UCLAhealth.org Health News

This is your brain on sugar: UCLA study shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory

2012-05-15T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Attention, college students cramming between midterms and finals: Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid.

A new UCLA study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning — and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption. The peer-reviewed Journal of Physiology publishes the findings in its May 15 edition.

"Our...

UCLA researchers ID gene variants that speed progression of Parkinson's disease

2012-05-15T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

UCLA researchers may have found a key to determining which Parkinson's disease patients will experience a more rapid decline in motor function, sparking hopes for the development of new therapies and helping identify those who could benefit most from early intervention.

In a study published May 15 in the peer-reviewed online journal PLoS ONE, the researchers found that Parkinson's sufferers who possess two specific variants of a gene known to be a risk factor...

UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care program receives $3.2M Health Care Innovation award

2012-05-08T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that UCLA's new Alzheimer's and Dementia Care program has been awarded $3,208,540 as part of the agency's Health Care Innovation awards program.

The awards, made by possible through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, support innovative projects nationwide aimed at saving money, delivering high-quality medical care and enhancing the health care workforce. The 26...

UCLA symposium to explore images of nurses and nursing in the media

2012-05-08T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

WHAT:

Nursing is considered the most ethical and honest profession, yet when the public conjures up the image of a nurse, it is usually outdated and incorrect. At a time when America's nurses are assuming greater responsibilities in health care delivery and advocacy, it is time to get the image right.

This UCLA symposium will bring together media analysts, journalists, authors and national nursing...

Why underweight babies become obese: Study says disrupted hypothalamus is to blame

2012-05-02T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

It seems improbable that a baby born underweight would be prone to obesity, but it is well documented that these children tend to put on weight in youth if they're allowed free access to calories. Now, researchers believe they understand why this happens.

A new animal model study at UCLA has found that in low–birth-weight babies whose growth was restricted in the womb, the level of appetite-producing neuropeptides in the brain's hypothalamus —...

Supermodel-turned-filmmaker screens doc about maternal mortality at UCLA

2012-05-01T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

WHAT:

In her gripping directorial debut, former supermodel Christy Turlington Burns shares the powerful stories of at-risk pregnant women from four parts of the world — a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a Bangladesh slum, a post-abortion–care ward in Guatemala and a prenatal clinic in the U.S. The UCLA screening will be followed by a panel discussion and a small reception.

The event is sponsored by the UCLA School...

New UCLA method quickly IDs nanomaterials that can cause oxidative damage to cells

2012-05-01T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Engineered nanomaterials, prized for their unique semiconducting properties, are already prevalent in everyday consumer products — from sunscreens, cosmetics and paints to textiles and solar batteries — and economic forecasters are predicting the industry will grow into $1 trillion business in the next few years. But how safe are these materials?

Because the semiconductor properties of metal-oxide nanomaterials could potentially translate into...

Devastating disease provides insight into development and death of motor neurons

2012-04-29T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Researchers at UCLA have been searching for the cause of a rare disease that virtually no one has ever heard: PCH1, or pontocerebellar hypoplasia type 1, which attacks the brain and the spine.

It's a particularly cruel disorder, occurring mostly in infants, who begin manifesting symptoms at or soon after birth, with poor muscle tone, difficulty feeding, growth retardation and global developmental delay.

Now, thanks to the...

Growing up a neural stem cell: The importance of clinging together and then letting go

2012-04-26T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Can one feel too attached? Does one need to let go in order to mature? Neural stem cells have this problem too.

As immature cells, neural stem cells must stick together in a protected environment called a niche, where they divide in preparation for making all of the cells that populate the nervous system. But when it's time to mature — or differentiate into these various cells — the neural stem cells must stop dividing, detach from their...

UCLA researchers combat global disease with a cell phone, Google Maps and a lot of ingenuity

2012-04-26T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

In the fight against emerging public health threats, early diagnosis of infectious diseases is crucial. And in poor and remote areas of the globe where conventional medical tools like microscopes and cytometers are unavailable, rapid diagnostic tests, or RDTs, are helping to make disease screening quicker and simpler.

RDTs are...

Which ads are winners? Your brain knows better than you do

2012-04-25T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Advertisers and public health officials may be able to access hidden wisdom in the brain to more effectively sell their products and promote health and safety, UCLA neuroscientists report in the first study to use brain data to predict how large populations will respond to advertisements.

Thirty smokers who were trying to quit watched television commercials from three...

International team uncovers new genes that shape brain size, intelligence

2012-04-15T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

In the world's largest brain study to date, a team of more than 200 scientists from 100 institutions worldwide collaborated to map the human genes that boost or sabotage the brain's resistance to a variety of mental illnesses and Alzheimer's disease.

Published April 15 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Genetics, the study also uncovers new genes that may explain individual differences in brain size and...

UCLA-engineered stem cells seek out and kill HIV in living organisms

2012-04-12T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Expanding on previous research providing proof-of-principal that human stem cells can be genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells, a team of UCLA researchers have now demonstrated that these cells can actually attack HIV-infected cells in a living organism.

The study, published April 12 in the journal

'Hybrid' surgery saves UCLA patient from softball-sized aneurysm

2012-04-12T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Patricia Crawford had literally been tinged blue all her life because her heart couldn't pump enough oxygenated blood through her body. And that was the least of her worries.

A huge aneurysm the size of a softball in her pulmonary artery was a ticking time bomb. Her heart and liver were failing, too - all adding to the reasons why it was too risky for the 49-year-old to receive the heart-lung transplant she desperately needed to survive. She had been told that she was out of...

Legal expert explores risks, rewards of using stem cell products

2012-04-11T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

The brave new world of stem cell research dangles the exciting potential for a host of leading-edge treatments that may one day help cure debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other maladies that today cannot be treated with modern medicine.

