Studies and Analyses

When we want to go, why can we “wait”? In other words, when we sense that a bowel movement will be necessary, the body has the ability to defer that action until an appropriate time. A new research study examines this issue and the findings could have beneficial implications for those patients with fecal incontinence resulting from a cerebrovascular accident and injuries to the frontal lobe.

Background

Voluntary control of the external anal sphincter (EAS) plays an essentia

Just how much water does each of us really need? Not to swim in, or diet with. Not to respond to marketing claims, or counter salty foods or to cope with dry environments.

Many swear by the advice that for proper body hydration, 64 oz of water should be consumed each day. Other scientists and researchers disagree with that long held belief, recommending that one should only consume water “when thirsty.”

Why should we be concerned? For one, water shortages may be the next great cri

New research shows evidence that prescribed antepartum bed rest may result in babies that are smaller than normal as well as other problems.

A study published in the latest issue of BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH FOR NURSING reports that prescribed bed rest during pregnancy may cause a myriad of problems for mothers as well as babies with lower than normal birth weights. This news is alarming considering antepartum bed rest is prescribed for more than 700,000 pregnant women in the United States

Plant sterols — recognized for their cholesterol-lowering power when added to margarines, salad dressings and other fats — are just as effective in reducing low-density lipoprotein, or “bad” cholesterol” levels, when added to orange juice, say researchers at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center.

The results, based on a 10-week study of 72 healthy volunteers with mildly elevated cholesterol levels, are published in the March 8 issue of the American Heart Association’s journa

New evidence in animals suggests that theories about how the brain processes sight, sound and touch may need updating. Researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues report their findings in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using electrodes smaller than a human hair, researchers from Wake Forest Baptist and the University of California at San Francisco recorded individual cell activity in the brains of 31 adult rats. Th

New studies are the first to document changes induced by placebo in the brain’s pain pathways

Researchers have produced the strongest evidence yet that placebo–or the mere expectation of relief, with no real treatment–causes physical changes in how the brain responds to pain. Their report appears in the Feb. 20 issue of Science.

In two related studies at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System, University of Michigan and Princeton University, researcher