Health care news

Poll: Scientists Use Brain-Boosting Drugs Survey of Magazine's Readers Shows 1 in 5 Take Mental-Performance-Enhancing Drugs Written by Daniel J. DeNoon Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on April 09, 2008 From the WebMD Archives April 9, 2008 -- One in five Nature readers -- mostly scientists -- say they up their mental performance with drugs such as Ritalin , Provigil , and Inderal . The online poll from the British science magazine didn't ask readers how they felt about professional athletes using drugs to enhance their physical performance. But when asked how they felt about professional thinkers using drugs to enhance their cognitive performance, nearly 80% said it should be allowed. While only a fifth of the poll's 1,400 respondents admitted to drug use to improve concentration, nearly two-thirds said they knew of a colleague who did. And if there were "a normal risk of mild side effects," nearly 70% of the scientists said they'd boost thei...

Tasteless Calories Tempt the Brain Brain May Like Sugar's Calories, Not Just Its Taste, Lab Tests in Mice Show Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on March 26, 2008 From the WebMD Archives March 26, 2008 -- The sweet taste of sugar may be hard to resist, but sugar's calories may have their own allure. That news comes from lab tests on mice, including "sweet-blind" mice that can't sense sweetness. The researchers studied sweet-blind mice and normal mice that didn't eat or drank anything for 20-22 hours. The mice had access to two bottles of water. One bottle contained plain, unsweetened water. The other bottle contained water sweetened with sugar. All of the mice preferred the sugary water. And after drinking the sugary water, brain levels of the pleasure chemical dopamine rose in the mice. Next, the mice got a choice between plain water and water sweetened with sucralose, a no-calorie sweetener. The normal mice preferred ...

Americans in 70s Face Mild Memory Loss Study Shows About 5 Million Over Age 70 Have Mild Cognitive Impairment Written by Jennifer Warner Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on March 17, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Memory Loss More Common With Aging March 17, 2008 -- A new study shows about one in five Americans over age 70 has mild cognitive impairment without dementia , and a large portion of them may progress to dementia. "These findings illustrate that nearly every family will be faced with the challenges of caring for a family member with some form of memory impairment," says researcher Brenda Plassman, PhD, associate research professor of psychiatry at Duke University, in a news release. "Even among the people age 71-79, a sizeable number had cognitive impairment," says Plassman. "This is an age at which most people expect to have many productive years ahead." Based on the results of this study, researchers estimate that 5.4 million ad...

Awake-During-Surgery Device Worth a Nod? Study Challenges Benefit of BIS, a Brain Monitor That Helps Doctors Detect When Patients Are Waking Written by Daniel J. DeNoon Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on March 12, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Does BIS Brain Monitor Cut Waking During Surgery? What Anesthesiologists Tell Patients About Waking During Surgery March 12, 2008 --Doctors don't need a widely used brain monitor to cut patients' risk of waking during surgery, a new study suggests. Doctors call it "unintended intraoperative awareness" or " anesthesia awareness ." Patients call it downright scary. It happens rarely -- to about one or two out of 1,000 surgery patients -- but it does happen: During surgery, patients become aware of things that are happening to them. They may feel pain, discomfort, and fear. Paralyzed by anesthesia, they are unable to tell anyone what is happening to them. The experience usually is painless, and usually ...

Your Brain on Creativity To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing, Your Inner Critic Must Hush Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on February 29, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Feb. 29, 2008 -- For creativity to have a chance, the brain needs to get out of its own way and go with the flow. That's the bottom line from a new study on creativity. The study included six full-time professional jazz musicians. They got their brains scanned while playing a scale or a memorized jazz piece exactly as written and again when they were free to improvise, riffing off the assigned music. When they improvised, the brain 's dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbital regions were far less active -- and another brain area, the medial prefrontal cortex, was more active. The brain regions that were quiet during improvisation are involved in consciously monitoring, evaluating, and correcting behaviors, write the researchers. In contrast, the medial prefrontal cor...

