News

For people suffering from foot pain, standing for even a short amount of time may be nearly impossible. People with foot fat pad atrophy (the loss of fat in the ball of the foot) may benefit from findings from a first-of-its-kind trial by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. “The fat pads in the foot act as a shock absorber when we walk, cushioning the structures around them. People with pedal fat atrophy face tremendous pain with each step they take,” said lead author of the study...

Do you use a fitness tracker to count your steps and self-report your diet and exercise? While most people assume fitness trackers help people lose weight, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found just the opposite. In a surprising new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), lead author Dr. John Jakicic of Pitt’s Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center reports that research participants who wore fitness trackers lost only 7.7...

Surviving cancer and the treatment of it is a difficult process. Even if treatment is successful, people with cancer fear that it will come back. If it does come back, patients are often left with fewer treatment options and even more difficult side effects from the treatment. But University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researchers are reporting a radiation technique that has fewer side effects than traditional treatment techniques. The study, led by Diane Ling, MD, a resident in...

Hot flashes and night sweats are common, often unpleasant, symptoms of menopause. But they can be a sign of something more for women who have them earlier in life. Women who have menopausal symptoms—particularly hot flashes and night sweats—earlier in life have a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than women who have them later in life, according to research done by Rebecca Thurston, PhD, professor of psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; associate professor of...

Children who get a concussion (or have an injury to the head) during a sports game and are kept from playing until they recover get better quicker. Michael Collins, PhD, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and clinical and executive director of the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program, recently published a study in Pediatrics, reporting that the average recovery time for sports-related concussions was twice as long for children who kept...

A stay in a hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) is a serious health event in anyone’s life, but older patients are especially at risk for a decline in overall health after they are discharged from the ICU. To avoid decline, researchers recommend that families or caregivers prepare for recovery while patients are still in the ICU through communication with health care providers as the first step in recovery. “[Families or caregivers] should ask every day, ‘What’s the plan for today?’ Try to...

Parents now have another reason to make sure their adolescents are turning off their devices and lights and getting some shut-eye. University of Pittsburgh researchers have found a possible link between adolescent sleep habits and early substance abuse. Both how long and how well you sleep during late childhood predict alcohol and cannabis use later in adolescence, according to a study published by Brant P. Hasler, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, School of Medicine, and assistant...

Primary care physicians (PCPs) are often the doctors who see patients the most and know them the best. Research shows that PCPs who screen for skin cancer during routine office visits can improve its detection—often earlier in it progression. Early detection and treatment can save lives. Read more here: http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/2016/Pages/l-ferris-asco.aspx.

The next time you see an ad for a healthy lifestyle program at work, church, or in your neighborhood, you might want to consider joining. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that participation in these programs not only helped people lose weight, increase their physical activity levels, and reduce their risk of diabetes and heart disease but also increased their health-related quality of life by an average of nearly 10 percent. Now’s your chance to take charge of your own health...

For about 1 million people in the United States with Parkinson’s disease, everyday skills like walking and talking are a challenge. A degenerative neurological disease characterized by tremor, slowness, and gait and balance difficulties, Parkinson’s is caused by the degeneration and loss of neurons in the brain, particularly those crucial for the initiation and coordination of movement. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh now understand why a protein related to the disease is so toxic...

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract. While researchers don’t know exactly what causes Crohn’s disease, a new study found that differences in genes may play a part. Researchers looked at more than 15,000 blood samples and discovered that a genetic variation in the SLC39A8 gene is associated with Crohn’s disease. Interestingly, this genetic variation is also linked with changes in a person’s gastrointestinal or “gut” microbiome. This microbiome is made...

Advances in the treatment of HIV mean that people infected with the virus are living longer. But there is still no cure.  One reason is that, when a cell in the human body is newly infected with HIV, one of the first things the virus does is to silence the host cell’s communication with the body’s immune system, preventing the cell from sending a “red alert” that it’s under attack. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and other institutions think they may have found a way to restore...

Many of us may have a loved one or someone we know who has been diagnosed with breast cancer—one of the most common cancers in women. Understanding how aggressive a cancer is helps a physician select the right kind of treatment.  However, different sections of a single tumor can be more or less aggressive than others, so results may sometimes lead a physician to underestimate the cancer’s risk. In order to ensure that doctors have the important information they need to determine the best...

Weight loss is never easy, but researchers are studying a new way to help people lose weight that doesn’t involve surgery or drugs. Instead, people swallow a pill that contains a balloon. A doctor then fills the balloon with gas or fluid. The balloon takes up space in the stomach and makes people feel full. Studies show that people using the pill-balloon system, combined with diet and exercise, are losing weight and learning new behaviors to maintain the weight loss. Read more here.