Health 

Rare Genetic Immune Disease XLP2 Examined - Researchers have taken an important step in understanding a rare genetic immune disorder which affects male children. Using biochemical analyses, the team was able to map how the XIAP protein activates a vital component of the immune defense system, specifically the component that fights bacterial infections in the gastro-intestinal system. The study, conducted by researchers at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen, is published in Molecular Cell... Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 PDT

When You Eat Is As Important As What You Eat - When you eat may be just as significant as what you eat, say researchers at Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The study is published in the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism. The researchers put two groups of mice on a high-fat diet - one group were restricted to eating for 8 hours per day, while the other group could eat around the clock. The team found that although mice on the restricted eating schedule consumed the same amount of food as the other group of mice, they were protected against obesity and other metabolic illnesses... Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 PDT

Mental Distraction Provides Pain Relief - A new study reveals that mental distractions can reduce the amount of pain an individual experiences. The study is appears online in Current Biology. The researchers asked study participants to complete either a difficult or easy memory task while a painful level of heat was applied to their arms. Both tasks required participants to remember letters. They found that participants who completed the harder memory task experienced less pain... Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 PDT

Bluetooth Monitoring For Fetal Heart - An inexpensive and accurate fetal heart rate monitoring system has been developed by researchers in India using Bluetooth technology. The study will appear in the International Journal of Computers in Healthcare. Fetal phonocardiography is the modern day version of the stethoscope in ante-natal baby care. However, Vijay Chourasia of the LNM Institute of Information Technology in Jaipur and Anil Kumar Tiwari of the Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan, in Jodhpur, adapted this system to use Bluetooth... Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 PDT

Can Oxygen Help Chronic Heart Failure Patients? - Around 669,000 people in the UK over the age of 45 years suffer from chronic heart failure (CHF), a condition in which the heart is too weak to efficiently pump the blood around the body. CHF is commonly characterized by breathlessness and can be worse when the patient is at rest sleeping. Despite conclusive evidence in terms of its efficiency, doctors frequently prescribe home oxygen therapy (HOT) to treat CHF symptoms, which can be inconvenient for patients, as well as expensive... Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 PDT

Prochymal - First Stem Cell Drug Approved - For the first time in history a stem cell drug has been approved for market authorization. Prochymal® (remestemcel-L) is also the first drug to be approved for the treatment of acute graft-vs-host disease (GvHD) in children, a devastating complication of bone marrow transplantation that kills almost 80% of all affected children, many of which just weeks after they have been diagnosed. GvHD is the leading cause of transplant-related mortality, caused by an immunologic attack... Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 PDT