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. Overall, antipsychotic medications are reasonably effective, and fairly well tolerated treatments for mood and psychotic disorders. However, treatment with a number of antipsychotic medications is associated with weight gain, and for some, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. In the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, researchers discuss this cluster of metabolic side effects and how it may contribute to the risk for diabetes, hypertension, and other medical disorders associated with heart disease. This is of particular concern because there is a higher cardiovascular mortality among the severely mentally ill compared to the general population. http://www.physorg.com/news178896257.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:00:01 EST news178896257 The addition of a "genetic sonogram" maximizes the accuracy of non-invasive testing for Down syndrome, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher who was lead author of a landmark study in the current issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. http://www.physorg.com/news177960758.html Medicine & Health Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:04 EST news177960758 Unexpectedly, inflammation markers do not appear to be involved with the chemopreventative effect of aspirin on colorectal adenomas, according to a brief communication published online October 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news174585295.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:40:02 EST news174585295 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Queensland PhD candidate and nutritionist Christine Houghton is set to investigate whether broccoli could help in the fight against diabetes. http://www.physorg.com/news172499764.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:40:04 EST news172499764 Using tiny crystals called quantum dots, Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a highly sensitive test to look for DNA attachments that often are early warning signs of cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news169727891.html Nanotechnology Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:38:41 EST news169727891 Wake Forest University scientists have developed a new research tool in the pursuit of heart medications based on the compound nitroxyl by identifying unique chemical markers for its presence in biological systems. http://www.physorg.com/news166081501.html Chemistry Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:20:01 EST news166081501 Women who get less than the recommended eight hours sleep a night are at higher risk of heart disease and heart-related problems than men with the same sleeping patterns. http://www.physorg.com/news165668445.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:01:24 EST news165668445 (PhysOrg.com) -- Whether it's the summer grass that tickles your feet or the red Bordeaux smacking on your palette, nearly every part of the world around you carries special chemical markers. These markers, called isotopes, can tell scientists where the molecules that compose a substance are from, where they traveled, and what happened to them along the way. But doing these analyses has been complex and costly. Now, Stanford chemists have developed a new method to make isotopic analysis easier and less expensive. http://www.physorg.com/news165515832.html Chemistry Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:40:01 EST news165515832 People smell them, thump them and eyeball their shape. But ultimately, it's sweetness and a sense of healthy eating that lands a melon in a shopper's cart. http://www.physorg.com/news165254989.html Biology Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:10:17 EST news165254989 A study published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine shows that for elderly people at risk of cardiovascular disease, the presence of inflammatory markers in the blood can identify that an individual is at a higher risk of a fatal rather than a non-fatal heart attack or stroke. http://www.physorg.com/news164965315.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:00:07 EST news164965315 A new approach to tracking polar bears, developed by Queen's University researchers, will shed more light on the potentially endangered Arctic animal and help boost the economy of Canada's north. http://www.physorg.com/news164555200.html Biology Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:10:01 EST news164555200 In a series of recently-published articles, a research team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has uncovered clues to the development of cancers in AIDS patients. http://www.physorg.com/news164461335.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:20:02 EST news164461335 Scientists are reporting two findings that could influence the way researchers screen for, treat and assess prognosis for women with locally advanced breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease. One finding offers a critical message regarding treatment strategy, they say. http://www.physorg.com/news163156566.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:21:08 EST news163156566 (PhysOrg.com) -- UCLA scientists have discovered a variant of a gene called CACNA1G that may increase a child's risk of developing autism, particularly in boys. The journal Molecular Psychiatry publishes the findings in its May 19 advance online edition. http://www.physorg.com/news161974145.html Medicine & Health Tue, 19 May 2009 17:50:31 EST news161974145 Regularly eating fish, nuts, olive oil and other foods containing omega-three fatty acids and avoiding trans fats appears to be associated with a lower risk for the eye disease age-related macular degeneration, according to two reports in the May issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. http://www.physorg.com/news161278809.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 16:41:28 EST news161278809 Some genetic markers of influenza infection severity have been identified from past outbreaks. Researchers have failed to find most of these markers, described in the open access journal BMC Microbiology, in samples of the current swine-flu strain. http://www.physorg.com/news160832514.html Biology Wed, 06 May 2009 12:42:38 EST news160832514 African, American, and European researchers working in collaboration over a 10-year period have released the largest-ever study of African genetic data--more than four million genotypes--providing a library of new information on the continent which is thought to be the source of the oldest settlements of modern humans. http://www.physorg.com/news160319662.html Biology Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:14:45 EST news160319662 Differing biological response to infection between men and women may explain higher death rates among older men who are hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The findings, published online in the Critical Care Medicine journal, may have important implications for understanding sex differences in life expectancy. http://www.physorg.com/news160224097.