Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that fat collection in different body locations, such as around the heart and the aorta and within the liver, are associated with certain decreased heart functions. The study, which appears online in Obesity, also found that measuring a person`s body mass index (BMI) does not reliably predict the amount of undesired fat in and...

While little is known about the causes of glioma, researchers at the National Cancer Institute have found that this rare but often deadly form of brain cancer may be linked to early life physical activity and height. "Our findings suggest that biological factors related to energy expenditure and growth during childhood may play a role in glioma etiology. This clue could help researchers bette...

Pregnant women who are indigenous to the Andes Mountains deliver more blood and oxygen to their fetuses at high altitude than do women of European descent. The study helps explain why babies of Andean descent born at high altitude weigh more than European babies born at low altitude. The research, published in The American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Phy...

A University of Maryland-led team has compiled the first decades-long database of aerosol measurements over land, making possible new research into how air pollution changes affect climate change. Using this new database, the researchers show that clear sky visibility over land has decreased globally over the past 30 years, indicative of increases in aerosols, or airborne pollution. Their findings...

Dystonia is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary abnormal muscle constrictions. More than 300,000 people in North America are affected, but the mechanism of abnormal muscle constrictions has not been well understood. Now, a Japanese research team led by Prof Atsushi Nambu and Dr Satomi Chiken of National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS) in Japan, with Dr. Pullanipally Sh...

For risk-takers and impulsive people, New Year`s resolutions often include being more careful, spending more frugally and cutting back on dangerous behavior, such as drug use. But new research from Vanderbilt finds that these individuals–labeled as novelty seekers by psychologists–face an uphill battle in keeping their New Year`s resolutions due to the way their brains process dopamine...

Reducing the activity of a gene called FKBP12 in the brains of mice affected neuron-to-neuron communication (synapse) and increased both fearful memory and obsessive behavior, indicating the gene could provide a target for drugs to treat diseases such as autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disease and others, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report in the...