World / Health & Beauty
Art therapy may offer treatment for mental disease
09.07.2008 10:26
b4uindia.com
Art therapy, a therapy through visual art, can offer a treatment option for people with mental disease, suggests a new study. Art therapy was started in the middle of the 20th century and is based on the idea that visual representations, objectified through plastic material, contribute to the construction of a meaning of the psychic conflicts, and favour its resolution. Lead researcher Elizaberta Lopez Perez, a Bachelor of Fine Arts and doctor in Painting at the University of Granada conducted the study over 20 acute mental patients from the Therapeutic Community of the Northern Area of the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital of Granada The participants took part in two days a week session and they adapted paintings of artists such as Modigliani, Munch or Van Gogh, offering their own vision. The researcher of the University of Granada highlights the liberating nature of art for these patients, who project their inner world and their repressed desires through their paintings. This way, they deal with their fears and desires, which get real during the artistic process where it is possible to give them life or to destroy them. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Daring birds sing, and win the girl
09.07.2008 10:26
b4uindia.com
A collaborative study by experts from the University of Antwerp and at Eotvos University, Budapest suggests that bird song has a prominent and well-established role in sexual selection, and that it displays considerable variation among individuals, with a potentially strong personality component. Lead researcher Laszlo Garamszegiand says that singing may reveal risk taking because conspicuous songs not only attract females, they may also attract the attention of predators. The researcher believes that only high-quality individuals can afford to display attractive songs, and they will necessarily be risk takers. A bird''s vocal repertoire may also highlight exploration because adventurous individuals will explore a range of habitats, where they encounter diverse acoustic features from other individuals that can be incorporated into their song. Garamszegi’s team recorded the song of 24 males in a European Collared Flycatcher population, and characterised several song features. The researchers also performed behavioural tests with the same males to determine explorative behaviour in an altered breeding environment, and to assess risk taking when a potential predator was approaching. They said that male birds that sang at low song posts relative to the surrounding vegetation appeared to be explorers and risk takers. According to them, singing close to the ground might involve higher predation risk because it offered less concealment, and put males in a conspicuous position from the predators’ eye. Only prime quality individuals could cope with such costs of exposed singing, they said, because cheaters would be eliminated by predators. Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that the chose of song post could influence mating success, as males from lower posts were also found to establish pair bonds earlier. They said that it was probably due to the female preference for males singing in exposed sites. The researcher claim that theirs is the first study to reveal in a non-human taxon that the male''s need to balance investment in reproduction against risk taking is reflected in sexual displays. According to them, this may be important information for choosy females seeking partners with personality traits that will enhance breeding success. They believe that their findings may help further scientists’ understanding of both the use of conspicuous sexual signals in animals, and the deep evolutionary origin of personality in humans. The study has been reported in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Most patients ignorant of link between smoking, bladder cancer
09.07.2008 10:26
b4uindia.com
A majority of cigarette smokers are ignorant of the association between smoking and bladder cancer, according to a new study. Researchers from University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Centre suggest that urologists and other physicians need to do a much better job of telling patients about the risk of smoking and encourage them to quit. "The general public understands that cigarette smoking can lead to lung cancer, but very few people understand that it also can lead to bladder cancer," said senior author Dr James E. Montie, Valassis Professor of Urologic Oncology at the U-M Health System. Montie said that in the first four years after a smoker quits, the risk of developing bladder cancer decreases by 40 percent A study had shown that only 22 percent of patients with the disease were aware that smoking was a risk factor. "A big gap exists between patient knowledge and their actual risk," says lead author Seth A. Strope, M.D., MPH, clinical lecturer in the U-M Department of Urology. "Our study suggests that physicians must do a much better job of communicating the risk to our patients, and directing them toward smoking cessation programs," he added. The study appears in the July issue of The Journal of Urology. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Spain: 21st Congress Of The College Of Neuropsychopharmacology, Aug. 30-Sept. 3, 2008
09.07.2008 10:15
medicalnewstoday.com
Neuropsychopharmacology and mental disorders: Bridging the gap between science and medicine The enormous burden and amount of suffering associated with mental disorders represent one of the biggest challenges for health care systems in Europe today. This challenge is marked by the immense scope and costs of mental disorders.
World
Mental Disorders
Caribbean Leader To Ask CARICOM To Contribute Toward $50M Initiative To Fight HIV/AIDS
09.07.2008 10:15
medicalnewstoday.com
St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, a physician who also is responsible for heath concerns in the Caribbean Community, announced recently that he plans to ask CARICOM to contribute to a $50 million initiative to combat HIV/AIDS in the region during the next five years, the Miami Herald reports.
