Medical News Online

Memory fuzzy after missing out on sleep? Researchers may be one step closer to figuring out what to do about it.

Sleep deprivation makes it harder for the brain to memorize newly learned information, and scientists may have found a way around that problem.

Writing in Nature, University of Pennsylvania graduate student Christopher G. Vecsey, professor Ted Abel, PhD, and colleagues identify a chemical chain reaction linked to sleep deprivation — and a possible solution.

The researchers used electrical shocks to train lab mice not to move in certain cages, and then deprived some of the mice of sleep for five hours. Those sleep-deprived mice were worse at remembering not to move around in those cages than mice that had been allowed to sleep. Read the rest of this entry »

Nine-year-old Corey Haas can ride his bike alone now, thanks to an experimental gene therapy that has boosted his fading vision with a single treatment.

The gene therapy helped improve worsening eyesight caused by a rare inherited disease called Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, which makes most patients blind by age 40.

Twelve treated patients, including Corey, now have better vision, their doctors told a joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology in San Francisco on Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »

A drug used to treat cancer can stop contractions and may prevent premature labour, researchers say.

The Newcastle University team tested the drug Trichostatin A on tissue taken from 36 women undergoing a caesarean.

The researchers said the therapy worked by increasing the levels of a protein that controls muscle relaxation.

One expert said with rates of premature births rising – there are 50,000 a year in the UK – a new treatment was badly needed. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have ever slept on an arm and awakened with a “dead” hand, or sat too long with your legs crossed and had your foot fall asleep, you have some inkling of what many people with peripheral neuropathy experience day in and day out, often with no relief in sight.

And numbness and tingling are hardly the worst symptoms of this highly variable condition, which involves damage to one or more of the myriad nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. Effects may include disabling pain, stinging, swelling, burning, itching, muscle weakness, twitching, loss of sensation, hypersensitivity to touch, lack of coordination, difficulty breathing, digestive disorders, dizziness, impotence, incontinence, and even paralysis and death. Read the rest of this entry »

It was in 1902 that physician George F. Still first documented what is now known as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) , and despite more than a century of research, its exact cause is still not fully understood. Evidence to date indicates that there are many underlying factors that lead to the inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity seen in ADHD, among them genetic and neurobiological vulnerabilities, but the basic problem is thought to be in the disruption of certain neurotransmitters in the brain.

Studies have shown that transmission of dopamine, a chemical needed for normal functioning of the central nervous system, is disrupted in some of the pathways of the brain in people with ADHD, and now researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse say they have pinpointed the areas in the brain where this seems to occur. Read the rest of this entry »

High protein diets have been popular off and on since the 1960s, and are once again grabbing the attention of millions of people desperate to lose weight. But before you jump on the bandwagon, there are some things you might want to consider. High protein diets can produce a rapid initial weight loss, but most of this loss can be water rather than fat.

Additionally, many high protein diets are high in saturated fat and low in fiber, a combination that can increase cholesterol levels and raise the risk of heart disease and stroke. Read the rest of this entry »