Sensory stimuli improves brain damage in mouse models of preterm birth

A research conducted by the INc-UAB shows that the same perinatal brain injury caused by hypoxia and ischemia have differentiated effects on each gender, but can be improved through tactile and proprioceptive stimuli. Petting and massaging the mice in the first stages of their life provided neurological protection in their adult life, especially in male mice in which the injury was reduced by half. Perinatal brain injuries hinder neurological capabilities throughout life, causing anything from fine motor problems to severe cognitive limitations. At the same time, therapy treatments currently available…

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Eva Longoria Is Adding Intense Weight Training to Her Post-Pregnancy Workouts

Five months after giving birth, Eva Longoria is upping her workout routine. The actress told Us magazine that she’s adding hard-core weight training into her routine to work toward new fitness goals. Longoria revealed that while she still loves yoga, she’s starting “very serious weight training” to meet her current weight-loss and muscle-toning goals. She notes that she’s gradually worked her way up to weight training to recover from pregnancy. “I really gave my body time to adjust to postpartum and post-pregnancy,” she said. “You know, it had a baby! It created a human life,…

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Protein released from fat after exercise improves glucose

It’s well-known that exercise improves health, but understanding how it makes you healthier on a molecular level is the question researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center are answering. After performing experiments in both humans and mice, the researchers found that exercise training causes dramatic changes to fat. Additionally, they discovered that this “trained” fat releases factors into the bloodstream that can have positive effects on health. The study was published online February 11, 2019, in Nature Metabolism. It’s known that fat cells secrete proteins called adipokines, and that many adipokines increase with…

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Cutting the legs off cancer

Melanoma skin cancer tumors grow larger and are more likely to metastasize due to interactions between a pair of molecules, according to experiments in mice and human cells. The results may restore the potential for a type of cancer therapy previously abandoned in clinical trials. The results also implicate one molecule already connected to obesity and dementia as a potential cause of metastasis, or spread of cancer cells to other areas of the body. Melanoma accounts for about 1 percent of skin cancers, but causes a large majority of skin…

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