Category: News Archive

Glaucoma doesn't necessarily lead to blindness, according to two studies published in the journal Ophthalmology. The first found that traditional glaucoma surgery gives better results than a glaucoma drainage device; the second found that glaucoma can be treated successfully even in its late stages. The first study compared complications of traditional surgery with those of […]

Food allergy affects 4–5% of children and 2–3% of adults, but interpreting symptoms and confirming a true food allergy is still a problem: in studies of children and teenagers who believed they had a food allergy, only about 10% could be proved to have one. Conditions linked with food allergy, such as eosinophilic oesophagitis, are […]

An animal study suggests that cutting down on fried foods and baked goods may reduce men's risk of prostate cancer. Scientists at the Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, focused on fat from corn oil, which is mainly omega-6 fatty acids, a type of polyunsaturated fat widely used in baked goods […]

A study shows that fructose now makes up more than 10% of Americans' energy intake. "Less than 20% of the fructose in the American diet comes from natural sources such as fruit and vegetables," says Dr Miriam Vos. These foods don't contain much fructose, and it comes with fibre and other nutrients; they are low […]

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends checking cholesterol levels in children from the age of two if there is a family history of heart disease or high cholesterol, and also when the family history is unknown or the child has other risk factors for heart disease, such as obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes. "Screening […]

Researchers studying genetic variants have found that the variants behind eye, hair and skin colour are also linked with the risk of skin cancer. A study published in Nature Genetics found clear links between pigmentation variants and cutaneous melanoma (CM) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The researchers assessed 11 gene variants linked with freckles, sunburn, […]

A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that women who were physically active in their leisure time, especially as teenagers and young adults, were less likely to develop breast cancer before the menopause than women who were inactive. "Earlier research showed a link between exercise and lower breast cancer risk […]

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is now the main cause of complications and long hospital stays in children with acute bone infection. Acute osteomyelitis is an infection of the bone that affects children. It is usually caused by staphylococci and was traditionally treated with standard anti-staphylococcal antibiotics, but now many children have a more severe illness […]

A new study shows improved social skills in teenagers with autism after 14 weeks of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), developed by Elizabeth Laugeson, PsyD, and Fred Frankel, PhD, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "Children with autism are very socially isolated and often don't take part […]

A study in California found that mothers of children with autism were twice as likely as mothers of typically developing children to have used pet shampoos containing pyrethrins (a flea and tick treatment) around the time of pregnancy. The results were presented by Irva Hertz-Picciotto, PhD, at the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research. […]

Researchers at the laboratory of Ralph Steinman (Henry G. Kunkel professor at Rockefeller University) have used dendritic cells, the cells that directly start immune responses against disease, to make DNA vaccines more effective. Godwin Nchinda and colleagues developed a DNA vaccine that steers HIV proteins to dendritic cells. Current DNA vaccines need high and repeated […]

"Pregnancy rates fall and miscarriage rates rise when the father is over 35," says Dr Belloc. "This is the first time a strong effect of the father on reproduction has been shown." Dr Belloc and colleagues followed 21,239 intrauterine inseminations (IUI), in which sperm is washed or spun to separate it from the seminal fluid […]