University of Florida News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Iron is a key mineral for human health. Too much of it in your body — or too little — can lead to major health problems.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Sparking production of a hormone in the brain that people with epilepsy often lack could prevent debilitating seizures, University of Florida researchers have discovered.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels can keep heart disease, heart attack and stroke away. And a commonly used vitamin could help by increasing production of “good” cholesterol in the body, researchers at the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville have found. The findings were published recently in the journal Metabolism, Clinical and Experimental.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Cancer that has spread from the site of an original tumor to other places in the body is often viewed as a death sentence. But if there are just a few of those secondary tumors, called metastases, some patients have a good chance of survival if treated with a type of radiation that precisely targets small tumors, researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Rochester report online and in an upcoming print edition of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For patients who have severe narrowing of the aortic valve, a condition known as aortic stenosis, standard treatment is surgical replacement of the damaged valve. But advanced age or medical problems such as lung disease prevent many of those patients from having open chest surgery. In the past, the best such patients could hope for was to control their symptoms with medications.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new gene therapy method developed by University of Florida researchers has the potential to treat a common form of blindness that strikes both youngsters and adults. The technique works by replacing a malfunctioning gene in the eye with a normal working copy that supplies a protein necessary for light-sensitive cells in the eye to function. The findings are published today (Monday, Jan. 23) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Heart patients who have stents that prop open blocked arteries often face a dilemma when they need open heart surgery: Continue taking life-saving blood thinners but risk severe bleeding during surgery, or stop taking the medicines and risk a heart attack.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Researchers from the University of Florida and 14 additional medical centers reported results today in the online version of The Lancet Neurology journal indicating that deep brain stimulation — also known as DBS — is effective at improving motor symptoms and quality of life in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A program of core strengthening exercises was no better than traditional sit-ups for preventing back pain in soldiers, according to a new University of Florida study. But combining both exercise programs with a brief educational session on back pain strategies did lower the incidence of treatment for back pain.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A group of life-threatening blood disorders collectively called myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, may occur four times more often than reported by national cancer registries, according to new research from the University of Florida based on data from Medicare claims.