the University of Michigan
Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin”, and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people.
Someday in the not-too-distant future patients may visit a doctor's office, provide a sample of saliva or blood, and know in minutes if they are prone to heart disease, gum disease, or cancer. There would be no sending samples to off-site labs for analysis and waiting days to obtain the vital information. A five-pound, hand-held medical diagnostic device being developed at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories promises to be this ticket to better health for millions of Americans.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, results from the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey indicate an almost 7 percent decline of any illicit drug use in the past month by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders combined from 2003 to 2004. Trend analysis from 2001 to 2004 revealed a 17 percent cumulative decline in drug use, and an 18 percent cumulative drop in marijuana past month use.
Cumulative trauma during a person's lifetime can have an overall effect on health in one's later years, according to a study that examines the consequences of traumatic events on older adults' physical health. Also, traumas experienced in adulthood compared to traumas experienced in childhood appear to cause more damage to an older person's (65 and older) health, say researchers of a new study.
A new drug candidate previously shown to reduce harmful side effects of the autoimmune disease lupus also may be useful in treating psoriasis. In a new study, scientists from the University of Michigan report that a compound called benzodiazepine-423 (Bz-423)---a chemical cousin of the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax---suppresses cell growth in a model of psoriasis. In psoriasis, cells multiply unchecked, so inhibiting cell growth should help control the disease.
Not all masses are cancer. When a person undergoes a scan to identify a lump or nodule, the radiologist looks at the texture, the borders and the shape to determine if it is malignant or just a benign growth. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center are developing computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) methods to make that assessment easier. A computer program reads the same scans the radiologist views, and the combined judgment of the computer and radiologist helps detect more cancers, the researchers found. ''From our experiences in evaluating CAD for breast cancer, using computer aids significantly improves the performance of the radiologist in predicting malignancies of the masses. Radiologists with computers are able to detect more cancers than radiologists by themselves. We expect that CAD for lung cancer can achieve similar results.''
When it comes to abdominal aortic aneurysms -- life-threatening bulges or weak areas in the main artery feeding blood to the lower half of the body -- new research shows that it is definitely better to be female. During 2000, about 11,000 people in the United States died from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Eighty percent of these aneurysms, which doctors call AAAs for short, occur in men. Scientists know very little about why this often-undetected condition, for which there is no medical treatment, strikes men more often than women. But vascular surgeons have found some intriguing clues.
Chances are excellent that your urinary tract is home to a pathogenic organism called the human BK virus. Most of the time, the virus lurks quietly in the kidneys without causing problems. But in people with a depressed immune system -- especially those who have just received a kidney transplant -- the virus can cause serious kidney and bladder disease. Now, new research by scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School suggests the intriguing possibility that this common virus also may play a role in prostate cancer -- the second-leading cause of deaths from cancer in American men.
Researchers have discovered a gene-expression ''signature'' common to distinct types of cancer, renewing hope that a universal treatment for the nation's second leading killer might be found. Scientists essentially abandoned the search for a common approach to cancer therapy after research launched by the 1970s ''War on Cancer'' revealed the many varieties of cancer and the differences among even the same type of cancer in different people. As a result of these discoveries, the focus largely has been on tailoring treatments to specific forms of cancers and even to the precise biology of cancer in a particular person.
Contrary to popular fears that half of autistic children will never speak, new findings by the University of Michigan show just 14 percent of autistic children are unable to talk by age 9 and 40 percent can speak fluently. Early intervention leads to better treatment, said Catherine Lord, director of the U-M Autism and Communication Disorders Center. The center has been conducting a sweeping longitudinal study of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) that started when participants were age 2 and followed them over many years with most of that subject group now in their teens.
A healthy dose of ''imagination'' helps older people remember to take medications and follow other medical advice, according to a new study supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a part of the National Institutes of Health. Researchers found older adults who spent a few minutes picturing how they would test their blood sugar were 50 percent more likely to actually do these tests on a regular basis than those who used other memory techniques.
If you believe you're a good driver or a lousy dancer, think again. Most of us believe we can accurately gauge how our personal performance and abilities stack up against our peers, but new research suggests that we are in fact poor judges of our own comparative talents. Researchers from the University of Michigan Business School, Duke University and the University of Chicago report that people at all skill levels, including both top achievers and poor performers, show similar degrees of inaccuracy and bias in making interpersonal comparisons.
Allergies making your life miserable? Tired of popping antihistamines like candy? Can't go anywhere without your inhaler? The real problem may not be your stuffed-up head. It could be the microbes in your gut.
At the American Society for Microbiology meeting held here this week, scientists from the University of Michigan Medical School will present results of experiments with laboratory mice indicating that antibiotic-induced changes in microbes in the gastrointestinal tract can affect how the immune system responds to common allergens in the lungs.
Yoda, the world's oldest mouse, celebrated his fourth birthday on Saturday, April 10, 2004 . A dwarf mouse, Yoda lives in quiet seclusion with his cage mate, Princess Leia, in a pathogen-free rest home for geriatric mice belonging to Richard A. Miller, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of pathology in the Geriatrics Center of the University of Michigan Medical School. Yoda was born on April 10, 2000 at the U-M Medical School . At 1,462-days-old, Yoda is now the equivalent of about 136 in human-years. The life span of the average laboratory mouse is slightly over two years.
It's a bitter irony of cancer therapy: treatments powerful enough to kill tumor cells also harm healthy ones, causing side effects that diminish the quality of the lives that are saved. Researchers at the University of Michigan's Center for Biologic Nanotechnology hope to prevent that problem by developing "smart" drug delivery devices that will knock out cancer cells with lethal doses, leaving normal cells unharmed, and even reporting back on their success. A graduate student involved in the multidisciplinary project will discuss her recent work---zeroing in on characteristics that make the devices most effective.
