Researchers studying the health information content of Twitter updates say misunderstandings about antibiotics have the potential to spread widely through social networking sites.
Writing in the American Journal of Infection Control, they stress that because health information is shared extensively on such networks, it is important for health care professionals to have a basic familiarity with social networking media services, such as Twitter.
Most obesity research focuses on what kinds of foods people eat and how much. But a news study from the University of Alabama suggests that timing may be equally important when it comes maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding metabolic syndrome.
Published in the International Journal of Obesity, the study examined the influence exerted by the type of foods and specific timing of intake on the development of metabolic syndrome characteristics in mice. The research revealed that mice fed a meal higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles.
Just one small square of chocolate a day can lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart disease, says a new study published online today in the European Heart Journal.
The authors of the study believe that flavanols in cocoa may be the reason why chocolate seems to be good for people's blood pressure and heart health; and since there is more cocoa in dark chocolate, dark chocolate may have a greater effect.
Marketing experts say advertising that touts head-scratching scientific ingredients or other such "puffery" only an expert could appreciate is likely to alienate informed consumers.
The findings show that consumers filter ad claims, rather than accepting them blindly. As a result, the authors say, effective advertising should relate to consumers on a personal level, rather than talking down to them.
Based on a study that gauged consumer reaction to technical, tough-to-decipher advertising claims, researchers say consumers become immediately suspicious when they see or hear information they perceive as useless. The result often is a loss of trust, and maintaining trust is very important in advertising, the study explains.
Researchers from Jena University in Germany say it is not only painful memories and associations that put our pain memory on alert, words can do the trick as well.
"Even verbal stimuli lead to reactions in certain areas of the brain", says Dr. Thomas Weiss from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. As soon as we hear words like "tormenting", "gruelling" or "plaguing", those areas in the brain are being activated which process the corresponding pain.
Arizona State University researchers have reengineered the genetics of cyanobacteria, producing mutant strains that continuously secrete fatty acids through their cell walls. The reprogramming has essentially turned the microbes into tiny biofuel production facilities.
By Introducing an enzyme called thioesterase into cyanobacteria researchers were able to coax them into overproducing fatty acids. Accumulation within the cells eventually caused these fatty acids to leak out through the cell membrane, through the process of diffusion.
Hemophilia is caused by a genetic defect that inhibits the body's ability to control blood clotting. The two forms of the disease — hemophilia A and B — are associated with the absence of proteins called factor VIII and factor IX, respectively.
The disease affects millions of people and is sometimes untreatable due to patients' immune systems rejecting the standard treatment--infusion with a protein that helps the blood to clot.
To help patients tolerate therapy, doctors try to exhaust patients' immune systems by administering the therapeutic protein intravenously at frequent intervals and for long periods until the body no longer responds by producing inhibitors. While that brute force approach works