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:42:07 EST news160224097 Scientists at The University of Nottingham are investigating whether stem cell markers could have a role to play in speeding up wound healing in patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). http://www.physorg.com/news160154197.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:16:58 EST news160154197 Scientists have determined that a subset of immune cells may cause malaria patients to contract the severe form of the disease, suffering worse symptoms. Led by Monash University immunologist Professor Magdalena Plebanski, the international team found that patients with the severe form of malaria have a specific type of cell in their body that people with uncomplicated disease do not. This type of cell, described in an article published April 24 in the open access journal PLoS Pathogens, turns off the immune system and can allow the parasite to grow uncontrollably. http://www.physorg.com/news159776454.html Medicine & Health Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:21:26 EST news159776454 Genetics plays a key role in determining risk for colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Several common genetic markers have been found to be associated with the disease, but finding the biological events that lead to cancer can be much more difficult. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have identified a common genetic variation associated with the risk of colorectal cancer and its functional implications, shedding new light on the basis of this deadly disease. http://www.physorg.com/news159728950.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:09:42 EST news159728950 A new University of Illinois study suggests that moderate amounts of exercise alone can reduce the inflammation in visceral fat -belly fat, if you will -that has been linked with metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors that predict heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. http://www.physorg.com/news159721475.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:05:16 EST news159721475 School-aged children who witness violence in urban communities show symptoms of post-traumatic stress. They also suffer physiological effects with a disruption to their normal cortisol production pattern during the day, which may have long-term negative effects on their health. According to Dr. Shakira Franco Suglia, from the Harvard School of Public Health, and her team lead by Dr. Rosalind J. Wright from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, because these children are not diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, these abnormal physiological symptoms are unlikely to be picked up by their doctors. The study1 has just been published online in Springer's International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news159541020.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:57:58 EST news159541020 Mammalian alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a single-chain glycoprotein and altered serum AFP levels have been observed concurrent with aberrant growth manifestations in some congenital defects and cancer. The gut development during late gestation and early neonatal period is accompanied by changes in the synthesis of AFP, and abundance declines significantly during gut development. In this case, AFP is considered as an important growth factor with a specific function in gastrointestinal development. The ontogeny of AFP gene expression has been examined in the fetal and adult mouse gastrointestinal tract to understand the basis of the ontogeny of AFP transcription in the gut and its regulatory elements. However, little is known about the expression pattern of AFP genes or its involvement during rat colon development. http://www.physorg.com/news159188840.html Medicine & Health Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:08:26 EST news159188840 Great interest has been aroused in the identification and isolation of liver stem cells from bone marrow cells. Several subsets of bone marrow cells have been found to have the potential to differentiate into hepatocytes, however, sorting based on immunological methods is difficult because of the complicated surface markers of the stem cells; furthermore, no report of successful passage has been published. http://www.physorg.com/news159028051.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:28:06 EST news159028051 Florence, Italy: Preliminary research examining the difference in brain activity between soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and those without it moves scientists a step closer to the possibility of being able one day to use brain scans to help diagnose the condition. http://www.physorg.com/news157964695.html Medicine & Health Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:05:29 EST news157964695 A UCSF research team has developed a technique to distinguish benign moles from malignant melanomas by measuring differences in levels of genetic markers. Standard microscopic examinations of biopsied tissue can be ambiguous and somewhat subjective, the researchers say, and supplementing standard practice with the new technique is expected to help clarify difficult-to-diagnose cases. http://www.physorg.com/news157653601.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:40:22 EST news157653601 (PhysOrg.com) -- A large-scale effort to identify genetic markers of breast cancer has uncovered two common genetic variants that increase risk of the disease in women of European ancestry. http://www.physorg.com/news157640958.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:09:39 EST news157640958 Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies in the world with a high incidence and death rate. TNM staging system is used worldwide to predict prognosis and direct therapeutic decisions of patients with GC. However, the prognoses of patients with stage 2 and 3 GC are more heterogeneous and less predictable by staging criteria. http://www.physorg.com/news157633869.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:05 EST news157633869 Metabolites are molecular fingerprints of what your cells are up to and Dr. Arun Sreekumar wants to know the impression made by cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news157051399.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:23:54 EST news157051399