TodayBy Catharine Paddock PhD Sticking to a plant-rich diet that can reduce high blood pressure may also lower the risk of heart failure in people under the age of 75. This was the conclusion of a study that a team at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, led to assess the impact of the Dietary...
Post
THE MANY HEALTH BENEFITS OF METH
In low, pharmaceutical-grade doses, methamphetamine may actually repair and protect the brain in certain circumstances. But stigma against the drug could be harming patients and holding back research. Ask your doctor about methamphetamine. It’s not a phrase you’ll ever hear on TV or the radio, but here’s a secret: Meth is an incredible medicine. Even the Drug Enforcement...
Post
Depression and constipation: What’s the link?
By Tim Newman Fact checked by Carolyn Robertson Chronic constipation often accompanies depression. Using a mouse model, researchers investigated why this relationship might occur. They have also tested an experimental drug with encouraging results. Over the years, scientists have found strong links between psychiatric disorders and an increased risk of constipation, particularly in older adults. Around one-third...
Post
AAN: Oral BTK inhibitor superior to placebo in multiple sclerosis
Xavier Montalban, M.D., Ph.D., from the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues conducted a randomized phase 2 trial involving patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. A total of 267 patients were randomly assigned to one of five groups: placebo, evobrutinib (at doses of 25 mg once daily, 75 mg once daily, or 75 mg twice daily),...
Post
Brain training shows promise as a treatment for veterans’ cognitive problems after TBI
By SHARON BEGLEY @sxbegle t has been 27 years since an attack on a U.S. military convoy in the Middle East left Army reservist Melissa Dengan, now 63, with such serious head trauma that she was unconscious for five days. “I woke up back in the United States, and didn’t know how I got there,” she said....
Post
Brain network activity can improve in epilepsy patients after surgery
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER Successful epilepsy surgery can improve brain connectivity similar to patterns seen in people without epilepsy, according to a new study published in the journal Neurosurgery. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) study of 15 people with temporal lobe epilepsy is the first to show improvements in brain networks after surgery compared to a group of healthy subjects. Brain networks involved...
Post
Study paves way for better treatment of lingering concussion symptoms
by La Trobe University A La Trobe University study has lifted the lid on the debilitating effects of persistent post-concussion symptoms (PCS) felt by many—10% of concussion-sufferers—after a knock to the head. The results of the study, released in Neurosciencejournal, show that significant levels of fatigue and poorer brain function can persist for months, or even years, following concussion. Renowned concussion expert Professor Alan Pearce used...
Post
New cancer therapy target found in mitochondria for potential treatment of blood cancers
by University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center identified a new therapeutic target in cancer cells and explains how new anti-cancer drugs called imipridones work by inducing cancer cell death in blood cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and mantle cell lymphoma. The study revealed a target in mitochondria, called caseinolytic protease P (ClpP), which, upon activation, breaks down proteins within mitochondria, a process...
Post
Exploring New Treatments for Autoimmune Diseases
More than 50 million Americans are affected by an autoimmune disease, with women at an increased risk for developing one. “Autoimmune conditions can be debilitating for patients,” says Dinesh Khanna, M.D., M.Sc., a professor of rheumatology and the director of the Michigan Medicine Scleroderma Program. “As a National Institutes of Health Autoimmunity Center of Excellence site, we have the opportunity at Michigan Medicine to...
Post
Azithromycin appears to reduce treatment failure in severe, acute COPD exacerbations
AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY May 3, 2019–The antibiotic azithromycin may reduce treatment failure in patients hospitalized for an acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), according to a randomized, controlled trial published online in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. In “Azithromycin during Acute COPD Exacerbations Requiring Hospitalization (BACE): a Multicenter, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial,” researchers in...