World
HIV/AIDS
Suicide Prevention And Antidepressants
09.07.2008 10:14
medicalnewstoday.com
Depression is the most important single factor predisposing to suicide, and more than half of all subjects completing suicide are known to have suffered from depression. Unfortunately, depression is still often untreated or undertreated, even after a suicide attempt. Antidepressive drugs represent the cornerstone of treatment of depressive patients.
World
Depression
Cognitive Functions In Alzheimer's Disease My Be Affected By Antihypertensive Treatment
09.07.2008 10:14
medicalnewstoday.com
Dementia is one of the major challenges of the 21st century due to the enormous burden these disorders impose on health care systems. Recently, common pathways of the two most frequent causes of dementia, Alzheimer´s disease and vascular dementia have been suggested. Today there is tremendous interest in developing effective treatments that will interfere with some step in the disease cascade or even prevent the clinical onset of dementia.
World
Alzheimer's Disease
The Internet, Alcohol, And Sleep: That May Contribute To Weight Gain In Adolescent Girls, Journal Of Pediatrics
09.07.2008 09:16
medicalnewstoday.com
Girls moving through adolescence may experience unhealthy levels of weight gain, but the reasons for this are not always clear. In fact, many potential causes of weight gain are easily overlooked. A new study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics analyzes the effect of Internet usage, sleep, and alcohol and coffee consumption on weight gain in adolescent girls. Dr.
World
Weight Correction
Protein On 'Speed' Linked To ADHD
09.07.2008 09:15
medicalnewstoday.com
A genetic change in the dopamine transporter - one of the brain's dopamine-handling proteins - makes it behave as if amphetamine is present and "run backward," Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators report this week in The Journal of Neuroscience. The altered function of the transporter gene variant, discovered in two brothers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), supports a role for dopamine signaling in the disease.
World
Neurology
G8 Leaders Agree To $60B To Help Fight Disease In Africa
09.07.2008 09:15
medicalnewstoday.com
Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations on Tuesday at their summit in Hokkaido, Japan, agreed to spend $60 billion over five years to fight diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa, AFP/Google.com reports. In a joint statement, G8 leaders set a timeframe of five years to meet the $60 billion
World
HIV/AIDS
Self-Moisturizing Contact Lenses, Naturally
09.07.2008 09:15
medicalnewstoday.com
Even contact lenses are joining the trend to go green. Chemical engineering researchers at McMaster University have shown that a common fluid found in our bodies can be used as a natural moisturizing agent in contact lenses. This is a step up from the current wave of self-moisturizing contact lenses that use synthetic materials as a wetting agent to prevent eye dryness and increase wearer comfort.
World
Eyesight Disorders
Islet Transplantation Study For Type 1 Diabetes
09.07.2008 09:15
medicalnewstoday.com
The University of Illinois at Chicago is one of 11 centers in the United States, Canada, Sweden and Norway to participate in the Clinical Islet Transplant Consortium funded by the National Institutes of Health. Consortium researchers have begun clinical studies to test new approaches to islet transplantation that may lead to improved outcomes and fewer side effects for adults with difficult-to-control type 1 diabetes.
World
Diabetes
Better Counseling By Physicians Recommended Regarding Link Between Smoking And Bladder Cancer
09.07.2008 09:14
medicalnewstoday.com
Even though cigarette smoking accounts for up to half of all bladder cancer cases, few people are aware of the connection - including more than three-quarters of patients who have bladder cancer, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. This knowledge vacuum suggests that urologists and other physicians need to do a much better job of telling patients about the risk of smoking and encourage them to quit, the study authors say.
World
Cancer
New Bone Implants Baked To Withstand Stress
09.07.2008 09:14
medicalnewstoday.com
Scientists have learnt many things from nature - for example, the structure of a bone. Bones are very light but nonetheless able to withstand extremely heavy loads. The inside of a bone is like a sponge. It is particularly firm and compact in certain places, and very porous in others. The lightweight construction industry is especially interested in copying this construction method.
World
Orthopedics
A Gene Variant May Make Women More Prone To Alcoholism
09.07.2008 09:14
medicalnewstoday.com
A particular gene variant might make women more susceptible to alcoholism. At least, a study carried out by the Universities of Bonn and Sweden's Karolinska Institute makes this a plausible conclusion. According to this, a gene in the endorphin metabolism is altered in a typical fashion more often in women alcoholics than in healthy women. In mice too, endorphins seem to play an important role in the amount of alcohol consumed, particularly among females.
World
Harmful Habits
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