247708.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:41:48 EST news149247708 New research out of the University of Pittsburgh indicates that patients' perceptions of their own health and balance have an impact on how much they walk. The study was originally published in Physical Therapy (December 2008), the scientific journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). http://www.physorg.com/news148927101.html Medicine & Health Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:38:21 EST news148927101 Adolescent health risk behaviors often occur together, suggesting that youth involvement with one risk behavior may inform understanding of other risk behaviors, but in a study to examine the association between involvement in non-sexual risk behaviors and trends among sexual behaviors, Mailman School of Public Health researchers found that sexual behaviors vary considerably between those youth engaged in no risk health behaviors and those engaged in multiple health risk behaviors. http://www.physorg.com/news148917725.html Medicine & Health Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:02:05 EST news148917725 A new technology that could help physicians screen pregnant women at risk of developing a prenatal and potentially fatal complication called preeclampsia has been developed at The University of Western Ontario and the Children's Health Research Institute of Lawson Health Research Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news148832094.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:14:54 EST news148832094 Human parechovirus is a harmless virus which is encountered by most infants and displays few symptoms. Suspected of triggering type 1 diabetes in susceptible people, research methods need to take this "silent" virus into consideration. This comes from findings in a study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. http://www.physorg.com/news148816892.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:01:32 EST news148816892 The public's concerns about costs and increased promiscuity among teenagers appear to be hindering use of a vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) to prevent life-threatening diseases, according to a study by researchers at Yale School of Public Health. http://www.physorg.com/news148757988.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:39:48 EST news148757988