northwestern university

A loving partner can save your skin

EurekAlert! - Cancer  Sun, 05/18/2008 - 23:00

(Northwestern University) Even couples that have been together for years may be embarrassed to let a partner see their less than perfect bodies naked in bright light.

That can hamper their willingness to do total body skin exams on each other to check for melanoma. A new study from Northwestern University has found that couples with close bonds were able to leap the self-conscious hurdle and perform regular skin checks.

This increases the chance of finding a new melanoma earlier and lowering mortality from the disease.


 

Zebrafish may help solve ringing in vets' ears

EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health  Tue, 04/29/2008 - 23:00

(Northwestern University) Ever since Ernest Moore's ears began ringing with tinnitus, he has been researching a cure.

There's a lot riding on his work. Tinnitus is the top disability of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, caused by the noise of explosive devices.

Moore, a former soldier and an audiologist at Northwestern University, is doing cutting edge research with zebrafish that may offer a solution as new funding from the Department of Defense opens up.


 

Saving cancer patients' skin

EurekAlert! - Cancer  Wed, 03/26/2008 - 23:00

Targeted cancer drugs can have such disfiguring dermatologic side effects, some patients are embarrassed to be seen in public and hide at home.

Others toss their pills. The pioneering Cancer Skin Care Program at Northwestern University -- the first in the nation -- treats patients to parry those effects and conducts research to find the most effective dermatological treatments.


 

Your brain on Krispy Kremes

EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health  Wed, 03/05/2008 - 23:00

What makes you suddenly dart into the bakery when you spy chocolate-frosted donuts in the window, though you certainly hadn't planned on indulging?

As you lick the frosting off your fingers, don't blame a lack of self-control. New research from Northwestern University reveals how hunger works in the brain and the way neurons pull your strings to lunge for the sweet fried dough.

Krispy Kremes helped lead to the discovery.