Activity in a brain area known as the dorsal posterior insula is directly related to the intensity of pain, a brain imaging study of 17 people has found.

Thyroid hormones have important and diverse roles in human health and regulate metabolic rate. Thyroid disease is common (affecting 5-10 per cent of the population) and synthetic thyroid hormones are one of the commonest drug therapies prescribed worldwide. A new study, published in Nature Communications involving University of Bristol academics, reports a new gene called SYN2 associated with thyroid levels.

It's been "known" for decades: Sensory, motor and cognitive signals come in from the brain's cortex and are processed in the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia then send out signals that get routed through the thalamus and back to the cortex.

In an advance that could lead to better identification of malignant pediatric adrenocortical tumors, and ultimately to better treatment, researchers have mapped the "genomic landscape" of these rare childhood tumors. Their genomic mapping has revealed unprecedented details, not only of the aberrant genetic and chromosomal changes that drive the cancer, but the sequence of those changes that trigger it.

(Medical Xpress)—A panel created to review the way the European Human Brain Project is being run has released a summary of their recommendations—in it the panel members suggest that several reforms must be made in order for the project to remain on course.

Scientists at Imperial College London have developed a test that uses combinations of cells from a single donor's blood to predict whether a new drug will cause a severe immune reaction in humans.

In a screen of more than 100,000 potential drugs, only one, harmine, drove human insulin-producing beta cells to multiply, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, funded by JDRF and the National Institutes of Health, and published online today in Nature Medicine.

Scientists have discovered another 15 genetic 'hot-spots' that can increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, according to research published today in Nature Genetics.

Treating metastatic melanoma with a triple threat—including radiation therapy and two immunotherapies that target the CTLA4 and PD-1 pathways—could elicit an optimal response in more patients, one that will boost the immune system's attack on the disease, suggests a new study from a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Penn's Abramson Cancer Center published today in Nature.

A new study led by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers has found that a naturally-occurring protein in the brain can act to suppress binge alcohol drinking, a major public health problem estimated to cost the U.S. more than $170 billion each year.

A collaborative effort between investigators at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University School of Medicine and Georgia Institute of Technology has led to the development of a non-invasive method to image simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) replication in real-time, in vivo.

It has long been known that people with blood type O are protected from dying of severe malaria. In a study published in Nature Medicine, a team of Scandinavian scientists explains the mechanisms behind the protection that blood type O provides, and suggest that the selective pressure imposed by malaria may contribute to the variable global distribution of ABO blood groups in the human population.

Children who are told they are special by their parents are more likely to become narcissists, according to a study Monday that aimed to uncover the origins of extreme selfishness.

In the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, whose death toll is approaching 10,000, little information has been available about how the human immune response unfolds after infection.

Long the stuff of science fiction, the disembodied "brain in a jar" is providing science fact for UC Irvine researchers, who by studying the whole brains of fruit flies are discovering the inner mechanisms of jet lag.

A new gene sequencing technology allows us to explore the human genome at a much higher resolution than ever before, with revolutionary implications for research and cancer diagnosis.

People of differing competence tend to give each other's views equal weight, preventing them from making the best group decisions, finds new UCL-led research.

The discovery of the "exercise hormone" irisin three years ago and more than 170 related papers about it since have been called into question by recent research showing they were based on flawed testing kits.

A research team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Mayo Clinic and other institutions has identified a new class of drugs that in animal models dramatically slows the aging process—alleviating symptoms of frailty, improving cardiac function and extending a healthy lifespan.

In a study that helps to deconstruct how olfaction is encoded in the brain, neuroscientists at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a type of neuron that appears to help tune, amplify and dampen neuronal responses to chemosensory inputs from the nasal cavity.

The genes that increase the risk of Type 1 diabetes have lost their hiding place. A research group that includes a University of Florida genetics expert has located and narrowed down the number of genes that play a role in the disease, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics. Knowing the identities and location of causative genes is a crucial development: Other researchers can use this information to better predict who might develop Type 1 diabetes and how to prevent it.

Surgeons at a San Francisco hospital have completed all the operations in an organ donation chain that gave six patients new kidneys.

