Latest News

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Experts from the Houston Methodist Cancer Center address some of the common misconceptions about how cancer spreads.

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Just 13 days in space may be enough to cause profound changes in eye structure and gene expression, report researchers. Their study is the first to examine eye-related gene expression and cell behavior after spaceflight.

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People predisposed to Alzheimer disease have excessive amounts of a protein called beta amyloid in their brains. This protein can be detected by a neuroimaging technique called brain PET. Houston Methodist Hospital’s Nantz National Alzheimer Center will focus on the role of neuroimaging in diagnosing different types of dementia during its Third Annual International Alzheimer Symposium on Oct. 16.

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Autumn is approaching fast and that means a new crop of seasonal nutrient-dense fruit and vegetable “superfoods” will soon be harvested. Superfoods increase our overall wellness and nutrition, and help support a healthy lifestyle.

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A rare transplant procedure allows a woman with liver cancer who would not survive on the transplant list to receive a new liver from a living donor. This is part of a joint program between Houston Methodist Hospital and MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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Retrograde access gives surgeons the ability to go through the foot to open up blocked arteries and save the limbs of people whose only other option is amputation.

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A $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke could help Houston Methodist scientists better understand how the body's own immune system drives multiple sclerosis.

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Pregnant women who don't make nearly enough thyroid hormone are nearly 4 times likelier to produce autistic children than healthy women, report scientists from the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute and Erasmus Medical Centre in an upcoming Annals of Neurology.

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With summer practice and fall sports seasons quickly approaching, youth athletes need to start training now to help prevent heat-related illnesses.

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Chances are you see pills, powders, drinks and yogurt infused with probiotics every time you go to the grocery store. Dr. Eamonn Quigley, an expert in gut health, heads the gastroenterology and hepatology division at Houston Methodist Hospital. Here he addresses 5 common claims about probiotics.

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NIDA has agreed to award $2.1 million to Lidong Qin, Ph.D., and Ping Wang, Ph.D., of the Houston Methodist Research Institute to develop a pocket-sized drug test for use in health care settings.

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Houston Methodist Hospital, formerly known as The Methodist Hospital, ranked among the country’s top hospitals in 12 specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 America’s “Best Hospitals” issue, and again was named the No. 1 hospital in Texas.

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Drugs that help millions of people cope with acid reflux may also cause cardiovascular disease. It is the first time researchers have shown how proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs, might cause cardiovascular problems.

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A new heart valve that can be implanted inside an existing valve will help adults with congenital heart disease avoid open heart surgeries.

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Development of skin cancer may require changes in the genes that control cell shape, report a team of scientists from three institutions in an upcoming issue of Nature Cell Biology. The work could lead to a better understanding of how the cells become metastatic.

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Think twice before grabbing foods labeled sugar-free, fat-free or whole-wheat. Recent studies show people tend to let their guard down and eat twice as much or more of these foods because they are marketed as healthy food products.

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Two biomarkers being investigated as predictors of heart and vascular disease appear to indicate risk for "silent" strokes and other causes of mild brain damage that present no symptoms, report researchers in an upcoming issue of Stroke.

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A large-scale NEI study of age-related macular degeneration suggests fish oil supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids do not alter the progression of age-related macular degeneration, and that lutein and zeaxanthin may be safer than beta-carotene in reducing risk of disease progression.

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A microgravity experiment will examine the fundamental physics of the chemical and physical properties that control nanoparticles' movement through nanochannels -- something scientists know very little about.

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By developing a new way to compare techniques for teaching robotic surgery, doctors report in an upcoming issue of the British Journal of Urology International that surgeons training in robotic surgery learned best when three different teaching methods were used.

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A new procedure involving a magnetic ring of beads that fits around your pinky has been shown to stop GERD in people whose medication stopped working.

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Brain and pituitary tumor patients will soon have access to a state-of-the-art facility at The Methodist Hospital, a result of a $10 million dollar commitment from a Houston oil executive.

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Dr. Michael Reardon, a cardiothoracic with the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston, leads the second phase of a study looking a transcatheter aortic valve's ability to help those with severe aortic stenosis.

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Daylight saving time can wreak havoc on the millions of people already affected by sleep problems, but a few simple sleep habits can make all the difference this March 10.

