Archives for December 2009

The Best of Highlight HEALTH 2009 – The Year in Review

December 31, 2009 | by

Three years and going strong!

This month, Highlight HEALTH celebrates its third year promoting advances in biomedical research to encourage health literacy. We’re also excited to introduce the NIH Newsbot, which will help us to keep you up-to-date with the latest research news from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

newyear

The Highlight HEALTH Network consists of three web sites:

Each of these sites has a different purpose. Here at Highlight HEALTH, we focus on evidence-based biomedical research to educate readers and empower patients (if you’re interested in contributing, please let us know). Highlight HEALTH 2.0, a group effort, follows the use of Web 2.0 in health and medicine. Lastly, the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory is an online reference guide for reliable health and medical information.

There are a number of ways to connect with the Highlight HEALTH Network, including email or RSS feed, Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. If you have an internet-enabled cell phone, Highlight HEALTH can also be accessed via the mobile web.

Most popular articles for 2009

We’ve calculated the most popular articles for 2009 using two measures, either by the highest number of page views for the year (shown in red) or by the average number of page views (shown in white and calculated as the number of page views/number of days posted).

2009-highlight-health-end-of-year-graph

Top 10 articles by page view

  1. Lack of Sleep Increases Susceptibility to the Common Cold
    (article #4; 10,679 page views)
  2. H1N1 Vaccine Study Summaries: Single Dose Provides Protection
    (article #42; 10,232 page views)
  3. Lifetime Immunity From the Flu
    (article #10; 8,611 page views)
  4. Brain Toniq Review: The Science Behind the Think Drink
    (article #17; 8,458 page views)
  5. What You Need to Know About the H1N1 Vaccine
    (article #47; 8,053 page views)
  6. Cancer Research Blog Carnival #21 – National Cancer Research Month
    (article #21; 8,036 page views)
  7. Clearing Up Concerns Over Vicks VapoRub
    (article #6; 7,914 page views)
  8. New Genes Associated with Blood Pressure and Hypertension
    (article #25; 7,638 page views)
  9. Read Highlight HEALTH In Your Inbox
    (article #3; 7,384 page views)

Top 20 articles by average page views/day

  1. H1N1 Vaccine Study Summaries: Single Dose Provides Protection
    (article #42; average: 96 page views/day)
  2. What You Need to Know About the H1N1 Vaccine
    (article #47; average: 88 page views/day)
  3. Finding Credible Health Information Online: MedLibs Round 1.8
    (article #54; average: 55 page views/day)
  4. Chromosome Telomeres and the Nobel Prize for Medicine
    (article #48; average: 54 page views/day)
  5. Details of Critically Ill Patients with H1N1 in Mexico and Canada
    (article #50; average: 53 page views/day)
  6. Rehabilitation at Home Just as Good as Day Hospital Care
    (article #43; average: 47 page views/day)
  7. Medpedia Now Includes News & Analysis, Alerts, Q&A
    (article #58; average: 42 page views/day)
  8. Safety and Distribution of the H1N1 Influenza Vaccine
    (article #53; average: 42 page views/day)
  9. Book Review: The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    (article #49; average: 41 page views/day)
  10. Health Highlights – October 30th, 2009
    (article #51; average: 37 page views/day)
  11. The Review Is In: Lifestyle Changes Prevent Breast Cancer
    (article #46; average: 36 page views/day)
  12. Physician Failure to Report Abnormal Test Results to Patients
    (article #32; average: 36 page views/day)
  13. New Genes Associated with Blood Pressure and Hypertension
    (article #25; average: 35 page views/day)
  14. Metabolic Discoveries Hidden In Our Genomes
    (article #39; average: 35 page views/day)
  15. The Spectrum Health Value Study: Insured vs. Uninsured
    (article #36; average: 33 page views/day)
  16. Cancer Research Blog Carnival #21 – National Cancer Research Month
    (article #21; average: 33 page views/day)
  17. Need For Less Sleep Associated with Gene Mutation
    (article #40; average: 33 page views/day)
  18. NIH to Hold Conference on Family History
    (article #38; average: 33 page views/day)
  19. Medpedia: Reliable Crowdsourcing of Health and Medical Information
    (article #34; average: 32 page views/day)
  20. Brain Toniq Review: The Science Behind the Think Drink
    (article #17; average: 32 page views/day)

Thanks for reading and Best of Health in the coming year!

Small Changes in Protein Chemistry Play Large Role in Huntington’s Disease

December 24, 2009 | by

In Huntington’s disease, a mutated protein in the body becomes toxic to brain cells. Recent studies have demonstrated that a small region adjacent to the mutated segment plays a major role in the toxicity. Two new studies supported by the National Institutes of Health show that very slight changes to this region can eliminate signs of Huntington’s disease in mice.

Survival of Children with HIV in the United States Has Improved Dramatically Since 1990s, New Analysis Shows

December 18, 2009 | by

The death rates of children with HIV have decreased ninefold since doctors started prescribing cocktails of antiretroviral drugs in the mid-1990s, concludes a large-scale study of the long-term outcomes of children and adolescents with HIV in the United States. In spite of this improvement, however, young people with HIV continue to die at 30 times the rate of youth of similar age who do not have HIV, found researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Drug for Multiple Myeloma Demonstrated to Significantly Extend Disease-Free Survival

December 18, 2009 | by

Initial results from a large, randomized clinical trial for patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, showed that patients who received the oral drug lenalidomide (Revlimid, also known as CC-5013) following a blood stem cell transplant had their cancer kept in check longer than patients who received a placebo. The clinical trial, for patients ages 18 to 70, was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and conducted by a network of researchers led by the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) in collaboration with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN). The BMT CTN is co-sponsored by NCI and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, both parts of the National Institutes of Health.

Gene Linked to a Rare Form of Progressive Hearing Loss in Males is Identified

December 17, 2009 | by

A gene associated with a rare form of progressive deafness in males has been identified by an international team of researchers funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. The gene, PRPS1, appears to be crucial in inner ear development and maintenance. The findings are published in the December 17 early online issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics [1].

Boy hearing