Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine have identified epigenetic protein changes caused by binge drinking, a discovery that could lead to treatments for alcohol-related liver diseases.
Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have found that drinking alcohol to fall asleep interferes with sleep homeostasis, the body’s sleep-regulating mechanism.
Currently, doctors have to throw away more than 80 percent of donated tissue used for joint replacements because the tissue does not survive long enough to be transplanted. Now, following a recent study, University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers have developed a new technology that more than doubles the life of the tissue. This new technology was able to preserve tissue quality at the required level in all of the donated tissues studied, the researchers found.
A team of University of Missouri researchers has discovered that another nutrient in garlic offers the brain protection against aging and disease. The finding provides more understanding of how garlic may prevent age-related neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Nearly 40 percent of Americans 60 and older are living with a swallowing disorder known as dysphagia. Although it is a major health problem associated with aging, it is unknown whether the condition is a natural part of healthy aging or if it is caused by an age-related disease that has yet to be diagnosed, such as Parkinson’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Following a recent study, researchers at the University of Missouri have established a model that identifies aging as a key factor in the development of dysphagia, which may lead to new therapeutic treatments.
Medications have long been used to treat pain caused by injury or chronic conditions. Unfortunately, most are short-term fixes or cause side effects that limit their use. Researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered a new compound that offers longer lasting painkilling effects, and shows promise as an alternative to current anesthetics.
Nearly 70,000 people worldwide are living with cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease. There currently is no cure for the condition, but researchers from the University of Missouri have identified a key component in the protein that causes the disease. It is a finding that may lay the foundation for the development of new medications and improved therapies.
When older adults transfer between nursing homes and hospitals, inefficient and unclear communication between the organizations can hinder patient care. Now, a team of MU researchers is working to improve patients’ health outcomes by increasing efficient, secure communication between nursing homes and hospitals using an electronic communication system called a health information exchange (HIE).
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is the retrovirus that leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS. Globally, about 35 million people are living with HIV, which constantly adapts and mutates creating challenges for researchers. Now, scientists at the University of Missouri are gaining a clearer idea of what a key protein in HIV looks like, which will help explain its vital role in the virus’ life cycle. Armed with this clearer image of the protein, researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how the body can combat the virus with the ultimate aim of producing new and more effective antiviral drugs.
As advances in medicine allow individuals to live longer, people are facing unique age-related health challenges. As they age, organs such as the kidneys become more susceptible to injury, and their ability to self-repair is decreased. Researchers from the University of Missouri have found a cellular signal that causes kidney cells to die, making the kidneys prone to injury. This finding could lead to improved kidney function in the elderly.
For most genetic scientists, the lack of access to computer servers and programs can hinder genetic advancements. Now, a group of scientists at the University of Missouri has introduced a game changer in the world of biological research. The online, free service, RNAMiner, has been developed to handle large data sets which could lead to faster medical results.
Approximately 28 million Americans live with Type 2 diabetes, a condition characterized by high blood sugar levels. Until now, the disease’s effect on the body’s lymphatic vessels has been unknown. A study by University of Missouri researchers has identified for the first time how the condition affects lymphatic vessels — a finding that could lay the groundwork for new therapies to improve the lives of people with Type 2 diabetes.
University of Missouri researchers have found that certain types of weight-lifting and jumping exercises, when completed for at least six months, improve bone density in active, healthy, middle-aged men with low bone mass. These exercises may help prevent osteoporosis by facilitating bone growth, according to the study published in Bone.
University of Missouri Health Care has been recognized for the fifth consecutive year as one of the nation’s “Most Wired” health systems, according to the 2015 Most Wired Survey. The survey was released in the July issue of the American Hospital Association’s “Hospitals & Health Networks” magazine.
University of Missouri Health Care’s University Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology’s ACTION Registry–Get with the Guidelines (GWTG) Silver Performance Achievement Award for 2015. University Hospital is one of only 91 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor for high performance in caring for heart attack patients. The Silver Performance Achievement Award recognizes hospitals that have sustained performance measure score composites of 90 percent or better in the treatment of heart attack over a 12-month period.
Physicians receive lots of information about patients in a short amount of time, and sometimes that information is scattered, disorganized or difficult to comprehend. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri School of Medicine has received funding to develop a simpler and clearer system to display blood pressure information.
In keeping with its mission of improving the health of all people, especially Missourians, University of Missouri Health Care has named Michael LeFevre, MD, medical director of population health.
Although the causes of many age-related diseases remain unknown, oxidative stress is thought to be the main culprit. Oxidative stress has been linked to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases including diabetes, hypertension and age-related cancers. However, researchers at the University of Missouri recently found that aging actually offered significant protection against oxidative stress. These findings suggest that aging may trigger an adaptive response to counteract the effects of oxidative stress on blood vessels.
