- FRIDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) — Exposure to alcohol
prenatally could specifically be harmful to neurotrophins, peptides which
are involved in the growth and development of the fetal brain, a new study
shows.

Post-natal environment may temper some of that damage, but not all of
it, the researchers added.

“Neurotrophins are produced in the nervous system and are critical [...]

- FRIDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) — Of the more than 1 million
Americans who join Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), almost all drink coffee and
close to 60 percent smoke, Vanderbilt University researchers report.

Most recovering alcoholics drink coffee for its stimulatory effects,
and smoking reduces feelings of depression, anxiety and irritability, the
researchers noted.

“Normally, coffee drinking and cigarette smoking [...]

- FRIDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) — How do infants and mothers
bond, biologically speaking?

Researchers have discovered that babies nursing at their mother's
breast set off a cascade of events leading to release of oxytocin, known
as the “trust” hormone in their mother's brains.

Recent research has found oxytocin to be involved in trust and love [...]

- FRIDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) — Infants who are predominantly
breast-fed for the first six months of life are less likely to have
gastrointestinal problems. But, they're more likely to be deficient in
iron, and therefore at risk of anemia, according to a study that looked at
154 mothers and their babies in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“We are verifying [...]

- FRIDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) — Researchers say they have
grown in mice the kind of functioning heart blood vessels that cardiac
surgeons create with bypass operations.

One ultimate goal is to replace some heart surgery with injections of
laboratory-grown cells that would establish themselves in the body,
providing a system of blood vessels for damaged hearts that [...]

A volunteer health worker retrieves blood sample for an HIV-AIDS detection test on a patient. A Cameroonian poet and activist living in Poland as a refugee since 1999 went on trial Friday in Warsaw charged with having “knowingly infected” 11 women with the HIV virus, his lawyer said.(AFP/Kambou Sia)

WARSAW (AFP) -
A Cameroonian poet and activist [...]

A bartender serves drinks. Blame the DJ: loud bar music makes people drink more and drink faster, a study released Friday has found.(AFP/File/Thomas Grabka)

CHICAGO (AFP) -
Blame the DJ: loud bar music makes people drink more and drink faster, a study released Friday has found.
“Previous research had shown that fast music can cause fast drinking, and [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Giving newborns a small dose of
a sucrose (sugar) solution seems to ease pain associated with
having blood taken (venipuncture) for the standard newborn
screening test but it does little to curb pain associated with
intramuscular injections or heel lances, results of a study
suggest.

Oral sucrose is widely used to manage pain associated with
certain standard [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Long-term users of so-called
tricyclic antidepressants are at increased risk of non-Hodgkin
lymphoma (NHL), new research confirms.

“We previously reported an increased incidence of NHL among
long-term users of tricyclic antidepressant medication in a
population-based cohort of more than 30,000 users of
antidepressant medications,” Dr. Susanne Oksbjerg Dalton, of
the Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, and colleagues point
out.

[...]

A woman rides the back of a motorcycle in the middle of a heavy traffic jam. Obesity continued to creep up in the United States last year and now affects more than one in four US adults, a US government report showed Friday.(AFP/File/Bay Ismoyo)

WASHINGTON (AFP) -
Obesity continued to creep up in the United States last [...]