She Recalls, He Forgets: True or False? It All Depends on What Sort of Memory Is at Stake, Researchers Report Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on February 22, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Feb. 22, 2008 -- Women may have the upper hand when it comes to memory, but there is a weak link in their memory chain. Swedish psychology experts report that women tend to have sharper memories than men when it comes to memories based on words or faces. But men's memories are better for spatial information, such as recalling a route or how odd-shaped objects look from various angles. The researchers came to those conclusions after reviewing studies on gender and memory dating from 1974 to 2007. Those studies ranged from Europe to the U.S., Australia, and Bangladesh. But the findings don't mean that women have perfect memory, or that men don't remember well. The sex differences are "statistically rather small," write the researchers. The...

Musical Ear From Practice, Not Parents Training, Not Genes, Shapes Classical Musicians' Ear for Music, Study Shows Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on February 05, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Feb. 5, 2008 -- Musicians develop their ear for music through practice, not by having musical genes, a new study shows. "We make the 'genetic predisposition' explanation less likely and strengthen the case for training," Elizabeth Margulis, PhD, of the University of Arkansas says in a news release. Margulis and colleagues studied nine highly trained classical violinists and seven equally accomplished classical flutists. The violinists and flutists listened to a solo flute recording and a solo violin recording. The flute and violin pieces were similar works -- called partitas -- written by Johann Sebastian Bach. The musicians knew those partitas well, having played them before. While listening to the recordings, the musicians got their...

Daytime Nap May Boost Memory Napping May Give the Brain a Chance to Reinforce New Memories, Sleep Experts Say Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on February 01, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Feb. 1, 2008 -- Take a daytime nap, and you might wake up with a sharper memory. That's what happened in a new napping study that involved 33 undergraduate students. First, the students took three different tests of their short-term memory. In one test, they had to learn and remember pairs of unrelated words, such as "alligator" and " cigar ." In another test, they had to navigate and remember a maze shown on a computer screen. And in the last test, the students had to copy a complex drawing onto a sheet of paper, and then sketch the drawing from memory. Next, half of the students napped for about 45 minutes, while other students watched TV. Finally, all of the students repeated the three memory tests Napping boosted scores on the word-p...

Scratch Skin, Soothe Brain? Scratching May Ease Emotions Triggered by Itching, but It's Still Not Good for Skin Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on January 31, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Jan. 31, 2008 -- Scratching isn't great for your skin , but new research shows why it feels good. "To our surprise, we found that areas of the brain associated with unpleasant or aversive emotions and memories became significantly less active during the scratching," Wake Forest University's Gil Yosipovitch, MD, says in a news release. "Of course, scratching is not recommended because it can damage the skin. But understanding how the process works could lead to new treatments," adds Yosipovitch. Yosipovitch and colleagues studied 13 healthy adults (average age: 28). Participants weren't itchy, but they got their lower right leg gently scratched by a researcher wielding a medical brush. Participants got brain scans before, d...

Soldiers' Concussions, PTSD Linked Study Shows Concussions Suffered in Iraq Deployment May Have Link to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on January 30, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Soldiers' Concussions PTSD, Depression Jan. 30, 2008 -- U.S. soldiers who sustain concussions while serving in Iraq may be particularly likely to have physical and mental health problems a few months after coming home. That news comes from an Army study of 2,525 soldiers from two combat brigades who completed a yearlong deployment in Iraq. Suffering a concussion in Iraq was "strongly associated" with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and physical health problems three to four months after returning home, the study says. Also, PTSD and depression may have played a role in the soldiers' physical health problems. The study appears in tomorrow's edition of The New England Journal of Medicine . Soldiers' C...

