A Simple Way For Older Adults To Assess Arterial Stiffness: Reach...
How far you can reach beyond your toes from a sitting position – normally used to define the flexibility of a person’s body – may be an indicator of how stiff your arteries are. A study in the American Journal of Physiology has found that, among people 40 years old and older, performance on the sit-and-reach test could be used to assess the...
Many Patients With Sleep Apnea Also Suffer From GI Tract Conditions
Patients who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) also tend to have additional gastrointestinal (GI) tract conditions, such as gastric reflux and hiatal hernia, which form at the opening in your diaphragm where your food pipe (esophagus) joins your stomach. In a paper presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology...
Protein in Nacre Helps Build Oyster’s Shell
A novel matrix protein, designated as p10 because of its apparent molecular mass of 10 kDa, was isolated from the nacreous layer of pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata) by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. In vitro crystallization experiments showed that p10 could accelerate the nucleation of calcium carbonate crystals and induce...
Despite Size, NFL Players Not More Likely To Develop Heart Disease,...
Former professional football players with large bodies don’t appear to have the same risk factors for heart disease as their non-athletic counterparts, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found in studying a group of National Football League (NFL) alumni. Compared to other men in a similar age range, retired NFL players had a significantly lower...
Scientists Discover Clues To What Makes Human Muscle Age
A study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has identified critical biochemical pathways linked to the aging of human muscle. By manipulating these pathways, the researchers were able to turn back the clock on old human muscle, restoring its ability to repair and rebuild itself. The findings will be reported in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, a peer-reviewed, scientific publicationof the European Molecular Biology Organization. "Our study shows that the ability of old human muscle to..."
Risk Of Bone Fractures Associated With Use Of Diabetes Drug
Research published this week in the open access journal, PLoS Medicine, suggests that there is an association between thiazolidinediones – a type of drug introduced in the 1990s to treat type 2 diabetes – and bone fracture. Ian Douglas of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues searched the UK General Practice Research Database, a computerised record of clinical records from over 6 million patients registered at...
Study Adds Further Weight To View That Parasitic Gut Worms Help...
Led by Dr Carsten Flohr, a Clinical Scientist from The University of Nottingham, and Dr Luc Nguyen Tuyen from the Khanh Hoa Provincial Health Service in central Vietnam, the study is the largest double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial to date looking at the potential links between hookworm and other gut worm infections and allergic conditions such as asthma and eczema. Thanks to improved hygiene practices parasitic worms have been mostly eradicated among human populations living in developed countries. However, experts believe that over millions of years of co-evolution worms have found methods...
How Cells Function: Missing Target For Calcium Signaling Identified
An international study led by Ohio State University neuroscience researchers describes one of the missing triggers that controls calcium inside cells, a process important for muscle contraction, nerve-cell transmission, insulin release and other essential functions. The research is being posted online April 22 in the journal Nature. The researchers believe the findings will enhance the understanding of how calcium signals are...
Prolonged Stress Sparks Endoplasmic Reticulum To Release Calcium Stores And Induce...
Li et al. explain how prolonged stress sparks the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to release its calcium stores, inducing cells to undergo apoptosis in several aging-related diseases. The study will appear in the September 21, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (online September 14). Stressful conditions cause misfolded proteins to accumulate in the ER. Cells try to recover by slowing down...
High-Sugar Diet Increases Men’s Blood Pressure; Gout Drug Protective, Study Finds
A high-fructose diet raises blood pressure in men, while a drug used to treat gout seems to protect against the blood pressure increase, according to research reported at the American Heart Association’s 63rd High Blood Pressure Research Conference. “This is the first evidence of a role of fructose in raising blood pressure and a role for lowering uric acid to protect against that blood pressure increase in people,” said Richard Johnson, M.D., co-author of the study and professor and head of the division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension at the University of...
Muscle Regeneration Via MacroPhage Action
For scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, what seemed like a disappointing result turned out to be an important discovery. Their findings, published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide conclusive proof that, when a muscle is injured, white blood cells called macrophages play a crucial role in its regeneration. The scientists also uncovered the genetic switch that...
Lung Function, Insulin Resistance And Incidence Of Cardiovascular Disease: A Longitudinal...
Moderately reduced lung function as measured by FVC, or forced vital capacity, is related to an increased risk of developing insulin resistance and diabetes. Researchers in this study think that this may be a link between reduced lung function and cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack and heart failure. Since lung function declines rapidly with age, ...
