February 08, 2010
Childhood obesity: It's not the amount of TV, it's the number of junk food commercials
The association between television viewing and childhood obesity is directly related to children's exposure to commercials that advertise unhealthy foods, according to a new UCLA School of Public Health study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The study, conducted by Frederick J. Zimmerman and Janice F. Bell, is the first to break down the types of television
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February 08, 2010
Researchers reveal 3-D structure of bullet-shaped virus with potential to fight cancer, HIV
Vesicular stomatitis virus, or VSV, has long been a model system for studying and understanding the life cycle of negative-strand RNA viruses, which include viruses that cause influenza, measles and rabies.
More importantly, research has shown that VSV has the potential to be genetically modified to serve as an anti-cancer agent, exercising high selectivity in killing cancer cells while
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February 04, 2010
Young inventor turns philanthropist
Cameron Cohen is shown here with his parents, Lisa and Jeffrey Cohen, who were amazed when their 11-year-old son programmed a new iPhone application and sold it to Apple Inc.
Bill Gates, the legend goes, started the empire that would one day become Microsoft in his garage. More recently, Cameron Cohen got a start on what looks to be a promising future while stuck at home in a
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February 03, 2010
High-risk populations may not accept an HIV vaccine, study finds
HIV vaccines are considered the holy grail of AIDS research. The availability of a safe and effective vaccine could prevent millions of new HIV infections. Yet the simple availability of a vaccine is not enough to ensure that it would actually be widely accessible and taken by people at risk for HIV.
Though each year sees 2.5 million new HIV cases worldwide — including 55,000 in
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February 02, 2010
Dental school provides free care to kids as part of national oral health awareness campaign
WHAT:
The UCLA School of Dentistry will offer free dental care to infants and children up to 14 years of age as part of a nationwide service event known as Give Kids a Smile. The event is celebrated each February, National Children's Dental Health Month, to raise
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February 02, 2010
UCLA brings wellness to the community
Researchers at UCLA will be introducing a new concept to the Santa Monica community this week: a neighborhood clinic designed to assist families in becoming — and staying — healthy.
The UCLA Family Commons, a new family wellness center at 1221 Second Street in Santa Monica, close to the Third Street Promenade, will celebrate its official opening on Thursday, Feb.
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February 01, 2010
Researchers find 'broad spectrum' antiviral that fights multitude of viruses
Viruses are insidious creatures. They differ from each other in many ways, and they can mutate — at times seemingly at will, as with HIV — to resist a host of weapons fired at them. Complicating matters further is that new viruses are constantly emerging.
One potential weapon is a small-molecule "broad spectrum" antiviral that will fight a host of viruses by attacking them through
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February 01, 2010
Why the mirror lies
Everyone checks themselves in the mirror now and then, but that experience can be horrifying for individuals suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, a psychiatric condition that causes them to believe, wrongly, that they appear disfigured and ugly. These people tend to fixate on minute details — every tiny blemish looms huge — rather than viewing their face as a whole.
Now researchers
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January 28, 2010
Non-invasive testing, earlier surgery can stop seizures in tuberous sclerosis complex
(Note to editors: A patient family is available for interviews.)
Anya, 2, who underwent non-invasive testing and surgery at UCLA, is now seizure-free.
When medication fails to control seizures in children with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a rare genetic disorder that affects multiple organ systems and frequently
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January 28, 2010
UCLA's Haitian Relief Efforts
1/27/10: UCLA Health System sends surgical team, medical supplies to Haiti
UCLA Operation Haiti - A team of 12 UCLA doctors and nurses will be assisting with medical relief efforts in Haiti:
Ami Ben-Artzi, MD - Rheumatology
Nicholas Bernthal, MD - Orthopaedic Surgery
Francis Cyran, MD - Orthopaedic Surgery
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January 28, 2010
Woman to meet 10 strangers who donated blood platelets to save her life
WHAT:
Due to confidentiality laws, most blood donors never know who receives their blood. Similarly, patients never learn the identities of the people who donated their time and blood to save their lives. On Friday, that's all about to change. For the first time, a UCLA cancer patient will meet a group of longtime blood-platelet donors who sustained her life with their generous donations.
WHO:
Alta
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January 27, 2010
Improved air quality linked to fewer pediatric ear infections
A new study by researchers at UCLA and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston suggests that improvements in air quality over the past decade have resulted in fewer cases of ear infections in children.
Ear infections are one of the most common illnesses among children, with annual direct and indirect costs of $3 billion to $5 billion in the United States.
"We believe these findings,
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January 27, 2010
UCLA researchers image earliest signs of Alzheimer's, before symptoms appear
Estimates are that some 10 percent of people over the age of 65 will develop Alzheimer's disease, the scourge that robs people of their memories and, ultimately, their lives.
While researchers race to find both the cause and the cure, others are moving just as fast to find the earliest signs that will predict an eventual onset of the disease, well before any outward symptoms. The reason
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January 22, 2010
Study predicts HIV drug resistance will surge
New research based on a novel mathematical model predicts that a wave of drug-resistant HIV strains will emerge in San Francisco within the next five years. These strains could prove disastrous by hindering control of the HIV pandemic.
In a study published Jan. 14 on the website of the journal Science, researchers from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA
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January 21, 2010
Common heart medications may also protect against Parkinson's disease, study finds
UCLA researchers have discovered that a specific type of medication used to treat cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension, angina and abnormal heart rhythms may also decrease the risk of developing Parkinson's disease.
In the first large-scale population-based study of its kind, Dr. Beate Ritz, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health, in collaboration with
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January 21, 2010
Dr. A. Eugene Washington to lead UCLA Health Sciences
Photo by Elisabeth Fall
Dr. A. Eugene Washington, an internationally renowned clinical investigator and health policy scholar whose wide-ranging research has been instrumental in shaping national health policy and practice guidelines, will join UCLA Feb. 1 as vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine. Washington said he
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January 21, 2010
Event looks at integrating complementary and alternative approaches with Western medicine
WHAT:
Millions of Americans use alternative and complementary therapies to meet their health needs. A unique UCLA conference will address the benefits and, given current health reform efforts, the timeliness of integrating traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine. Tai chi chih, acupressure, Chinese herbal medicine and more will be discussed. The event is sponsored by the UCLA Collaborative
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January 21, 2010
Have a Heart Healthy Valentine's Day: Gift, Food and Activity Ideas
Celebrate with a Loved One, Friends or a Pet
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women nationwide so keep heart healthy foods, gifts and activities in mind this Valentine's Day.
"There are lots of delicious and heart healthy foods that can be part of a special Valentine's Day meal or treat," said Susan Bowerman, M.S., R.D., assistant director of the UCLA Center for Human
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January 20, 2010
Med students say conventional medicine would benefit by integrating alternative therapies
In the largest national survey of its kind, researchers from UCLA and the University of California, San Diego, measured medical students' attitudes and beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and found that three-quarters of them felt conventional Western medicine would benefit by integrating more CAM therapies and ideas.
The findings appear Jan.
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January 15, 2010
UCLA Assistant Professor Receives Prestigious Grant Award
Heather Christofk, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Institute for Molecular Medicine at UCLA, has received a 2010 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation to study how glucose metabolism is altered in cancer, which leads to tumor growth.
The prestigious award includes a $450,000 grant over three years and is given to early-career scientists whose novel
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