A trained scent dog accurately identified whether patients' urine samples had thyroid cancer or were benign (noncancerous) 88.2 percent of the time, according to a new study, to- be presented Friday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

An experimental drug causes loss of weight and fat in mice, a new study has found. The study results will be presented Friday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

Why men have more heart disease than premenopausal women has been unclear, but a new study shows that the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen alter cardiovascular risk factors in a way that raises a man's risk of heart disease. Results of the study will be presented Saturday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

A new testosterone nasal gel raises men's low testosterone levels to normal, with few side effects, according to the results of a phase 3 clinical trial to be presented Saturday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

Obesity guidelines recommend an initial weight loss goal of 5 to 10% of start weight to improve health. A recent study found that patients who received liraglutide 3.0 mg, combined with fewer calories and more physical activity, were more than twice as likely to achieve at least that level of weight loss, compared to patients on placebo who made similar lifestyle changes. Patients who achieved that weight loss showed improvements on a number of health markers, compared to those who lost less, and the patients on liraglutide showed greater improvement on measures of blood sugar control and blood pressure. The results will be presented Saturday, March 7, at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is prevalent in obese, pregnant Asian women with gestational diabetes, even when their diabetes is controlled by diet, a new study from Thailand finds. Study results, which also connect the severity of sleep disordered breathing with higher blood glucose (sugar) levels and greater daytime sleepiness, will be presented on Saturday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

In older men, decreased sexual activity and desire, not erectile dysfunction, may cause serum testosterone to decline, a new study from Australia finds. The results will be presented Saturday March 7, at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, in San Diego.

A fetus exposed to tobacco smoke may be at increased risk for diabetes in adulthood, a new study of adult daughters finds. The results will be presented in a poster Saturday, March 7, at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego.

In patients with advanced thyroid cancer, sunitinib, a drug approved for treatment of several other cancers, showed significant cancer-fighting activity t, a new phase 2 clinical trial has found. Results of the single-center study will be presented Sunday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

Having a family history of prostate cancer among first-degree relatives may increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. That is the conclusion of a new study published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study's results indicate that clinicians should take a complete family history of all cancers—even those in family members of the opposite sex—to help assess a patient's risk of developing cancer.

Working in a physically demanding job, having high blood pressure, and taking multiple medications are among health risks that may undermine a man's fertility, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Stanford University, Stanford, California. The study is the first to examine the relationships between workplace exertion, health, and semen quality as men are trying to conceive. The results were published online in Fertility and Sterility.

(HealthDay)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Zarxio (filgrastim-sndz), the first biosimilar product approved in the United States.

(HealthDay)—In accordance with the changes in graduate medical education to better prepare doctors for a changing health care system, changes are being made to medical school applicant evaluation, according to an article published Feb. 19 by the American Medical Association (AMA).

(HealthDay)—You lost an hour's sleep overnight Saturday when the clocks moved ahead. But there are a number of things you can do to cope with the switch to daylight saving time, a sleep expert says.

A law that allows rural hospitals to bill Medicare for rehabilitation services for seniors at higher rates than nursing homes and other facilities has led to billions of dollars in extra government spending, federal investigators say.

Modest consumption of nuts every day is associated with an improved cardiovascular risk profile among adolescents, a new analysis of a large national database shows. The study results will be presented Friday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

In obese Latino and African American children, restricting dietary fructose, but not calories, may decrease liver fat and the conversion of sugar to fat in the liver, a new study finds. The results will be presented in a poster Thursday, March 5, at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego.

New research suggests a student athlete's anxiety levels before competition are determined not only by their own expectations for their performance, but their parents' expectations as well. The findings also indicate the reverse is true: how a child athlete hopes to compete affects how a parent feels prior to a match.

There was something wrong with Joshua Copen's hearing. No matter how many times doctors told Iara Peng, Joshua's mother, that her baby with Down syndrome had normal hearing, she knew they were wrong.

