News & Updates

The National Institutes of Health and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) joined forces today to train NCNW members in how to present two NIH education programs that help children maintain a healthy weight.

A study from a National Institutes of Health research network found that an early treatment to prevent severe newborn jaundice in extremely early preterm infants reduced the infants' rate of brain injury, a serious complication of severe jaundice.

The NIH/Jackson Medical Mall health information series will provide residents of the Jackson, Miss., area with informational presentations on diabetes, stroke/hypertension, asthma, and mental health. The health series will also include quarterly continuing medical education (CME) presentations for health care professionals.

Welcome, everyone. We are excited to be here to celebrate the 2nd year anniversary of the collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Jackson Medical Mall. Two years ago, I was honored to kick off this wonderful partnership and the opening of the NIH Health Information Center. Today--several hundred thousand visitors later--I'm delighted to be here again, thanks to Dr. Shirley's vision, to help with another ground-breaking step.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have deciphered the complex relationship between three distinct brain circuits implicated in schizophrenia. The researchers determined that one brain circuit acts through an intermediary brain circuit. The intermediary circuit acts like a volume control knob, turning up the electrical activity of still another brain circuit, or turning it down.

The National Institutes of Health announced today that its comprehensive study to examine the effect of genes and the environment on children's health had entered the next phase of operations. At a briefing on the latest developments in the National Children's Study, NIH officials named the study centers funded for 2008.

National Children's Study announcement of the new Study Centers, a transcript of the speakers' remarks

Nearly 24 percent of U.S. women are affected with one or more pelvic floor disorders, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Their analysis is the first to document in a nationally representative sample the extent of pelvic floor disorders, a cluster of health problems that causes physical discomfort and limits activity.

The drug acyclovir has long been used to suppress outbreaks of oral and genital herpes. Herpes viruses change acyclovir to a form that prevents them from reproducing. Now, it appears that after acyclovir is altered by herpes viruses, it also interferes with the AIDS virus's ability to reproduce, report researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Preterm infants born to mothers receiving intravenous magnesium sulfate--a common treatment to delay labor--are less likely to develop cerebral palsy than are preterm infants whose mothers do not receive it, report researchers in a large National Institutes of Health research network.

A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.

People with schizophrenia have an alteration in a pattern of brain electrical activity associated with learning and memory. Now, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Sweden's Karolinska Institute have identified in mouse brain tissue a molecular switch that, when thrown, increases the strength of this electrical pattern.

the late 1980s and early 1990s, changes in the workforce—specifically more women working outside the home—led many families to place their children in non-maternal child care. Policy and social debates were many—some claimed that children were harmed by such care, while others touted its benefits. While the battles raged, it became startlingly clear that little to no scientific research had been conducted on non-maternal child care. Without such data, there could be no real answers to the many questions related to non-maternal child care

The activity level of a large group of American children dropped sharply between age 9 and age 15, when most failed to reach the daily recommended activity level, according to the latest findings from a long-term study by the National Institutes of Health.

The nation's fourth and eighth graders scored higher in reading and mathematics than they did during their last national assessment, according to the federal government's latest annual statistical report on the well-being of the nation's children. Not all the report's findings were positive; there also were increases in the adolescent birth rate and the proportion of infants born at low birthweight.

Experts convened by the National Institutes of Health for the Office of the Surgeon General released an agenda today for activities in the public and private sectors to reduce the nation's rate of preterm birth. The agenda calls for a national system to better understand the occurrence of preterm birth and a national education program to help women reduce their chances of giving birth prematurely.

Each day, approximately 1,000 children—the majority of whom are newborns—become infected with HIV, according to the World Health Organization. HIV can be passed on during pregnancy or delivery, or even after the infant is born, through breastfeeding.

In many poor countries, mothers with HIV face a stark choice: to nurse their infants, and risk passing on HIV through their breast milk--or to formula feed, and deprive their infants of much of the natural immunity needed to protect against fatal diseases of early infancy. Now, two studies supported by the National Institutes of Health offer insights into preventing early death and HIV infection among breastfeeding infants of mothers with HIV in these countries.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has transformed scientists' understanding of Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes autistic behavior and other disabling symptoms. Until now, scientists thought that the gene behind Rett syndrome was an "off" switch, or repressor, for other genes. But the new study, published today in Science1, shows that it is an "on" switch for a startlingly large number of genes.

During Women’s Health Month, attention turns to the many advances in knowledge about women’s health as well as the gaps that remain in understanding many conditions. The NICHD was founded with a specific focus on women’s health as a way of understanding “the unsolved health problems of children and of mother-infant relationships.”