LONDON: Are you experiencing fragmented sleep? If yes, then it’s high time that you consult a doctor, for a study says it affects the ability to build memories and could raise the risk of developing dementia in later life. “Sleep continuity is one of the main factors affected in various pathological conditions that impact memory including Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive deficits,” said Dr Luis de Lecea, who led a team at Stanford University which carried out the study. Read more…

(Reuters Health) – Swedish teenagers who consumed more folic acid got better school grades, a small study published in the journal Pediatrics has found. But don’t run out and stock up on the B vitamin with the rest of your school supplies just yet, one expert warns. “There is very little deficiency of folic acid in North America,” Deborah O’Connor, a nutrition researcher who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health. “If you’re already sufficient, there is not a lot of evidence that taking more supplements will help.” Read more…

A strain of gonorrhea is that is resistant to all currently available antibiotics has been identified by researchers in Japan. Gonorrhea is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted through oral, genital or anal sex with an infected person. If left untreated, the disease can cause other problems, including sterility and a greater susceptibility to HIV. The newly identified strain of the sexually transmitted infection, called H041, is resistant to the last remaining drugs that treat gonorrhea, known as cephalosporin-class antibiotics, researchers told the International Society for Sexually Transmitted...

MADRID, Spain — Doctors in Spain have carried out the world’s first double leg transplant, giving new lower limbs to a patient who lost both legs at mid-thigh in an accident, officials said Monday. The Valencia regional government said the surgical team was led by Dr. Pedro Cavadas, who in 2009 carried out Spain’s first face transplant — the first anywhere to include a new tongue and jaw. The government statement said the operation at La Fe Hospital in Valencia was extremely complex and Cavadas will wait at least 48 hours to release more information. “Today we can say...

Health officials in the Indian state of Rajasthan are launching a new campaign to try reduce the high population growth in the area. They are encouraging men and women to volunteer for sterilisation, and in return are offering a car and other prizes for those who come forward. Among the rewards on offer is the Indian-made Tata Nano – the world’s cheapest car. Many in the government are worried about the size of India’s population. It is expected to overtake that of China by 2030. Sitaram Sharma, the head doctor of Jhunjunu in western India, is hopeful that the chance to win a...

Researchers may have struck a solution to reverse the signs of Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, according to a recent experiment. Individuals living with Type 2 diabetes have issues regulating the amount of blood sugar in their bloodstreams that would otherwise be picked up and stored within the body’s cells as energy. Insulin helps escort sugar into cells, but for people living with diabetes, the body doesn’t respond appropriately to insulin and needs more of it to regulate sugar in the bloodstream. The findings were drawn from a group of 11 participants (nine men...

Duct tape – is there no end to its usefulness? Apparently not. Now we learn that using duct tape in hospitals could be a tool in the fight against infectious disease. Call it a handyman’s quarantine. An infection-prevention team at Trinity Medical Center in the Quad Cities along the Illinois and Iowa border, wanted to create safe zones in which healthcare workers could talk to patients with infectious diseases. So they used 3-foot squares of red duct tape to indicate where precisely that zone was located. As explained in a news release from the Assn. for Professional in Infection Control and...

Study Shows Toddlers With Autism Have Abnormal Synchronization in Brain’s Communication Area June 22, 2011 — A brain that is out of sync may be an early clue of autism, researchers suggest. Toddlers with autism are more likely to have abnormal synchronization between certain brain areas than other kids the same age, even those with language delays, according to a new study. ”There seems to be impaired or reduced synchronization between the right and left hemispheres, specifically the areas involved in language and communication,” says researcher Ilan Dinstein, PhD, a postdoctoral...

Gray hair is, along with premature balding, one of the greatest fears of image-conscious men and women everywhere, but it may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at the Ito Lab at New York University’s Langone Medical Center have identified the proteins that cause gray hair, which could lead to an eventual cure. Scientists have known for years that hair color is determined by the stem cells that guide the development of hair follicles working together with color-producing stem cells called melanocytes. Today, NYU researchers announced they had isolated the wnt protein, which serves to...

PEOPLE will be able to see how their local NHS hospital is performing after the launch of a new online tool. The user-friendly “infographic” tool gives people the chance to see how their hospital stands against others on key aspects of care including A&E waiting times, referral to treatment for inpatient and outpatient procedures and treatment times for urgent cancer referrals. NHS North East will publish the performance data every quarter in line with the Government priorities to give people information, choice and control over their healthcare. It means residents will be able to see...