A new study suggests that weight-loss interventions that center on hunger-reducing food choices and behavioral support can produce favorable shifts in "self-reward" areas of the brain. The study addresses concerns by weight-loss experts that when instant gratification, or addictive-type food involvement, becomes entrenched in the brain, it may be nearly impossible to reverse.

Researchers from the University of Sydney have designed an innovative exercise system that allows people with multiple sclerosis to workout their paralysed leg muscles in the hope of improving symptoms and slowing the disease progression.

A team of researchers from The University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Central Florida have determined that years after going into remission, many adult cancer survivors still encounter challenges arising from their disease and its treatment.

We are all populated by microbes – helpful or otherwise – which form a community known as a microbiome. Recent research by Ryan Newton and co-workers has shown that sewage-based analysis of the human microbiome can be used to diagnose health issues at a population level.

New research conducted by The University of Manchester has found that GPs' patients can feel alienated by lack of trust, impersonal processes and that this presents problems to improving their safety.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk a mile (or 1.6 kilometres) in somebody else's shoes? Or have you ever tried to send a telepathic message to a partner in transit to "pick up milk on your way home"?

M-Mode ultrasound is being tested in a variety of studies as a non-invasive, clinical tool to assess deep muscle activity, as opposed to electromyography which is widely considered to be highly invasive and painful.

UCLA stem cell researchers have shown that a novel stem cell gene therapy method could lead to a one-time, lasting treatment for sickle cell disease—the nation's most common inherited blood disorder.

In recent years, the US has witnessed multiple outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses, including pertussis (whooping cough) and measles. In the same time frame, vaccine refusal rates have gone up, and an increasing number of parents are requesting modified vaccine schedules that differ from the one recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

An international group of researchers has shown that a regulatory protein involved in controlling how cancer spreads through the body also influences the fate of stem cells in the intestine of mice. The results, which are published in The EMBO Journal, show that the Snai1 protein plays an important role in deciding the fate of intestinal stem cells and the different functions that these cells can adopt.

Should food products be labeled with traffic light symbols to make health-related information on ingredients easier to understand? This question has remained a subject of debate. Now researchers at the University of Bonn have reached the conclusion that the traffic light label is more effective in helping consumers resist high-calorie foods than a purely information-based label. Scientists observed study participants in the brain scanner as they made purchase decisions. The study has just been published in the journal Obesity.

Unhealthy weight gain in pregnancy has been linked with infant size and body composition but until now little was known about its long-term association with childhood obesity among low-income and multi-ethnic youth. For the first time, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health studied the effects of gestational weight gain on childhood obesity risk among a multi-ethnic urban population. The researchers determined that excessive pregnancy weight gain was associated with greater overall and abdominal body fat in children and obesity at age seven. Excessive pre-pregnancy weight gain was associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity of approximately 300 percent. Findings are published online in the journal Maternal & Child Nutrition.

Researchers from Manchester, working with scientists in California, have found that certain molecules long thought to promote cancer growth, in fact suppress tumours, suggesting that therapeutic approaches should aim to restore, rather than block, their activity.

Would you want to know if you or your children had risk of hereditary cancer, a genetic risk for cardiovascular disease or carried the gene associated with developing Alzheimer's disease - even if they were risks that wouldn't be relevant for possibly decades or didn't have a cure?

Eating a vegetarian diet was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancers compared with nonvegetarians in a study of Seventh-Day Adventist men and women, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

The adolescent and young-adult suicide rate in the United States was almost twice as high in rural settings than in urban areas between 1996 and 2010, and new research suggests that the gap appears to be widening.

Just a weeks' worth of training can improve vision in older adults, according to new research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that training boosted older adults' sensitivity to contrast and also their ability to see things clearly at close distances.

Although U.S. military veterans who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan are more likely to suffer chronic pain than veterans of any other conflict in American history, little headway has been made in helping them manage the often debilitating effects of chronic pain. A new study by researchers from the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine reports that a stepped-care strategy improved function and decreased pain severity, producing at least a 30 percent improvement in pain-related disability.

Case Western Reserve University nurse scientist Amy Zhang, who has long examined quality-of-life issues in cancer patients, wondered whether depression in African-American cancer patients has been under-recognized for treatment.

