News by Subject Medicine & Health

Daily exposure to blue wavelength light each morning helps to re-entrain the circadian rhythm so that people get better, more regular sleep which was translated into improvements in cognitive function, reduced daytime sleepiness and actual brain repair.

In a new study, Karim Fouad and his team discovered that rats with spinal injuries experienced changes to their gut bacteria and a rise in anxiety-like behavior. When rats with spinal injuries were given fecal transplants from healthy rats, their behavior -- and gut bacteria -- remained normal. Fouad suggests 'poop pills' could one day be used to improve well-being following spinal cord injuries and diseases of the central nervous system.

HRL Laboratories, LLC, researchers have published results showing that targeted transcranial electrical stimulation during slow-wave sleep can improve metamemories of specific episodes by 20% after only one viewing of the episode, compared to controls. The same technology may offer a non-invasive treatment to mitigate bad memories that might cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Metamemory describes the sensitivity of whether memories are recalled accurately or not, such as during eyewitness testimony.

Patients with acutely life-threatening health conditions who were treated in the innovative Critical Care Resuscitation Unit (CCRU) received faster treatment and had better health outcomes, including a 36 percent lower risk of dying than those who were transferred from a hospital's emergency department then evaluated and treated in a traditional intensive care unit, according to a recent study in the Journal of Emergency Medicine conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Of three possible ways for people to deliver the life-saving antidote naloxone to a person experiencing an opioid overdose, the use of a nasal spray was the quickest and easiest according to research conducted by William Eggleston, clinical assistant professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York, and colleagues at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Scientists eavesdropped on neurons and discovered a stable signal driving common movement skills like typing sneakers. They were able to preserve and reconstruct these patterns in what is a major advance for neuroprostheses for paralyzed patients.

University of Texas at Dallas researchers have demonstrated a technique in the lab for fabricating tiny strands of collagen called fibrils to facilitate further research on the eye's repair process. The method was detailed in a new study published in the December issue of the journal Biomedical Microdevices. The study was funded in part by a $1.8 million, five-year National Institutes of Health grant.

Road injuries have become more frequent but less fatal over the past three decades, according to a new scientific study. The probability of dying from a road accident increased in only five nations since 1990 -- Central African Republic, Jamaica, Somalia, Swaziland, and United Arab Emirates. Disability from road injuries is multifactorial, and largely driven by injuries such as lower limb fracture, traumatic brain injury, open wounds, digit amputations, and muscle and tendon injuries.