VitalityHouse Health Articles

Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 2006

November 30, 2006 on 2:07 pm | In Brain Injury News | Comments Off New Jersey State lawmakers have introduced two bills memorializing Congress and the President to enact the "Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 2006."

Concussions Are Serious Injuries

November 28, 2006 on 6:55 pm | In Brain Injury News | Comments Off Phil Hossler, a member of the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey's Sports Concussion Committee, wrote "Concussions Are Very Serious Injuries" for the Home News Tribune.

Brazilian woman claims puppies were born to cat

November 23, 2006 on 3:24 pm | In Strange but True, Interesting Health News | Comments Off

In Passo, Fundo Brazil geneticist Adil Pacheco took blood samples last Friday from three puppies in a poor neighborhood in in southern Brazil to settle a dispute over a claim they were born from a cat.

“It’s rather simple really. If the puppies prove to have 78 chromosomes, they are dogs. If they have 38, they are cats,” said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo.

“But I seriously doubt they are feline. Every characteristic about them is canine.”  This is probably a hoax because there is no documented cases of dog and cats being able to mate successfully.

BIA-NJ Retreat

November 22, 2006 on 1:50 pm | In Brain Injury News | Comments Off I just spent two days with my fellow board of trustees of the Brain Injury Association - New Jersey at this year’s BIANJ retreat. The two days were spent reviewing, revising and updating our vision and mission statements so that BIANJ can continue to serve its members.

Exciting news on Cancer treatment

November 22, 2006 on 3:24 am | In Interesting Health News, Important Health News | Comments Off

Stem cells may be responsible for tumors, according to two separate studies published on Sunday.

Canadian and Italian researchers both found that specialized colon cancer stem cells appeared to be the sources of colon cancer tumors in mice.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature, support the idea that future cancer treatments will have to target cancer stem cells, instead of the type of wide array treatments used today.

Similar findings have been seen for leukemia, breast and brain cancers, but the two studies are the first to show cancer stem cells are also responsible for colon tumors.

“Colon cancer is one of the best-understood neoplasms (tumors) from a genetic perspective, yet it remains the second most common cause of cancer-related death (in Canada), indicating that some of its cancer cells are not eradicated by current therapies,”

“These new studies demonstrate that a small number of colon cancer cells, distinct from those that make up the bulk of a tumor, initiate tumor growth,” Nature said in a statement.

It may be possible to design drugs that attack only those cells, and thus treat colon cancer in a way that better affects the tumors without hurting healthy cells, the researchers said.