Contrary to an earlier study, new research funded by the US National Institutes of Health shows that the stimulant drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) don't cause chromosome changes in children. ADHD shares many symptoms with autism, and the same drugs are sometimes used in autism. The earlier study, which looked at […]
Read moreEating plenty of foods rich in antioxidants, such as artichokes and berries, may help protect against macular degeneration, the main cause of blindness linked with ageing. Studies show that antioxidants break a link between two processes in the retina that together lead to macular degeneration, and that they lengthen the life of the light-sensing cells […]
Read moreA new Australian study shows that losing weight around the waist, especially in overweight people, lowers the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in older people. Earlier studies had given conflicting results. This one followed 12,515 adults aged 45 to 66 for six years. Their average waist-to-hip ratio (waist […]
Read moreResearchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that vitamin D taken by mouth helps correct an immune defect in people with eczema (atopic dermatitis). They studied a small number of patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, a chronic skin disease that affects 10–20% of children and 1–3% of […]
Read moreAn unexpected result: scientists in the United States found that vitamin C may make chemotherapy less effective in cancer patients. Treating human cancer cells in the lab with vitamin C cut the ability of chemotherapy drugs to kill them by 30 to 70%. In mice with human tumours, giving vitamin C two hours before chemotherapy […]
Read moreA simple test of proteins in saliva may one day help doctors detect mouth cancer, according to a study as part of the Human Saliva Proteome Project, funded by the US National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Researchers collected saliva from 64 people with oral squamous cell carcinoma (a type of mouth cancer) and […]
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Russia's health services are preparing for a new flu season: medical teams have been deployed, monitoring has begun and the whole federation is on alert. The health authorities have started vaccinating children, people over 60, teachers and doctors with the new flu vaccine, as these groups are the most exposed and the most affected. 64,000 […]
Read moreChewing nicotine gum may not help pregnant women stop smoking, but it does help them smoke fewer cigarettes a day, which may lower the risk of premature birth and low birth weight, Reuters Health reports. In the study, 194 pregnant smokers were given nicotine gum or a placebo (dummy gum) for 6 weeks. After 6 […]
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Recent studies suggest that the monounsaturated fats in olive oil and other heart-healthy oils help regulate hunger. The researchers say the findings could help develop new drugs to curb appetite. Daniele Piomelli, professor of pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues found that in the gut of rats, oleic acid is turned into […]
Read moreHeart disease is one of the world's biggest killers, but many people with heart and blood vessel disease have none of the usual risk factors, such as obesity, smoking or high cholesterol. Gum disease is one of the most common diseases, and several theories suggest a link between mouth infections and heart disease. Certain proteins […]
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Some farmers in China wanted to sell their milk to companies that make powdered milk, but their cows were of poor breed and badly fed, so the companies rejected the milk. Some farmers realised that the milk quality test is simple: it looks for nitrogen, an atom found in protein, and grades the milk by […]
Read moreAn experimental cancer drug prevents, and even reverses, potentially fatal heart and blood vessel damage in mice with a model of progeria, the inherited disorder that causes the most dramatic form of premature ageing in humans. There is no cure for progeria, which affects about one child in 4 million. Children with progeria look normal […]
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