Research advances from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Research Program (IRP) often make headlines. Read the news releases that describe our most recent findings:
The act of cooking offers the chance to unwind and create something special, whether you’re planning to feed a crowd or just yourself. And while you may have noticed feeling good after whipping up that perfect pie or braise, there’s actually a lot of scientific data to suggest that cooking can have a positive impact on mental health.
One meta-analysis (a report of pre-existing research) from the National Institutes of Health looked at 11 studies and found that “cooking interventions” — encouraging people to follow certain recipes or giving people cooking classes — can improve a person’s mental well-being. It specifically found that people who participated in cooking interventions reported having better self-esteem and quality of life, as well as a more positive emotional state after the fact. Another study even discovered that baking can help raise a person’s confidence level.
Frequent measurement of blood flow changes could improve the ability of health care providers to diagnose and treat patients with vascular conditions, such as those associated with diabetes and high blood pressure. A U.S.-Chinese team that included researchers from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, both parts of the National Institutes of Health, conducted a pilot study showing that an ultrathin, skin-conforming sensor—resembling a peel-away tattoo—provides non-invasive, precise, and continuous monitoring of circulation, including blood flow within the smallest vessels.
In a study published in the Oct. 30, 2015 issue of Science Advances, the researchers showed that the sensor can measure blood flow in both large and micro-sized blood vessels near the skin’s surface. They also provided details about the design and operation of the device. The researchers assessed the sensor’s performance under various conditions, showing that the technology could be used for continuous blood-flow monitoring during daily activities and in a variety of clinical research and health care settings.
Driving under the influence of drugs is a major public safety issue, and marijuana is the illicit drug most commonly found in the blood of drivers. There is an ongoing challenge to develop valid tests of driver intoxication with appropriate legal limits for blood concentration of THC, a primary ingredient in marijuana, or its metabolites. Due to the chemical profile of THC, its concentration in the blood diminishes rapidly after smoking, but impairment does not diminish as rapidly, rendering THC concentration in blood samples collected after driving an imperfect means for the person’s level of impairment while driving.
Researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Intramural Research Program and the University of Iowa tested the blood THC concentrations of adults before, during, and after driving in the National Advanced Driving Simulator, to evaluate how changes in THC concentration may affect the interpretation of toxicology results. Results showed that even though blood THC concentrations while driving were at levels that affected driving ability, they had decreased to under commonly used impairment testing thresholds after a few hours. Consumption of alcohol, along with marijuana, did not significantly affect the blood results for marijuana.
More than 1 in 20 (nearly 3.3 million) children between the ages of 3 and 17 have a dizziness or balance problem, according to an analysis of the first large-scale, nationally representative survey of these problems in U.S. children. Prevalence increases with age, with 7.5 percent of children ages 15-17 and 6.0 percent of children ages 12-14 having any dizziness or balance problem, compared with 3.6 percent of children ages 6-8 and 4.1 percent of children ages 3-5. The research was led by investigators at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers found that girls have a higher prevalence of dizziness and balance problems compared to boys, 5.7 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively. In addition, non-Hispanic white children have an increased prevalence of dizziness and balance problems (6.1 percent) compared with Hispanic (4.6 percent) and non-Hispanic black (4.3 percent) children. The findings were published online January 27 in The Journal of Pediatrics.
Investigational Vaccine to Prevent “Breakbone Fever” Developed at NIH
A large-scale clinical trial to evaluate whether a candidate vaccine can prevent the mosquito-borne illness dengue fever has been launched in Brazil. The vaccine, TV003, was developed by scientists in the laboratory of Stephen Whitehead, Ph.D., at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The Butantan Institute, a non-profit producer of immunobiologic products for Brazil, licensed the NIAID dengue vaccine technology and is sponsoring the placebo-controlled, multi-center Phase 3 trial using test vaccine produced in Sao Paulo.
A female Aedes aegypti mosquito ingesting a blood meal. Credit: CDC
A new scientific review suggests that federal and state policies aimed at curbing inappropriate prescribing of opioids have not directly led to the recent increases in heroin use across the nation. Researchers conducting an analysis of the relationship between prescription opioid and heroin abuse found that the transition to heroin use occurred before many policies, including public education efforts, prescription drug monitoring programs, increased enforcement and regulatory actions, and abuse-deterrent formulations, were enacted.
NIH researchers suggest substituting vegetables, whole grain for potatoes
Women who eat more potatoes before pregnancy may have higher rates of gestational diabetes—the form that occurs during pregnancy—compared to women who consume fewer potatoes, suggests a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study. The researchers propose that substituting potatoes with other vegetables, legumes or whole grains may help lower gestational diabetes risk. The findings appear in The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal).
NIH study finds no reason for delaying pregnancy attempts after a loss without complications.
Couples who attempt to conceive within three months after losing an early pregnancy, defined as less than 20 weeks gestation, have the same chances, if not greater, of achieving a live birth than those who wait for three months or more, according to a National Institutes of Health study.
This finding, published today in Obstetrics & Gynecology, questions traditional advice that couples should wait at least three months after a loss before attempting a new pregnancy. The World Health Organization, for example, recommends waiting a minimum of six months between a pregnancy loss and a subsequent attempt.
Our eyes are especially demanding when it comes to energy: Along with our brain, they require a substantial amount of power to keep them functioning and healthy. Now a new study by the National Eye Institute suggests that because of their high-energy demands, our eyes function at high efficiency and with little reserve capacity, which scientists say may explain why they become vulnerable to degenerative diseases.
Better understanding of how cells in the eye become susceptible to degenerative diseases may point to biomarkers that could be used to identify people at risk, and also to develop potential therapies, said the study’s lead author, Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., chief of NEI’s Neurobiology-Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory.
NIMH researchers have boosted the staying power of a social memory at least 80-fold by stimulating a circuit they discovered in mouse brain. A male mouse that would normally forget a female mouse it had just met within an hour instead remembered it at least a week later! Researchers precisely tweaked the circuit by genetically priming it to respond to pulses of light –a cutting edge technique called optogenetics. The study is the first to enhance social memory by stimulating a specific circuit.
New Findings Inform New WHO Treatment Guidelines that Reinstate Former First-Line Therapy
New findings from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), confirm dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, the first-line treatment for Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection in Cambodia, has failed in certain provinces due to parasite resistance to artemisinin and piperaquine. Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine is an artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) for malaria that combines potent, fast-acting artemisinin with a long-acting partner drug, piperaquine. Resistance to artemisinin in parts of Southeast Asia is well-documented, but until now only a few studies have presented clear evidence of piperaquine resistance. Additional study findings suggest that artesunate, a form of artemisinin, plus mefloquine, a different long-acting partner drug, should be the first-line ACT in areas where dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine treatment has failed, the study authors note.