Deep Brain Stimulation May Boost Memory Patient Flashes Back Decades in Time After Getting Deep Brain Stimulation Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on January 30, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Jan. 30, 2008 -- Deep brain stimulation may boost memory, Canadian doctors reported today. Deep brain stimulation is used to treat conditions including Parkinson's disease, essential tremor , and multiple sclerosis. Surgeons implant electrodes at certain spots in the brain and use electricity to stimulate those parts of the brain . Toronto Western Hospital's Clement Hamani, MD, PhD, and colleagues performed deep brain stimulation on a 50-year-old man who was morbidly obese. Deep brain stimulation isn't a typical treatment for obesity. But the patient had already tried other obesity treatments and refused to get weight loss surgery , such as gastric bypass . After informing the man about the procedure's risks -- and getting his approval --...

What's Behind 'Cloverfield' Illness? Wave of Nausea Hits Moviegoers Written by Michael W. Smith, MD Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on January 22, 2008 From the WebMD Archives What Causes Motion Sickness? What Is the Treatment for Motion Sickness? Motion Sickness Medications Alternative Medicine for Motion Sickness Jan. 24, 2008 -- Scan the news and blogs and not only do you see that Cloverfield had a record-breaking opening weekend, but there was an unforeseen side effect: nausea . And it didn't come from the popcorn, or the writing -- but the camerawork. In Cloverfield , a giant monster attacks Manhattan. The problem -- at least for those prone to motion sickness -- is that it's all filmed through a very jerky handheld camera. This had led to reports of nausea and vomiting in theaters across the country. One theater chain has even taken pre-emptive action. AMC Theaters has placed caution signs in hundreds of its theaters around the country w...

Stomach Full? Brain May Not Know Overweight People's Brains Seem Slow to Sense Satiety Written by Daniel J. DeNoon Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on January 11, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Jan. 11, 2008 -- Overweight people's brains may not know when their stomachs are full, a brain scan study suggests. The findings come from Gene-Jack Wang, MD, of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Nora D. Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and colleagues. These researchers have used real-time brain scans to explore addictive behaviors. They're also looking at interactions between eating behaviors and brain function. In their new study, Wang and colleagues had 18 adult volunteers swallow balloons -- sections of latex condoms tied off with unwaxed dental floss -- attached to a long tube. Once the balloons were in the patients' stomachs, the researchers filled them with body-temperature water. The idea was to simulate eating enough food to fi...

Injured Spinal Cord: Rewire Nerves? Study With Mice Shows Walking May Be Possible After Rewiring of Nerves Written by Jennifer Warner Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on January 07, 2008 From the WebMD Archives Rewiring After Spinal Cord Injury Jan. 7, 2008 -- Rewiring healthy nerves may offer a new way to increase the odds of walking again after spinal cord injuries. A new study shows rewiring nerve fibers near the injury site allowed mice to walk again after a spinal cord injury. Although these results are only preliminary, researchers say the findings suggest that rewiring may be an easier way to restore walking after a spinal cord injury. People with spinal cord injuries lose the ability to walk because nerves in the spinal cord that send and receive signals to and from motor neurons in the brain are severed and crushed. Until now, efforts to restore movement have mainly focused on the difficult task of finding ways to regrow these damaged nerve fibers. But resear...

'Benign' Brain Events May Signal Stroke Study: Symptoms Like Confusion or Fainting May Be Linked to Stroke and Dementia Written by Salynn Boyles Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on December 27, 2007 From the WebMD Archives Assessing Stroke Risk Benign or Risky? Dec. 27, 2007 -- Brief episodes of confusion, amnesia, or fainting with no easily explainable medical cause may signal an increased risk for stroke and dementia among older people, new research suggests. Doctors often dismiss such episodes as benign occurrences, but researchers found that they were associated with a more than 50% higher risk of stroke and dementia among people age 55 and over. "Our findings challenge the strong but unfounded conviction that [these events] are harmless," Michiel J. Bos, MD, and colleagues from the Netherlands' Erasmus Medical Center write in the Dec. 26 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association . Assessing Stroke Risk Patients who have sma...

