News by Subject Medicine & Health

Investigators have assessed the prevalence of treatable traits in severe asthma and have determined which specific traits are predictive of future asthma attacks. Their findings, which are published in Respirology, are the result of an extensive national collaborative study in Australia.

A new study in SLEEP indicates that people who have slept for fewer than seven of the past 24 hours have higher odds of being involved in and responsible for car crashes. The risk is greatest for drivers who have slept fewer than four hours.

Brief cognitive behavioral therapy significantly improved the mental health of women overwhelmed by caring for children with severe chronic health conditions, researchers at the University of Louisville have found. After five therapy sessions, study participants reported significantly decreased depressive symptoms, negative thinking and chronic stressors, and experienced improved sleep quality, according to Lynne Hall, Dr.P.H., R.N., associate dean of research and professor at the UofL School of Nursing.

A scientific study, conducted with animal models, states that sleep apnea can favor lung cancer growth in young individuals. Thus, aging would be a protecting factor against the fast tumor development, induced by this sleep alteration.

While news media reporting traffic crashes and fire-related deaths of infants and children is routine and often leads to preventative measures to reduce these deaths, there is little or no news coverage of sleep-related or sudden infants deaths, which contributes to the lack of efforts to prevent these deaths, according to a Rush physician.

A large, randomized controlled trial has found that commencing treatment for sleep apnea as soon as possible after a stroke or a mini-stroke improves speech impairment and other neurological symptoms as well as walking and other physical functioning. Benefits of sleep apnea treatment after stroke are greater than benefits from tPA.

The first simple blood test to identify your body's precise internal time clock as compared to the external time has been developed by scientists. The test, which requires only two blood draws, can tell physicians and researchers the time in your body despite the time in the external world. The new test for the first time will provide the opportunity to easily examine the impact of misaligned circadian clocks in a range of diseases from heart disease to diabetes to Alzheimer's.

About 80 to 90 percent of individuals with sleep apnea are undiagnosed and a large number of them are African-Americans.