Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue, such as muscle. Biomedical scientists and physicians who specialize in neurology are called neurologists, and are trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat, neurological disorders.
Low vitamin B12 levels may lead to brain shrinkage, cognitive problems – Older people with low blood levels of vitamin B12 markers may be more likely to have lower brain volumes and have problems with their thinking skills, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center.
Diabetes may significantly increase your risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease – People with diabetes appear to be at a significantly increased risk of developing dementia, revealed by researchers in a recent study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Benefit of MS drugs comes at a very high price for a common man in US – Multiple sclerosis drugs used to slow down the multiple sclerosis progression may help some patients, but at a very high cost. These disease modifying drugs ? come at a very high cost when compared to therapies that address the symptoms of MS and treatments for other chronic diseases.
Parkinson’s patients sing in tune with creative arts therapy – Twice a month a jam session takes place on the third floor of Northwestern Memorial’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. A diverse group of men and women, ranging in age and ethnicity, gather in a circle with instruments in hand and sing together. This is no ordinary jam band; all its members have Parkinson’s disease. They are participating in Creative Arts for Parkinson’s, a music and drama therapy program offered through Northwestern’s Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center.
Blast-related injuries detected in the brains of US military personnel – An advanced imaging technique has revealed that some U.S. military personnel with mild blast-related traumatic brain injuries have abnormalities in the brain that have not been seen with other types of imaging. The abnormalities were found in the brain’s white matter, the wiring system that nerve cells in the brain use to communicate with each other.
Can stress increase the risk of multiple sclerosis? – Contrary to earlier reports, a new study finds that stress does not appear to increase a person’s risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). The research is published in the May_31, 2011, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
High risk of Parkinson’s disease for people exposed to pesticides near workplace — Study first to implicate pesticide ziram as possible cause for disease – In April 2009, researchers at UCLA announced they had discovered a link between Parkinson’s disease and two chemicals commonly sprayed on crops to fight pests. That epidemiological study didn’t examine farmers who constantly work with pesticides but people who simply lived near where farm fields were sprayed with the fungicide maneb and the herbicide paraquat.
Low vitamin D levels seen as multiple sclerosis risk for African-Americans, UCSF study finds – Vitamin D levels in the blood are lower in African Americans who have the disease, compared to African Americans who do not, revealed by researchers exploring the connection between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis in African Americans.
Autism changes molecular structure of the brain, UCLA study finds — Discovery points to a common cause for multifaceted disease – A new UCLA study is the first to reveal how the autism disorder makes its mark at the molecular level, resulting in an autistic brain that differs dramatically in structure from a healthy one.
Study: Memory problems often not present in middle-aged people with Alzheimer’s disease – A new study suggests more than half of people who develop Alzheimer’s disease before the age of 60 are initially misdiagnosed as having other kinds of brain disease when they do not have memory problems.
What decides neural stem cell fate? — A gene called SOX2 acts as a stem cell gatekeeper — only cells expressing it have the potential to become neurons – Early in embryonic development, the neural crest ? a transient group of stem cells ? gives rise to parts of the nervous system and several other tissues. But little is known about what determines which cells become neurons and which become other cell types.
Night owls at risk for weight gain and bad diet — People who go to bed late and sleep late eat more fast food and weigh more – Staying up late every night and sleeping in is a habit that could put you at risk for gaining weight. People who go to bed late and sleep late eat more calories in the evening, more fast food, fewer fruits and vegetables and weigh more than people who go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier.
