A massive research effort over more than a quarter century has tried to make personalized blood stem cells for use in treating leukemias, among many other uses. One way researchers have gone about this is to sample a patient’s adult cells and then “deprogram” them to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are capable of forming any of the […]
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Past studies have found that rewarding participants during a visual perceptual task leads to performance gains. However, new research suggests that these performance gains occur only if participants follow up the task with sleep. The new findings may have particular implications for students tempted to sacrifice sleep in favor of late-night study sessions, said study corresponding author Yuka Sasaki, a […]
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Mindfulness has previously been shown to help people handle negative emotions and is used as a treatment for anxiety related psychological disorders, but the underlying biological mechanisms are not fully understood. In a new study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers at University of Southern Denmark, among other universities, show that brief daily mindfulness training delivered through the HEADSPACE mindfulness app […]
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India Hardy has lived with pain since she was a toddler—ranging from dull persistent aches to acute flare-ups that interrupt the flow of her normal life. The pain is from sickle cell disease, a group of genetic conditions that affect about 100,000 people in the U.S., many of them of African or Hispanic descent. Sitting in the afternoon heat on […]
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Though leaded gas and lead-based paint were banned decades ago, the risk of lead exposure is far from gone. A new study led by Elizabeth Sowell, Ph.D., shows that living in neighborhoods with high risk of lead exposure is associated with differences in brain structure and cognitive performance in some children. Her findings, published by Nature Medicine, also show a […]
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(HealthDay)—A pricey high-tech pump that maintains blood flow during heart procedures could be more dangerous to patients than its low-tech predecessor, a pair of new studies finds. The Impella device is associated with an increased risk of death, bleeding and stroke among patients undergoing angioplasty to re-open clogged arteries, two separate research teams concluded in presentations Sunday at the American […]
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Gymgoers who’ve accidentally left their headphones at home might be all too familiar with this frustrating feeling: Exercising without music is a much harder go. And now a broad new review of nearly 140 studies—the first of its kind—suggests there’s real science to back that up, with clear evidence that music not only makes exercise seem easier and more enjoyable […]
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Most people fear public speaking. For some reason, we feel our feet rooted to the ground while our hands shaking the moment we step on the stage and all attention is on us. Our throat goes dry, and we suddenly feel out of words or we’re already experiencing a mental block even before we speak. We’re afraid we’ll end up […]
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Cumulative exposure to obesity could be at least as important as actually being obese in terms of risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D), concludes new research published in Diabetologia. The study is by Dr. Juhua Luo, School of Public Health, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA, and colleagues. Although obesity is a well-established risk factor for T2D, little is known […]
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Neuroregeneration entails not only neurogenesis, but also regrowth of lost connections and birth of non-neuronal cells. While adult neurogenesis in humans is only known to occur definitively in a few precisely circumscribed regions of the brain, work in other species suggests that science has only scratched the surface of the full regenerative potential of our own nervous systems. The serotonergic […]
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