ScienceDaily: Top Health News

Planned movement is essential to our daily lives, and it often requires delayed execution. As children, we stood crouched and ready but waited for the shout of 'GO!' before sprinting from the starting line. As adults, we wait until the traffic light turns green before making a turn. New research explores how cues in our environment can trigger planned movement.

Cognitive decline is the biggest factor in determining how long patients with Alzheimer's disease will live after being diagnosed, according to a new study.

Exposure to even moderate ambient lighting during nighttime sleep, compared to sleeping in a dimly lit room, harms your cardiovascular function during sleep and increases your insulin resistance the following morning, reports a new study. Just a single night of exposure to moderate room lighting during sleep can impair glucose and cardiovascular regulation, which are risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Scientists have shown in rats how several brain regions need to work together to acquire a skill and replicate it flawlessly with each rat adding their own personal flair in the form of a 'dance.'

Having dense breasts (more fibroglandular tissue than fatty tissue, as visualized on a mammogram) reduces the sensitivity of mammography by masking breast cancers and carries a 1.6- to 2.0-fold increased independent risk for breast cancer. To inform women about these risks, 38 U.S. states and the federal government have enacted legislation requiring a written dense breast notification (DBN) of a patient's breast density after a mammogram, but there still is limited evidence about what breast density means, and what the implications are, to women. According to a new study, while women are receiving these notifications about their breast density, not all recipients are fully understanding what they mean in terms of future health implications. Boston University School of Medicine researchers suggest that knowledge about breast density and its associated risks is partly linked to women's race/ethnicity and health literacy.

Researchers have developed a smartphone app that can calculate users' genetic risk for coronary artery disease (CAD)--and found that users at high risk sought out appropriate medication after using the app.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a life-long, chronic condition characterized by sporadic bouts of gut inflammation causing debilitating symptoms. Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis -- the latter affecting around 1 in 400 people - are the two most common types of IBD. Current treatments are ineffective and seriously impact the quality of life of the patients and those of their families.

The p53 protein protects our cells from cancer and is an interesting target for cancer treatments. The problem is, however, that it breaks down rapidly in the cell. Researchers have now found an unusual way of stabilizing the protein and making it more potent. By adding a spider silk protein to p53, they show that it is possible to create a protein that is more stable and capable of killing cancer cells.

Irradiation with fast protons is a more effective and less invasive cancer treatment than X-rays. However, modern proton therapy requires large particle accelerators, which has experts investigating alternative accelerator concepts, such as laser systems to accelerate protons. Such systems are deployed in preclinical studies to pave the way for optimal radiation therapy. A research team has now successfully tested irradiation with laser protons on animals.

New research has begun to unravel the mystery of why a particular form of leukaemia in infants has defied efforts to improve outcomes, despite significant improvements in treating older children. Scientists have now found subtle differences in the cell type that causes B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) that may help to explain why some cases are more severe than others.

Women who are obese and struggling to become pregnant are often advised to lose weight, but a new study finds no fertility benefits from weight loss.

Researchers working in one of the world's most biodiverse and threatened ecosystems have discovered a new plant species, Castela senticosa, which they recommend be designated as endangered. The plant, which grows as a small bush sheathed in an imposing layer of spines, was found during a survey to catalog the flora of the Martín García mountain range in the Dominican Republic.

In pursuit of better ways to test new therapies and further explore the impacts of the unique genetics associated with Down syndrome, researchers have genetically engineered and characterized what is believed to be the first rat model of Down syndrome.

This study's findings will help congenital neurological disease (e.g. spinal muscular atrophy) specialists better understand the mechanisms and components involved in CNS development. Notably, the findings of this work demonstrate unequivocally that Ddx20 is a novel Olig2-interacting factor and a potent suppressor of the p53 pathway, contributing to the maintenance of neuronal and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells during CNS development. Therefore, Ddx20 and Olig2 are promising molecular targets for development of future therapeutic strategies.

People living with neurological or psychiatric conditions may have an increased likelihood of having a second such condition in the future, and their sex influences their risk, according to new research.

Higher lead levels in a mother's blood can increase the chance of her bearing male offspring, according to new research.

Researchers have developed a new method for training people to be creative, one that shows promise of succeeding far better than current ways of sparking innovation.

Exposure to ozone from air pollution has been linked to an increase in depressive symptoms for adolescents over time, even in neighborhoods that meet air quality standards, according to new research.

New research has revealed new information about how blood clots are formed during wound healing.