When compared with other ethnicities, Asians are the most unsatisfied with the health care they received in the United States, previous research has shown. This dissatisfaction with health care partly is caused by health practices in the U.S. clashing with the practices Asian patients and families may be more used to experiencing overseas. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that health care providers perceive South Asians living in the U.S. to be more reluctant than other ethnicities to report pain as well as seek medications to treat the pain they experience near the end of their lives. Researchers say this finding provides an opportunity for health care professionals to deliver better culturally responsive care to South Asian patients and their families.
University of Missouri Women’s and Children’s Hospital has become the fourth hospital in Missouri to earn the Baby-Friendly designation from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). MU Women’s and Children’s Hospital joins Fitzgibbons Hospital in Marshall, Hannibal Regional Hospital in Hannibal and Truman Medical Center in Kansas City.
Public health agencies across the globe are challenged with preventing the spread of chronic diseases while dealing with limited funds and devastating budget cuts. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has applied the Public Health Index (PHI) model, a tool he designed that has been adopted by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, to help the Brazilian government identify and prioritize health risks affecting its population. Researcher Eduardo Simoes says if more public health agencies adopted this tool to identify top health risks associated with chronic diseases among their specific populations, limited funding for prevention efforts could be proportionately allocated.
University of Missouri researchers have found college football players are more likely to experience injuries during test weeks than during training camp. The effects of academic stress on injury occurrences are even more pronounced among starting players, the researchers found.
Research on alcohol-use disorders consistently shows problem drinking decreases as we age. Now, researchers collaborating between the University of Missouri and Arizona State University have found evidence that marriage can cause dramatic drinking reductions even among people with severe drinking problems. Scientists believe findings could help improve clinical efforts to help these people, inform public health policy changes and lead to more targeted interventions for young adult problem drinkers.
Researchers found stepchildren’s views of former stepparents depended on emotional reactions to the divorce, patterns of support or resource exchanges, and parental encouragement or discouragement to continue step-relationships. Whether stepchildren maintained relationships with their former stepparents largely depended on whether stepchildren viewed their former stepparents as family, the researchers found.
Approximately 16 million American adults are affected by depression. However, many patients see a psychiatrist only once every two to three months. Recognizing that patients often forget how their moods vary between visits, a team from the University of Missouri, Missouri University of Science and Technology and the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation has developed a smartphone application that lets users log their moods and symptoms and share that data with their psychiatrists.
Approximately 60 percent of young people habitually skip breakfast up to four times a week, previous research has shown. Although health experts recommend breakfast as a strategy to reduce an individual’s chance of obesity, little research has examined if the actual type of breakfast consumed plays a significant role in one’s health and weight management. University of Missouri researchers compared the benefits of consuming a normal-protein breakfast to a high-protein breakfast and found the high-protein breakfast – which contained 35 grams of protein – prevented gains of body fat, reduced daily food intake and feelings of hunger, and stabilized glucose levels among overweight teens who would normally skip breakfast.
Health care providers from University Hospital’s Frank L. Mitchell Jr., MD, Trauma Center will attend this year’s Missouri State Fair to raise awareness of traumatic injury prevention.
Few things are more stressful than dealing with a sick child. From discussing treatment with a pediatrician to complying with day care policies, a parent must consider many factors when making a decision about their child’s health. Now, a recent study from the University of Missouri and the University of Michigan is shedding light on the significant divide that can exist between patients and physicians about the same terminology—especially when it comes to discussing “pink eye,” a particular flashpoint in childcare.
Previous studies have shown that diabetes adversely affects breathing and respiratory function. However, in the past, researchers have not differentiated diaphragm muscle cells and the muscle cells of limb skeletal muscle in their studies. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri have found that diaphragm muscle cells and other skeletal muscle cells behave differently—a finding that could influence future research on respiratory ailments associated with diabetes.
Patrice “Patrick” Delafontaine, MD, dean of the University of Missouri School of Medicine, announced that Talissa Ann Altes, MD, vice chair of clinical research and associate professor of radiology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has been named chair of the Department of Radiology in the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
More than 15 million Americans live within one mile of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) operations that combine directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to release natural gas from underground rock. Scientific studies still are inconclusive on the potential long-term effects on human development. Now, Susan C. Nagel and Christopher D. Kassotis, researchers with the University of Missouri, and national colleagues have conducted a review of research on health effects associated with UOG operations and concluded these activities have potential for environmental release of a complex mixture of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that could potentially harm human development and reproduction.
When physicians prepare for patient visits, one of their first steps is to review clinic notes or health records that recap their patients’ medical history. Since the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, approximately 78 percent of office-based physicians have adopted electronic health records (EHR). However, previous research found only 38 percent of physicians were highly satisfied with the system, and many believe the way a patient’s health information is displayed in EHRs reduces the efficiency and productivity of patient care. Now, in a new study, University of Missouri researchers say it is time to redesign EHR documentation tools to better meet the needs of physicians in order to deliver the best care to patients.
