If you are one of the 370,000 Americans who lack functioning kidneys, you are all too familiar with the exhausting procedure of kidney dialysis. Three or four times every week, you visit a special clinic and sit for four hours as your blood is removed, cleaned and returned to your body.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have identified the genetic culprits that trigger a hereditary form of a fatal lung disease. The findings, published in the March 29, 2007, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, may provide new directions in diagnosis and treatment for families that inherit genes for the disease, as well as for those that develop non-inherited forms of the illness.
Nearly 11 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States in 2006, up 7 percent from 2005, according to statistics released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). In addition, more than 5.2 million reconstructive plastic surgery procedures were performed last year.
Males had more than a million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures in 2006 according to statistics released today by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Research conducted at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs proves not everything goes downhill when it comes to aging. Older adults exhibit a better balance than younger adults in the way they process emotional information from the environment.
Although breast augmentation should not be seen as a panacea for feelings of low self-worth or sexual attractiveness, it is important for health-care practitioners to understand the psychological benefits of these procedures, UF researchers say.
In classic movies, cigarette smoking was used as shorthand to convey sultriness and beauty. In the real world, the connection between smoking and one?s appearance ? as many studies have shown ? has more to do with premature signs of aging and less to do with glamour and refinement.
In a speech at the Chief Executives Club of Boston, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) chairman and chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, predicted that the coming biomedical revolution will move medicine from its current state of treating symptoms to predicting and preventing diseases.
According to a new study from the University of Rochester, playing action video games sharpens vision. In tests of visual acuity that assess the ability to see objects accurately in a cluttered space, game players scored higher than their non-playing peers.
Uncontrolled neuronal death in the brain often gives rise to neurodegenerative illnesses like Parkinson or Alzheimer disease. Whether or not neurons have a long and healthy life is, apart from other factors, determined by the presence of neurotrophic factors. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have now provided unambiguous proof that the presence of the neurotrophic factor GDNF and its receptor Ret are essential for the survival of neurons in a specific brain region.