However, not much thought has been given to how those products might be regulated and how issues of legal liability may be addressed in a way that encourages scientific innovation but also protects the...

Improv comedy workshops at UCLA to help military families deal with effects of war

2012-04-11T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

The UCLA Nathanson Family Resilience Center and the nonprofit Rx Laughter are teaming up with the legendary Second City Training Center to offer an innovative, humor-based project that uses improvisational comedy techniques to help military families deal with the traumatic effects of war.

In the free two-hour workshops, the...

Heart failure patients with diabetes may benefit from higher glucose levels

2012-04-09T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Lowering glucose levels for people with diabetes is normally critical to improving health outcomes. But for diabetes patients with heart failure, that might not always be the case, say UCLA researchers.

A new study found that for advanced heart failure patients with diabetes, having higher blood glucose levels may actually help improve survival rates.

Published online in the American Journal of Cardiology, the study by UCLA...

Innovative UCLA program provides opportunity for nurses to focus on gerontology

2012-04-05T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

As America ages, the health care industry will be increasingly challenged on how to train and prepare professionals to care for older patients and for the unique and complicated attention they often require.

An original educational program at the UCLA School of Nursing designed with just such goals in mind will be the focus of a presentation at the Western...

Gene mutation identified as contributor to autism spectrum disorders

2012-04-04T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

There is little argument among experts that autism spectrum disorders (ASD), complex developmental disabilities that vary widely in their severity, are caused by both genetic and environmental factors. Advances in genome sequencing now permit scientists to uncover specific mutations in DNA that are associated with ASD at unprecedented resolution. Such data are vital to understanding the genetic basis of the disorder.

A new study co-authored by UCLA researchers...

UCLA Brain Injury Research Center gets NCAA funding for research on sports concussions

2012-04-03T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Now, in an effort to better understand the long-term consequences of sports-related concussions, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is funding a study by a consortium of...

Caloric moderation can reverse link between low birth weight and obesity, study finds

2012-04-03T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Babies who are born small have a tendency to put on weight during childhood and adolescence if allowed free access to calories. However, a new animal model study at UCLA found when small babies were placed on a diet of moderately regulated calories during infancy, the propensity of becoming obese decreased.

Because this is an early study, UCLA researchers do not recommend that mothers of low-birth weight infants start restricting their...

Scientists use PET to predict increased survival in cancer patients after first chemo cycle

2012-04-03T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that by administering a PET scan to individuals with soft-tissue sarcomas after just a single cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, they can predict increased survival in these patients.

Prior research by this multidisciplinary team of...

UCLA study identifies genes linked to post-traumatic stress disorder

2012-04-02T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Why do some people experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while others who suffered the same ordeal do not? A new UCLA study may shed light on the answer.

UCLA scientists have linked two genes involved in serotonin production to a higher risk of developing PTSD. Published in the April 3 online edition of the Journal of Affective Disorders, the findings suggest that susceptibility to PTSD is inherited, pointing to new ways of...

Fewer deaths, complications with robotic bladder cancer surgery, but cost is higher

2012-04-02T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

With technological advancements opening the door to less invasive medical procedures, robotic-assisted surgery is becoming increasingly popular, despite being more expensive than traditional surgery. Robotic-assisted surgical removal of the bladder due to cancer is a new approach to the traditional "open" — or more invasive — operation called a radical cystectomy.

Bladder cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, and the American...

10-year-old UCLA patient lends voice to raise awareness of 'adult' lung disease that affects kids too

2012-04-02T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) sounds like an adult disease, but the life-threatening lung condition strikes children too. Ten-year-old Lucas Van Wormer is one of them.

PH is like a kinked garden hose in which the pressure builds and backs up. The heart is forced to work harder to pump blood through the arteries. If the...

Second mutation in BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma does not add to drug resistance

2012-04-01T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

UCLA scientists studying the ways in which skin cancer becomes resistant to drug treatment have discovered that a second mutation found in the tumors of patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma does not contribute to resistance to BRAF inhibitor drugs, a finding that runs counter to what they expected.

The study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that patients with mutations in both...

Does the brain 'remember' antidepressants?

2012-03-26T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) often undergo multiple courses of antidepressant treatment during their lives. This is because the disorder can recur despite treatment and because finding the right medication for a specific individual can take time.

While the relationship between prior treatment and the brain's response to subsequent treatment is unknown, a new study by UCLA researchers suggests that how the brain responds to antidepressant...

Scientists identify novel pathway for T cell activation in leprosy

2012-03-25T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

UCLA researchers have pinpointed a new mechanism that potently activates T cells, the group of white blood cells that plays a major role in fighting infections.

The team specifically studied how dendritic cells, immune cells located at the site of an infection, become more specialized to fight the leprosy pathogen known as Mycobacterium leprae. Dendritic cells, like scouts in the field of a military operation, deliver key information about an...

Banner day for the Fielding School of Public Health

2012-03-23T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Obituary: Paul H. Crandall, 89, UCLA professor pioneered surgical approach to treat epilepsy

2012-03-22T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Dr. Paul H. Crandall, who co-founded the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery and pioneered surgical approaches still used today to treat stubborn epileptic seizures, died March 15 from complications related to pneumonia at UCLA Medical Center–Santa Monica. He was 89.

"Paul was the father of UCLA's epilepsy program," said Dr. Neil Martin, chair of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "His clinical work laid the foundation for our...

Kindergartners to present homemade 'quilt of valor' to UCLA's Operation Mend

2012-03-21T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

WHAT:

Twenty-three kindergartners from the Berkeley Hall School in Los Angeles will present a homemade "quilt of valor" to representatives of UCLA's Operation Mend, a program that provides reconstructive surgeries and medical services to military members severely injured and disfigured during service in Iraq and Afghanistan....