http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Think of your favourite magic trick. Is it as grandiose as David Copperfield's Death Saw, or is it as simple as making a coin disappear in front of your very eyes? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-science-magic-hocus-pocus.html Neuroscience Wed, 01 May 2013 09:39:46 EST news286619976 If Don Stein were the kind of man who listened to what others said, he would have shut down his lab years ago. The Emory neuroscientist spent more than two decades investigating progesterone as a treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI)—a pursuit that was unappreciated at best and maligned at worst. A naturally occurring hormone was too simple a solution to too complex a problem, according to the prevailing wisdom. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-hormone-brain-injury.html Medical research Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:11:03 EST news286017053 An article published in F1000Research, and approved for indexing in PubMed and other major bibliographical databases, estimates that there were approximately 32 million users of psychedelic drugs in the United States in 2010. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-psychedelic-drugs-prevalent.html Medications Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:40:13 EST news285946574 The world's first clinical trial to explore the use of the hallucinogenic ingredient in magic mushrooms to treat depression is being delayed due to the UK and EU rules on the use of illegal drugs in research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-trialinvestigating-magic-mushrooms-treatment-depressiondelayed.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:01:56 EST news284630380 Cognitive brain researchers have studied a magic trick filmed in magician duo Penn & Teller's theater in Las Vegas, to illuminate the neuroscience of illusion. Their results advance our understanding of how observers can be misdirected and will aid magicians as they work to improve their art. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-scientists-advance-art-magic-penn.html Health Tue, 12 Feb 2013 09:00:01 EST news279881232 Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, and a sedentary lifestyle is often cited as a major contributing factor. Among the Tsimane, an indigenous population in the lowlands of Bolivia's Amazon basin, however, indicators of heart disease are practically non-existent –– cholesterol is low, obesity is rare, and smoking is uncommon. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-anthropologists-effects-modernization-physical-heart.html Health Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:26:36 EST news278936693 US doctors say they have saved a seven-year-old girl who was close to dying from leukemia by pioneering the use of an unlikely ally: a modified form of the HIV virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-doctors-defeat-leukemia-hiv.html Medical research Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:52:39 EST news274456348 (Medical Xpress)—New cases of C. difficile-associated diarrhea among hospitalized patients taking antibiotics can be reduced by two-thirds with the use of probiotics, according to new research published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-probiotics-potential-minimize-difficile.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:05:25 EST news272009113 (Medical Xpress)—A team of investigators led by UC Davis found that eating soy products such as soy milk and tofu did not prevent the onset of hot flashes and night sweats as women entered menopause. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-soy-effect-menopausal-hot.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:56:31 EST news270981841 Researchers from the University of Bonn and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried have decoded a signal path that could boost the burning of body fat. Mice that are missing a signal switch called VASP are clearly leaner and have more of the coveted brown and beige-colored fat cells that convert energy into heat. This might point the way to a new method for fighting obesity. The researchers presented their results in the current issue of the renowned journal Science Signaling. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-beige-fat-pounds.html Medical research Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:45:13 EST news265373099 More than 40 plant-based compounds can turn on genes that slow the spread of cancer, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a Washington State University researcher. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-documents-links-nutrients-genes-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:54:51 EST news265298083 Researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center have unveiled how and why the public perceives some magic tricks in recent studies that could have real-world implications in military tactics, marketing and sports. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-barrow-magic-discoveries.html Neuroscience Tue, 22 May 2012 17:40:00 EST news256927192 A drug that has been shown to prevent HIV infection in a significant number of cases must be combined with behavioral approaches if the U.S. health care establishment is to succeed in reducing the spread of the virus, according to the American Psychological Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-hiv-behavioral-strategies-apa.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 14 May 2012 13:56:00 EST news256222504 (Medical Xpress) -- A magician will have the upper hand because he knows how his trick works. But, according to Jay Olson, the magician might not know why. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-method-magic.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 10 May 2012 07:29:44 EST news255853777 An expert panel at the Institute of Food Technologists' Wellness 12 meeting urged the food industry to find simple yet powerful language to tell consumers about the many benefits of a diet rich in phytonutrients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-consumers-simple-concise-messages-benefits.html Health Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:17:48 EST news252775062 An Oregon State University researcher has reviewed the body of evidence around weight loss supplements and has bad news for those trying to find a magic pill to lose weight and keep it off – it doesn't exist. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-weight-loss-supplements-effective.html Health Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:40:53 EST news250260038 (Medical Xpress) -- Psychedelic substances have long been used for healing, ceremonial, or mind-altering subjective experiences due to compounds that, when ingested or inhaled, generate hallucinations, perceptual distortions, or altered states of awareness. Of these, the psychedelic substance psilocybin, the prodrug (a precursor of a drug that must in vivo chemical conversion by metabolic processes before becoming an active pharmacological agent) of psilocin (4-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine) and the key hallucinogen found in so-called magic mushrooms, is widely used not only in healing ceremonies, but, more recently, in psychotherapy as well – but little has been known about its specific activity in the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-brain-shrooms-fmri-elucidates-neural.html Neuroscience Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:50:01 EST news249730305 Brain scans of people under the influence of the psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, have given scientists the most detailed picture to date of how psychedelic drugs work. The findings of two studies being published in scientific journals this week identify areas of the brain where activity is suppressed by psilocybin and suggest that it helps people to experience memories more vividly. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-fmri-brain-imaging-illuminates-magic.html Neuroscience Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:00:18 EST news246550261 The overall quality of a pregnant woman's diet is linked with risk for two types of serious birth defects, a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine has shown. In the study, women who ate better before and during pregnancy gave birth to fewer infants with malformations of the brain and spinal cord, or orofacial clefts, such as cleft lip and cleft palate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-quality-pregnant-woman-diet-affects.html Health Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:16:32 EST news236877381