http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Native peoples in regions where cameras are uncommon sometimes react with caution when their picture is taken. The fear that something must have been stolen from them to create the photo is often inescapable. On small scales, we know it is in fact impossible to measure something without changing its essential character in some way. One idea that has recently gained momentum, is that although our brains have mechanisms for unpacking past experience into a form where it can be consciously manipulated with the full power of the mind, mechanisms to repack those memories into the original form lack similar finesse. In this light, once touched, a memory is no longer exactly the same. A paper just published in PNAS takes a closer look at how memories are reconsolidated after their retrieval. In showing just how easy it is to change certain kinds of memories, the authors not only raise new concerns for eyewitness testimony in the courtroom, but may explain in part why such testimony often tends to accumulate doubt in the face of continued questioning. The implication is that this new knowledge may be useful in the treatment post traumatic stress in veterans and victims. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-wrong.html Neuroscience Tue, 21 May 2013 11:12:02 EST news288353383 Children can easily be led to remember incorrect information through misleading gestures from adults, according to researchers from the University of Hertfordshire. These findings are being presented this week at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-gestures-child-witnesses.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:08:47 EST news284807314 (Medical Xpress)—New research from the University of Adelaide shows that 95% of parents believe vaccines are safe for their children despite the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-parents-vaccines-safe-children.html Medications Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:04:44 EST news281174673 (Medical Xpress)—More than three years after she coined the phrase "death panel," Sarah Palin's remark continues to inflame the debate over health care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-death-panel-myth-hard-effectiveness.html Health Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:10:04 EST news276935718 Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Barack Obama was born in the United States. Global warming is confirmed by science. And yet, many people believe claims to the contrary. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-misinformation.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:55:56 EST news267288945 A calorie is simply a measurement of energy. But it's also the source of confusion and worry for many people trying to lose weight. At the same time, calories -- too few or too many -- are causing health problems resulting from malnutrition and obesity that affect billions of people around the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-calories-food-politics.html Health Tue, 24 Apr 2012 05:32:31 EST news254464340 The odds that someone undergoing spinal surgery at a particular hospital will have to be readmitted to the same hospital within 30 days is an important measure of the quality of care patients receive. That's because these "hospital readmission rates" often reflect problems like hospital-acquired infections or complications from surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-spinal-surgeries-successful-statistics-ucsf.html Surgery Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:30:01 EST news253889032 (HealthDay) -- While most pharmacies report having emergency contraception (EC) in stock, misinformation regarding what age women can take it without a prescription is common, according to a study published online March 26 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-emergency-contraception-access-common.html Health Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:46:22 EST news251999171 (AP) -- The Obama administration declared Alzheimer's "one of the most feared health conditions" on Wednesday as it issued a draft of a new national strategy to fight the ominous rise in this mind-destroying disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-alzheimer-disease_1.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:10:01 EST news249152439 (Medical Xpress) -- There are ways in which patients who leave the hospital against medical advice wind up paying for that decision. Being saddled with the full cost of their hospital stay, however, is not one of them. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-patients-medical-advice.html Health Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:56:27 EST news247730172 Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that in low-income neighborhoods, misinformation about access to emergency contraception is a common occurrence. These findings appear as a research letter in the Dec. 19 on-line issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-misinformation-emergency-contraception-common-low-income.html Health Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:07:39 EST news243533251 (Medical Xpress) -- How well adults can detect if children are lying or reporting misinformation is no better than the odds of chance, reports a new Cornell study. The findings have implications for physical and sexual abuse investigations, which often rely heavily on children's eyewitness reports. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-adults-children-intentionally-lying-misinformed.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 19 Oct 2011 05:26:04 EST news238220752 A new research study conducted by an international team of experts recommends a public health approach to cannabis - including evidence-based guidelines for lower-risk use - to reduce the health harms that result from the use of cannabis. Led by CAMH scientist and CIHR/PHAC Chair in Applied Public Health (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) Dr. Benedikt Fischer, the study is being published in the September/October 2011 issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health (CJPH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-health-guidelines-cannabis.html Health Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:14:36 EST news235923261