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Researchers use MRI to determine that thinned heart muscle can be saved and reversed with proper treatment.

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Scientists report that a high calorie diet causes fat cells to act as if under pathogenic attack. The researchers have identified a root cause of the diet-caused fat tissue inflammation that has baffled medical researchers for decades.

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The energetic and radiant hue of emerald green has been declared the spring color of 2013. While green shirts, pants and jackets will be seen everywhere this season, so should green food on your plate.

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The removal of a genetic roadblock could improve the efficiency of converting adult cells into stem cells by 10 to 30 times, report scientists from The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and two other institutions in the latest issue of Cell.

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By loading fragile RNA into silicon nanoparticles, researchers have found a new drug delivery system can reduce the size of ovarian tumors by as much as 83 percent -- and stop tumor growth in chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer tissue.

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The lung transplant program at the Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center in Houston outperformed the rest of the country in 2012.

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Leader in neurosurgical treatment of cerebrovascular system and skull base named chairman of neurosurgery; co-director of the Methodist Neurological Institute.

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By cloaking nanoparticles in the membranes of white blood cells, scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute may have found a way to prevent the body from recognizing and destroying them before they deliver their drug payloads.

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Two brothers with a form of muscular dystrophy that attacks the heart receive LVADs to stay alive.

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Dr. Eamonn M. M. Quigley, past president of the American College of Gastroenterology and the World Gastroenterology Organization, joins the faculty at The Methodist Hospital as head of its gastroenterology division.

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Xian Li, M.D., Ph.D., a renowned expert on therapies that coax the body's acceptance of donor organs, has joined the Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center as its new director of transplant immunology. Li is also scientific director of the Center for Immunobiology Research.

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A new device about the size of a business card could allow health care providers to test for insulin and other blood proteins, cholesterol, and even signs of viral or bacterial infection all at the same time—with one drop of blood.

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The holidays are a time to consume -- food, gifts, and spirits. Here are a few alcohol-related story ideas from The Methodist Hospital. Because alcohol's effects on human physiology are complex, advice about is often contradictory.

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The Methodist Hospital in Houston and Dallas-based Remeditex Ventures LLC have entered into an exclusive agreement to develop an investigational drug for glioblastomas, the most malignant of all primary brain cancers. Current treatments only prolong survival for an average of five months.

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People unaware that they have type 2 diabetes could put themselves at risk by eating high fat and other types of bad-for-you foods over the holidays.

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The debilitating symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, appear to be increased by a lack of inflammation-reducing T cells, and the expression of a gene that controls production of anti-inflammatory T cells (FoxP3) predict how quickly the disease will progress.

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Eva Mozes Kor, survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and Josef Mengele's "twin experiments," talked to doctors, scientists, and other health care providers Dec. 5 about medical ethics and human experimentation.

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Learning how to properly jump and land might help hundreds of female athletes avoid a serious knee injury.

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The holiday season is officially in full gear and with it comes the tempting Thanksgiving-to-New-Year’s food fest. While research shows that the average person really only gains about a pound over the course of the holidays, it can still have a big cumulative effect on waistlines. That’s because the extra weight usually doesn’t come off the following year.

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Not all bariatric surgeries will help you lose the large amount of weight you seek and help you get rid of type 2 diabetes.

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Researchers at The Methodist Hospital Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and the Baylor College of Medicine presented new data today that show two biomarkers can improve heart failure risk prediction as part of a simpler model.

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A new tool developed by scientists at The Methodist Hospital separates tumor-causing cancer cells from more benign cells by subjecting the cells to a microscopic game of Plinko -- except only the squishiest cells make it through.

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Many people use food to deal with stress. Doing this only leads to seriously weight gain, especially this time of year.

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The Methodist Hospital in Houston receives the 2012 Magnet Prize Honors Award from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and Cerner Corporation for its success in reducing sepsis-related mortality.

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A new technique that allows scientists to grow lung cancer cells in three dimensions could accelerate discoveries for a type of cancer that has benefited little from scientific research over the last several decades. The model, created by researchers at The Methodist Hospital and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, uses biological matter to form miniature lungs.

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With a little exercise and dieting, overweight people with type 2 diabetes can still train their fat cells to produce a hormone believed to spur HDL cholesterol production, report medical researchers.