The highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus has passed from human-to-human in China, raising fears that the virus may have started to mutate. In a highly rare case, genetic tests on a 52-year-old father diagnosed with bird flu in the Jiangsu province of China has shown that he was infected by H5N1 from his 24-year-old dying son.
Researchers at Emory University are learning how vitamins and minerals in the diet can stimulate or prevent the appearance of colon cancer.
Emory investigators will present their findings on biological markers that could influence colon cancer risk in three abstracts at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Diego.
In a clinical study of 92 patients, supplementing diet with calcium and vitamin D appeared to increase the levels of a protein called Bax that controls programmed cell death in the colon. More Bax might be pushing pre-cancerous cells into programmed cell death, says Emory researcher Veronika Fedirko, who will present her team's results (abstract 464).
Previous studies have shown that calcium and vitamin D tend to reduce colon cancer risk.
Some kids with autism may have a genetic defect that affects the muscles, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12 - 19, 2008.
The study looked at 37 children with autism spectrum disorders who were evaluated for mitochondrial disease, which causes muscle weakness and prevents a child from being able to participate in physical activities and sports. Mitochondrial disease occurs when genetic mutations affect the mitochondria, or the part of the cell that releases energy.
Older Puerto Ricans have higher rates of depression than other Hispanics living in the United States, according to a new study by researchers at Hebrew SeniorLife's Institute for Aging Research (IFAR).
Nearly 7 percent of Puerto Ricans, who make up 11 percent of the Hispanics 65 and older in the U.S., suffer from major depression, compared to Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, and Hispanics from Central and South America. Only 2.8 percent of Mexican Americans (46.7 percent of the older Hispanic population) and 2.5 percent of Cuban Americans (13 percent) suffer from major depression.
"We found the prevalence of depression across Hispanic groups in the United States to be highest in Puerto Ricans, even though this was the smallest group," the researchers wrote in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.
The discovery of a gene for a rare form of inherited iron deficiency may provide clues to iron deficiency in the general population - particularly iron deficiency that doesn't respond to iron supplements - and suggests a new treatment approach. The finding was published online by the journal Nature Genetics on April 13.
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency and the leading cause of anemia in the United States.(1) Most cases are easily reversed with oral iron supplements, but over the years, Mark Fleming, MD, DPhil, interim Pathologist-in-Chief at Children's Hospital Boston, and pediatric hematologist Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD, formerly of Children's and now Dean of Duke University School of Medicine, had been referred a number of children with iron deficiency anemia who didn't respond to oral supplements, and only poorly to intravenous iron.
Quebec City - A study supervised by Université Laval researchers Gina Muckle and Éric Dewailly reveals that omega-3 intake during the last months of pregnancy boosts an infant's sensory, cognitive, and motor development. The details of this finding are published in a recent edition of the Journal of Pediatrics.
Hannah was 19 months old and developing normally until 2000, when she received five shots against nine infectious diseases. She became sick and later was given a diagnosis of autism.
Yet another attempt at using an authoritative title to turn people away from asking questions.
Initial tests show the deadly bird flu virus has been found in a village in Russia's Far East, now under quarantine. Doctors fear villagers in Vozdvizhenka in the Primorsky region may have been exposed to the virus. Local authorities are sending more medical personnel and vets to the area. The alarm was raised after 10 chickens died unexpectedly.
As many as 12 minor children across four villages in Tipaimukh sub-division of Churachandpur district have died of different reasons directly or indirectly related with scarcity of foodgrains and malnutrition, said the Hmar Students' Association, Hmarram (Tipaimukh) joint headquarters in a statement today.
The students body said that the reports of deaths were confirmed from reliable sources while terming the contrasting reports on the deaths as due to malnutrition, epidemics, diseases, etc. in Tipaimukh as "very unfortunate."