Oct 30 2009
New research suggests that your skills behind the wheel may be affected by your genes.
To better understand the effects of a variant in the BDNF gene on motor skills learning, Steven Cramer and colleagues at UC Irvine tested 29 subjects in a driving simulator. Their results, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, might make [...]
Oct 19 2009
Lupus, which means “wolf” in Latin, gets its name from the skin manifestations sometimes seen in the disease. A physician in the 13th century thought they looked like wolf bites.
In autoimmune disorders, the immune system — which normally protects us from harmful, foreign substances — goes into overdrive and starts attacking the body’s own cells, [...]
Oct 16 2009
Previously in The Spittoon, we discussed two papers that identified genetic variants associated with hemoglobin levels in circulating blood.
But blood consists of much more than hemoglobin, and it is responsible for much more than just transporting oxygen. This week Nature Genetics published the results of two of the largest blood studies to date, which together [...]
Oct 12 2009
Doctors routinely order the complete blood count (CBC) for their patients because they can learn a lot about a person’s health by measuring the numbers of different types of blood cells in the circulation, their sizes and the ratios between them.
One component of the CBC is usually a measure of the total amount of hemoglobin, [...]
Oct 05 2009
Our bones are amazing structures, capable of supporting tremendous force through complex motions. They do this day in and day out, year after year as we sit, stand, walk, run, lift, work, and play. But as the elderly among us know all too well, bones are not invincible and become more fragile as we age. [...]
Sep 30 2009
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which can appear as either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, damages the lining of the digestive tract and leads to abdominal cramps, incomplete digestion and nutritional deficiencies.
Previous research on IBD gave researchers reason to suspect that the CD39 gene, which is involved with inflammatory responses and immunity, may play a role [...]
Sep 29 2009
In the United States, prostate cancer affects about one in every six men. Genomewide association studies aimed at finding common genetic variants associated with this common disease have been particularly successful. More than a dozen SNPs have been associated with prostate cancer, but researchers calculate that these variants represent only a tiny fraction of the [...]
Sep 24 2009
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness and is estimated to affect over 66 million people worldwide. This group of diseases is typically caused by increased pressure in the eye, which slowly damages the optic nerve and leads to gradual vision loss and eventual, incurable blindness if left untreated.
Sep 22 2009
Addiction to alcohol is associated with the brain’s reward system, which reinforces behaviors that feel good — like drinking — by releasing neurotransmitters such as dopamine and endorphins. With prolonged alcohol consumption, a person’s brain can gradually adapt to the point that excessive amounts of drinking are required in order to produce the same pleasure [...]
Sep 18 2009
Unlike the flu virus, which the body is generally able to fight off completely, infection with hepatitis C is often chronic. That means for most of the three to four million people worldwide who are newly infected each year the virus will persist in the body, where it greatly increases risk for chronic liver [...]
