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"Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm disturbance and is associated with a five-fold increased risk of ischaemic stroke," said Dr Al-Khalili. "AF is also associated with increased mortality, reduced quality of life and a higher risk of heart failure." Treatment with oral anticoagulants reduces the risk of stroke and is recommended according to the number of stroke risk factors. Risk is estimated using the CHA2DS2-VASc score which gives points for clinical risk factors. Patients with non-valvular AF under the age of 65 and a score of 0 in men or 1 in women are considered to be at low risk for ischaemic stroke, and oral anticoagulation therapy is not indicated. Dr Al-Khalili said: "Even if the risk for stroke is low, it is not negligible, and a number of such 'low risk' patients do present with ischaemic stroke in clinical practice and in patient registers." The objective of this study was to assess the incidence and pred...

The discovery is now published in the number-one ranked psychiatric journal from the Nature Publishing Group, and could mean completely new possibilities for treating alcoholism. "We've worked hard for this. The enzyme, PRDM2 , has previously been studied in cancer research, but we didn't know that it has a function in the brain," says Markus Heilig, professor of psychiatry and head of the Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience (CSAN) at Linköping University. He and his research group are linking together research into alcoholism and other addictive illnesses with advanced brain research. It has long been suspected that people with alcohol dependence have impaired function in the frontal lobes of the brain, but the underlying biological mechanisms have not been known. The research team behind the paper, which includes researchers from both Linköping University and University of Miami, is the first to identify this molecular mechanism. If frontal functio...

The supply of alcohol craving could also be a pea-sized construction deep inside the correct facet of the mind, based on scientists on the Indiana College College of Drugs. Utilizing two completely different sorts of superior mind imaging methods (PET and fMRI), the researchers in contrast the outcomes of giving beer drinkers a style of their favourite beer versus a sports activities drink. After tasting the beer the members reported elevated need to drink beer, whereas the sports activities drink didn't provoke as a lot need for beer. The mind scans confirmed that the beer taste induced extra exercise in each frontal lobes and in the correct ventral striatum of the themes' brains than did the sports activities drink. Credit score: B. Oberlin and D. Kareken, Indiana College College of Drugs In case you actually desire a drink proper now, the supply of your craving could also be a pea-sized construction deep inside the correct facet of your mind, based on scienti...