All test subjects in the study underwent a 15-minute-long electrocardiogram People suffering from bipolar disorder swing between emotional highs (manic episodes) and severe depression. Perhaps not surprisingly, they’re often mistakenly diagnosed as simply having major depression, which actually requires a different treatment. According to a new study from Illinois’ Loyola University, however, the two...
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Count your blessings: Quantitative microbiome profiling
A broad range of metabolic and inflammatory diseases is associated with alterations in gut microbiota composition and metabolic potential. Until now, sequencing-based gut microbiota research has described such dysbiotic states in terms of proportional shifts in microbiome composition. However, when it comes to the gut bacterial content and how it relates to health, it’s not...
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Study shows alectinib 600 mg more effective than crizotinib in Asian cancer patients
A subanalysis of the phase III ALEX study has shown that alectinib 600 mg twice daily is more effective than standard of care crizotinib in Asian patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), researchers report at the ESMO Asia 2017 Congress. The J-ALEX study demonstrated that alectinib 300 mg twice daily...
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Disordered eating among young adults found to have long-term negative health effects
According to a recent study from the University of Helsinki, Finland, disordered eating among young adults has long-term effects on their health. Disordered eating among 24-year-old women and men was an indicator of higher body weight, larger waist circumference and lower psychological wellbeing as well as a lower self-evaluation of general health both at age...
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Lupus patients exhibit altered cell proteins, a discovery with potential implications for diagnostics
Autoimmune diseases such as lupus—in which the body attacks its own cells and tissues—are on the rise, according to A*STAR’s Anna-Marie Fairhurst. Her team is the first to observe that patients with lupus exhibit an increased number of a specific type of protein on the surface of certain white blood cells. This finding may help...
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HPV testing is better than the Pap test at detecting cervical cancer
A new paper in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute finds that testing for cervical cancer using HPV testing in addition to the Pap smear is unlikely to detect cancer cases that wouldn’t be found using HPV testing alone. The main goal of cervical screening programs is to detect and treat precancer before cancer develops. Cytology-based...
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LRRK2 variants linked to lower age at onset of Parkinson’s
(HealthDay)—The presence of multiple LRRK2 risk variants is associated with a younger age at onset (AAO) of Parkinson’s disease (PD), according to a research letter published online Nov. 13 in JAMA Neurology. Bin Xiao, M.D., Ph.D., from the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore, and colleagues assessed 1,284 patients with PD for the LRRK2 risk variants S1647T, R1628P, and G2385R. The...
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Investigating patterns of degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is known to cause memory loss and cognitive decline, but other functions of the brain can remain intact. The reasons cells in some brain regions degenerate while others are protected is largely unknown. In a paper to be published in Stem Cell Reports, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found that factors...
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From Ayurveda to biomedicine: understanding the human body
What is a human body? This may seem a facetious question, but the answer will be very different according to which medical tradition you consult. Take Ayurveda, a traditional system of medical knowledge from India which has enjoyed a renaissance of popularity in the West since the 1980s – and is the subject of a...
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New diabetes self-management education course for South Asian population
Researchers at King’s College London have signed an agreement with three partner organisations to offer a customised type 2 diabetes self-management education programme for the South Asian population in three London Boroughs. The Diabetes for South Asians (DoSA) programme is a bespoke three-month long diabetes self-management course for South Asians with type 2 diabetes. It was developed...