Dr. Kristin Sohl, a pediatrician at the University of Missouri Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, will expand the growing ECHO Autism program, which launched in March, to an additional 10 sites. Sohl's ECHO Autism project will be the centerpiece of a recent grant renewal through the federal Health Services Research Administration's Autism Intervention for Physical Health initiative. The $15 million award is shared among 14 autism centers in North America.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are not completely understood neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed solely on the basis of behavioral assessments of social, communicative and repetitive symptoms. Though behaviorally distinctive and reliably identified by experienced clinicians, ASD is clinically and genetically extremely diverse, affecting each patient differently. Efforts to identify subsets of patients with similar outcomes and chances of recurrence has been difficult, said Judith Miles, M.D., P.h.D., a University of Missouri child health physician and researcher specializing in medical genetics, in an invited editorial published Sept.1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
With the world’s elderly population expected to double by 2050, understanding how aging affects the body is an important focus for researchers globally. Cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 cause of death worldwide, often is associated with aging arteries that restrict blood flow. Now, University of Missouri researchers have identified an age-related cause of arterial dysfunction, a finding that could lead to future treatments for some forms of vascular disease.
University of Missouri researchers have found that luteolin, a natural compound found in herbs such as thyme and parsley as well as vegetables such as celery and broccoli, could reduce the cancer risk for women who have taken hormone replacement therapy.
A University of Missouri study suggests that female mice exposed to environmental chemicals may cause decreases in their daughter’s metabolism and the amount of exercise they engage in later in life.
Individuals who blame karma for their poor health have more pain and worse physical and mental health, according to a new study from University of Missouri researchers. Targeted interventions to counteract negative spiritual beliefs could help some individuals decrease pain and improve their overall health, the researchers said.
There is little doubt that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, is devastating. More than 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV and more than 47,000 people are diagnosed annually. Now, University of Missouri researchers have made a discovery in how specialized proteins can inhibit the virus, opening the door for progress in the fight against HIV and for the production of advanced therapeutics to combat the disease.
Across the country, many employees are seated at desks for the majority of an eight-hour workday. As technology creates an increase in sedentary lifestyles, the impact of sitting on vascular health is a rising concern. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have found that when a person sits for six straight hours, vascular function is impaired — but by walking for just 10 minutes after a prolonged period of sitting, vascular health can be restored.
Developmental psychologists long have debated whether individuals volunteer and help others because they are sympathetic or whether they are sympathetic because they are prosocial. Now, new research from the University of Missouri helps clarify some of the confusion, which could lead to better interventions to promote positive behaviors in adolescents and clues as to what makes some individuals altruistic.
Premature infants have heightened risks of deadly diseases because their organs and immune systems are not fully developed. Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a major gastrointestinal disease that causes the intestines to die, is a leading cause of death among these infants and is the most the common disease for babies born before 32 weeks. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that the early and persistent presence of white blood cells during NEC, known as blood eosinophilia, is a predictor of life-threatening complications for preemies.
The Latino culture, more than others, places a high value on the family unit; yet, little research has examined the dynamics of Latino family relationships and how those dynamics affect children’s development. Now, a University of Missouri researcher found sibling relationship quality in adolescence affects Mexican-origin adolescents’ and young adults’ later depressive symptoms and their involvement in risky behaviors, including those with sexual risk.
University of Missouri Health Care has received the global HIMSS Enterprise Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence for health care technology innovations that are improving patient outcomes.
More than one-third of children in the United States ages 6 to 19 years old are overweight or obese. Over the past 30 years, the number of obese adolescents has more than quadrupled, which also has led to an increase in children diagnosed with diabetes. To combat this trend, Aneesh Tosh, M.D., adolescent medicine physician at University of Missouri Health Care and associate professor of clinical child health at the MU School of Medicine, recommends that sugary drinks be removed from adolescents’ diets.
As a growing population of older adults begins transitioning to assisted living or home health care, more attention has focused on improving the adults’ quality of care while keeping costs low. New research from the University of Missouri suggests adding social workers and social work students, who are supervised by a field instructor, to the care team may be one solution.
While there is vast research on shared decision-making between patients and providers, little research exists on how providers and family caregivers reach mutual decisions — a dynamic that is prominent in hospice care, a type of medical care given to patients near the end of their lives. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that shared decision-making, although beneficial, could be enhanced in hospice care. The researchers recommend that health care workers employ measures such as video conferencing to help increase the likelihood of shared decision-making between patients and family caregivers.
Flu season is fast approaching, but because of the nature of the virus, it is difficult for experts to determine when the season will peak and how severe and long it will be. Though flu seasons are unpredictable, experts agree that early vaccinations are the best way to limit the spread of influenza and other respiratory infections.
Lung cancer, the most common form, causes more deaths than breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined. Now, University of Missouri researchers have developed a new scoring system for a common lung cancer diagnostic test that may help physicians better understand the risk for malignancy when evaluating patients.
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