Middle-aged Americans who show high levels of societal involvement and mental health are especially likely to construe their lives as stories of personal redemption, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

A new study of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a blood cancer that primarily affects young children, has revealed that the disease has two distinct subtypes, and provides preliminary evidence that about 13 percent of ALL cases may be successfully treated with targeted drugs that have proved highly effective in the treatment of lymphomas in adults.

If you want to know what a man's true attitude towards the female sex is, carefully watch how he smiles and chats to her. This advice is gleaned from a study by Jin Goh and Judith Hall of Northeastern University in the US, published in Springer's journal Sex Roles. It sheds light on how sexism subtly influences social interaction between men and woman.

Although many people value receiving information about incidental findings identified from genomic sequencing, not everyone wants to know about genetic conditions regardless of potential health implications, found a study of Canadian preferences in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Narcoleptics suffer from bouts of sleepiness and sleep attacks, which impair their ability to function in daily life. But the precise cause of narcolepsy has long eluded scientists, and the cure for the devastating neurological disorder afflicting an estimated three million people worldwide—and one in 3,000 Americans—remains at bay.

Healthcare spending is at an all-time high in the U.S., yet young African-American men see little benefit, according to Boston Medical Center (BMC) researchers' Viewpoint commentary published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Chaperone proteins play an important role in protein folding in human cells and in bacteria and are promising new targets for drugs to treat cancer and Alzheimer's disease and for novel antiviral drugs and antibiotics. How existing drugs such as Viagra or Cialis and a derivative of the drug Celebrex, for example, can reduce the activity of a specific chaperone protein, with the potential for anti-tumor and anti-Alzheimer's disease effects, is described in a Review article in DNA and Cell Biology.

Lots of potentially useful medical information is getting lost. McGill researchers discovered this when they looked into the lack of reporting of information from "stalled drug" trials in cancer, cardiovascular and neurological diseases.

In a study published in the current online issue of JAMA Psychiatry, an international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, report finding a highly accurate blood-based measure that could lead to development of a clinical test for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in males as young as one to two years old. The test could be done in community pediatric settings. The degree of accuracy, they said, out performs other behavioral and genetic screens for infants and toddlers with ASD described in literature.

More than two years after Washington legalized marijuana, parents and teens may be hazy on the specifics of the law, if the findings of a new study are any indication.

A new study by Intermountain Medical Center researchers in Salt Lake City found that using advanced clinical decision support tools reduces mortality for the 1.1 million patients in the Unites States who are treated for pneumonia each year.

A new study of Tourette syndrome (TS) led by researchers from UC San Francisco and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found that nearly 86 percent of patients who seek treatment for TS will be diagnosed with a second psychiatric disorder during their lifetimes, and that nearly 58 percent will receive two or more such diagnoses.

Brain levels of the lipid ceramide are high in Alzheimer's disease, and now scientists have found increased levels of an antibody to the lipid in their disease model.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully corrected a genetic error in stem cells from patients with sickle cell disease, and then used those cells to grow mature red blood cells, they report. The study represents an important step toward more effectively treating certain patients with sickle cell disease who need frequent blood transfusions and currently have few options.

Eviction from a home can have multiple negative consequences for families - including depression, poorer health and higher levels of stress - and the side effects can persist for years, according to new research from sociologists at Rice University and Harvard University.

Everything is connected, especially in the brain. A protein called BAI1, involved in limiting the growth of brain tumors, is also critical for spatial learning and memory, researchers have discovered.

Nearly three out of four Chinese adults have poor cardiovascular health, with poor diet and growing rates of obesity compounding the risks associated with continuing high rates of smoking, according to a new survey published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

(HealthDay)—A child may face an increased risk of asthma if the child's mother experienced depression during her pregnancy or she took an older antidepressant to treat her condition, new research suggests.

(HealthDay)—A pair of new CPR devices designed to help save people whose hearts stop beating has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

(HealthDay)—A monthly educational intervention paired with a web-based quality improvement tool is feasible for increasing the proportion of inappropriate proton pump inhibitor (PPI) prescriptions discontinued at hospital discharge, according to a study published online Feb. 24 in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

(HealthDay)—Practices' adherence to a quality-assurance program for point-of-care testing (POCT) devices can be improved with reminders, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.

