Research now supports the belief that drinking extra water helps you lose weight. It is no surprise that this liquid, found everywhere in the world, can curb the appetite. A study at Virginia Tech put middle-aged and older people on a low-calorie, low-fat diet and split them into two groups. The only difference was that […]
Read moreBabies born to teenage girls who become pregnant after gastric bypass surgery may have a higher risk of birth defects. The finding is based on a small number of cases, and some researchers doubt the link. Surgery that rearranges the stomach and intestines can reduce the absorption of some vitamins and nutrients from food. This […]
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A new study in the United States found that insulin breathed in through the nose improves memory in people with Alzheimer's disease (dementia). Patients took insulin for four months, and their memory improved in tests over the following two months. The researchers called the results promising and worth testing in clinical trials. Alzheimer's disease affects […]
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Practising medicine has become dangerous in China, The Lancet reports. A doctor and a nurse were fatally stabbed by the son of a cancer patient who had died more than 13 years earlier, and a paediatrician was badly injured after jumping from a fifth-floor window to escape the family of a newborn baby who had […]
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The United States formally apologised last Friday for research carried out between 1946 and 1948 in which people in Guatemala were deliberately infected with sexually transmitted diseases. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the research "reprehensible". Their joint statement added: "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologise to […]
Read moreThe Lancet Neurology reports that levodopa, the drug used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, causes loss of function and dyskinesia with long-term use: being unable to control the limbs, with involuntary movements. Clinical studies suggest that pulsatile stimulation of the receptors on the receiving nerve cell causes dyskinesia, but the exact mechanism has […]
Read moreThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new type of contraceptive pill that contains folic acid, one of the B vitamins. Folic acid is known to help form new cells, and it is given to pregnant women to prevent serious birth defects of the nervous system, such as a neural tube that […]
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