Fragile X Syndrome: Gene Fix? Tweaking a Certain Gene Eases Fragile X Symptoms in Lab Tests on Mice Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on December 19, 2007 From the WebMD Archives Dec. 19, 2007 -- Scientists may have found a genetic key to treating fragile X syndrome. Fragile X syndrome is the most common form of inherited mental retardation and is associated with autism. "These findings have major therapeutic implications for fragile X syndrome and autism ," the researchers write in tomorrow's edition of Neuron . Such therapies aren't ready for use in people yet. In lab tests, the scientists tweaked the DNA of mice with fragile X syndrome. The goal was to make a certain mouse gene halve its production of a protein called mGluR5. Reducing production of that protein eased fragile X syndrome symptoms including seizures and problems with the eye , nerves, brain , memory, and body growth. "A simple way to conceptualize the co...

Never Forget a Face? Thank Your Genes Genes May Affect Recognition of Faces and Places, Study Shows Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on December 18, 2007 From the WebMD Archives Dec. 18, 2007 -- Your genes may affect your ability to remember faces and places, new research shows. The key findings: People are better at remembering faces and places than objects or made-up words. People's skill at recalling faces and places may be influenced by their genes. That news comes from a study of identical twins (who have identical genes) and fraternal twins (who aren't genetically identical). Each twin watched a series of faces, places (houses), objects (chairs), and pronounceable nonsense words (such as "banrat") flash onto a computer screen. They pressed a computer key if they saw the same image pop up twice. Meanwhile, their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The brain scans showed that during the...

Chilly? Meet the Brrrain's Shiver Center Is It Just Cold, or Is It Shivering Cold? Scientists Learn How the Brain Decides Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on December 18, 2007 From the WebMD Archives Dec. 18, 2007 -- Shivering in the winter cold? Scientists now know how the brain decides it's time to start shivering. New research shows that in extreme cold, a brain area called the lateral parabrachial nucleus tells another brain region, called the preoptic area, that it's cold enough to start shivering. Shivering heats the skeletal muscles and "requires quite a bit of energy," says Kazuhiro Nakamura, PhD, in a news release. For that reason, shivering is "usually the last strategy the body uses to maintain its internal temperature to survive in a severe cold environment," says Nakamura, who works at the Neurological Sciences Institute at Oregon Health & Science University. Nakamura and Shaun Morrison, PhD, s...

Gene Linked to Lou Gehrig's Disease Study Shows Genetic Link to Non-Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Written by Jennifer Warner Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on December 17, 2007 From the WebMD Archives Genetic Link to ALS Dec. 17, 2007 -- A newly discovered genetic link to Lou Gehrig's disease may help researchers better understand the untreatable and fatal disease. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive disease caused by the wasting away of brain and spinal cord cells that control voluntary muscle movements. A new study shows a mutation in the gene DPP6 was consistently found among four different groups of people with the disease and increased the risk of the disease by about 30%. Although previous studies have identified genetic mutations associated with rare cases of ALS disease that run in families, attempts to find a genetic link to non-familial ALS (about 90% of ALS cases) have been unsucc...

Aging May Tinker With Thirst With Age, Thirst Nerves May Not Work as Well, Paving the Way for Dehydration Written by Miranda Hitti Medically Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on December 17, 2007 From the WebMD Archives Dec. 17, 2007 -- Scientists have a new clue about why the elderly may be vulnerable to dehydration . Age-related changes in certain nerves in the mouth, throat, and stomach may be the problem. A new study shows that healthy men in their 20s or 60s get equally thirsty when injected with salt water. But older men drank half as much water as younger men to slake their thirst. The men got brain scans using positron emission tomography (PET) during the experiment. Those brain scans showed different patterns of activity in brain areas related to thirst. While the men drank water to soothe their thirst, the PET scans showed less activity in a certain brain area in the older men than in the younger men. That may mean that the nerves that carry the "I'm thirst...