(HealthDay)—Structural joint damage measured with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can predict knee replacement in the following year, according to research published in the March issue of Radiology.

(HealthDay)—For patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, the rate of death or major complications varies across anesthesiologists, according to a study published in the March issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia.

(HealthDay)—Cresemba (isavuconazonium sulfate) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis, the agency said Friday in a news release.

(HealthDay)—Hormone replacement therapy for women may not be as potentially risky as previously thought, a new Mayo Clinic review contends. The findings were scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of The Endocrine Society, held from March 5 to 8 in San Diego.

On a thoroughbred ranch in Vacaville, a 3-week-old foal gallops close to its mother. Their bond seems natural, but it didn't start out that way.

A history of psychedelic drug use is associated with less psychological distress and fewer suicidal thoughts, planning and attempts, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

There are about 48,000 corneal transplants done each year in the U.S., compared to approximately 16,000 kidney transplants and 2,100 heart transplants. Out of the 48,000 corneal transplants done, 10 percent of them end up in rejection, largely due to poor medication compliance. This costs the health care system and puts undue strain on clinicians, patients and their families.

Researchers have found a strong link between maternal intrusiveness and child anxiety in young children from low-income families.

Cases of dengue fever are on the rise in Sao Paulo, with a nearly eightfold increase that saw 24 people die in Brazil's most populous state so far this year, the health ministry said Friday.

A new study has confirmed that transgender youth often have mental health problems and that their depression and anxiety improve greatly with recognition and treatment of gender dysphoria. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

More than 40 million people in Pakistan do not have access to a toilet, forcing them to defecate in the open, which in turn is a major contributor to stunting in the country, a top UNICEF official said.

They are small and painful, and can turn your favorite lemon sorbet into a world of hurt. They are canker sores, and if you are one of the 20 percent of people who get them, you know that these noncontagious mouth ulcers can make eating, drinking and even talking a feat.

Rural patients in southern New Zealand are much less likely to receive computed tomography (CT) scans than their city-dwelling counterparts, according to University of Otago research that is the first to compare such scanning rates.

Vildagliptin (trade name Galvus or Jalra) has been approved since September 2007 for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus in whom diet and exercise do not provide adequate glycaemic control. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a new dossier assessment whether this drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. Such an added benefit cannot be derived from the new dossier either, however, because the drug manufacturer did not submit any suitable data.

The drug combination of ledipasvir and sofosbuvir (trade name Harvoni) has been available since November 2014 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy.

The Supreme Court is ordering a federal appeals court to take another look at the University of Notre Dame's lawsuit over the health overhaul law's rules on paying for contraceptives.

A single scan could diagnose the cause of foot pain better and with less radiation exposure to the patient than other methods, according to a study in the March 2015 issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Imaging with 18F-fluoride positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MR), compared to 18F-fluoride positron emission tomography/computed topography (PET/CT), provides more diagnostic information with higher diagnostic certainty.

Future outbreaks of measles can only be prevented by vaccination.

Australian health websites are too difficult for many people to read.

Inhaled Nitric Oxide (iNO) is a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration that is commonly used in term and near-term neonates who have severe respiratory failure caused by pulmonary hypertension. Over the last decade there have been multiple large studies trying to determine a clinical use for iNO in preterm neonates, but despite evidence of short-term benefit, this drug has not been shown to improve long-term outcomes in preemies. Still, the drug is commonly being used in this population, Mayo Clinic Children's Center and co-authors say in a study published today in the journal Pediatrics.

States are making it easier to get access to a drug that reverses overdoses cause by heroin and other opioids.

As obesity rates rise, so does the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D). In obese individuals and those with obesity-induced T2D, there is an accumulation of immune cells within adipose tissue that results in a low level of chronic inflammation. Gut microbial populations are also altered in these individuals. Weight loss, either through diet or gastric bypass, improves TD2-associated symptoms and shifts the gut microbiota.