Related Science News

May 3, 2019

Environmental pollutants could impact cellular signs of aging

Researchers have linked some environmental pollutants with diseases, a decreased life span and signs of premature aging, such as wrinkles and age spots. But can accelerated aging be detected at the cellular level in healthy people exposed to pollutants? Now, researchers in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology report that […]
May 3, 2019

Short-Term Health Impacts of Prostate Cancer Detection Methods

Discomfort: a word that no one wants to associate with a medical procedure. But sadly, it’s sometimes unavoidable. A new University of Michigan study — recently published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, examined the short-term degree of discomfort associated with two different prostate cancer detection methods: prostate MRIs […]
May 3, 2019

Aging Baby Boomers Push Sky High Incidence of Shingles of the Eye

More Americans are being diagnosed with eye complications of shingles, but older adults can call the shots on whether they are protected from the painful rash that can cost them their eyesight. Among a group of 21 million adults, occurrences of herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO), when shingles gets in the […]
May 3, 2019

Researchers Find New Target to Improve Response to Cancer Immunotherapy

New findings suggest an unexpected path to killing cancer cells could make the hottest cancer treatment — immunotherapy — more effective. Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center looked at a little-understood type of cell death called ferroptosis. They found ferroptosis occurs in tumor cells and plays a role in […]
May 3, 2019

Exploring New Treatments for Autoimmune Diseases

More than 50 million Americans are affected by an autoimmune disease, with women at an increased risk for developing one. “Autoimmune conditions can be debilitating for patients,” says Dinesh Khanna, M.D., M.Sc., a professor of rheumatology and the director of the Michigan Medicine Scleroderma Program. “As a National Institutes of Health Autoimmunity Center of Excellence site, […]
May 3, 2019

Study Links Epigenetic Age with Childhood Allergy, Asthma

Known as the atopic or allergic march, it’s a familiar progression to pediatricians and parents alike: atopic dermatitis and food allergies emerge in infancy or early childhood, followed by rhinitis and asthma as the child gets older. But what if it were possible to stop this march in its tracks? […]
May 3, 2019

Antibiotics may treat endometriosis

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found, in mice, that treatment with an antibiotic reduces the size of lesions caused by endometriosis. The researchers are planning a large, multicenter clinical trial to test the drug metronidazole in women who have the painful condition. The study […]
May 3, 2019

$5.1 million to target silent cause of heart attacks, strokes

By age 40, almost everyone’s arteries have begun to harden as deposits of fat and cholesterol build up on the inside of the blood vessels. Clumps big enough to obstruct blood flow can starve tissues of needed oxygen and nutrients. But even small deposits can be lethal, if they release […]
May 3, 2019

Older people who ride the bus for free are happier

Mobility is very important to us as humans. We want to move around, reach different parts of the city and generally enjoy our independency. However, as people age they become limited in this regard, because they stop driving and have to live from the retirement pension. Now scientists found that […]
May 2, 2019

Study reveals hip and knee replacement performance in England and Wales

The performance of different prosthetic implant combinations used in patients undergoing hip and knee replacements in England and Wales over the last 14 years have, for the first time, been directly compared in two new studies. The University of Bristol findings, published in the BMJ Open, reveal substantial variability in […]
May 2, 2019

How both mother and baby genes affect birth weight

The largest study of its kind, which has used genetic information from Bristol's Children of the 90s, has led to new insights into the complex relationships surrounding how mothers’ and babies’ genes influence birth weight. The research, published in Nature Genetics, identifies 190 links between our genetic code and birth weight, […]
May 2, 2019

Watchful waiting reasonable for patients with diabetic macular edema and good vision

People with good vision despite having center-involved diabetic macular edema can safely forego immediate treatment of their eye condition as long as they are closely monitored, and treatment begins promptly if vision worsens, according to clinical trial results. The findings are published online in the Journal of the American Medical […]
May 2, 2019

Guidelines proposed for newly defined Alzheimer’s-like brain disorder

A recently recognized brain disorder that mimics clinical features of Alzheimer’s disease has for the first time been defined with recommended diagnostic criteria and other guidelines for advancing and catalyzing future research. Scientists from several National Institutes of Health-funded institutions, in collaboration with international peers, described the newly-named pathway to […]
May 2, 2019

Cannabis could help cancer patients to stop losing weight

In the recent years cannabis has been getting a lot of scientific attention. Nowadays scientists agree that the potential of this plant is severely underutilized. While consequences of the legality of recreational use of marijuana are still debatable, its potential to become a modern and natural medicine is huge. Now […]
April 30, 2019

New technique may improve detection and treatment of advanced brain cancer

In a new study, Yale Cancer Center scientists have demonstrated a powerful method to analyze how tumor cells are altered as they metastasize, or spread, to the brain. The research, published in the journal Cell Reports, may eventually improve early diagnosis and treatment of metastatic brain cancer, whose incidence is climbing and whose […]
April 30, 2019

Newfound autoimmune syndrome causes muscle pain, weakness

A previously unknown autoimmune muscle disease involving sudden onset of debilitating muscle pain and weakness has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The syndrome easily could be mistaken for other muscle diseases that require different treatment, so the findings are expected to help […]
April 30, 2019

In a bind: Team IDs potential cause of low testosterone

Prior studies have suggested that pain-relieving opioids such as methadone can markedly lower testosterone in men. And those contending with Type 2 diabetes are roughly twice as likely to see a decrease in active amounts of the male sex hormone. While explanations have proven elusive, researchers do have an intriguing […]
April 30, 2019

Orthopedic injury therapy in rodents may soon be headed to the clinic

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has developed a promising new cell therapy with potential to improve tissue healing after orthopedic injuries. The new cell therapy, recently described in the journal Stem Cells, accelerated the recovery of ruptured Achilles tendons in a rodent model, and may similarly aid […]
April 30, 2019

Tissue environment plays important role in tumor formation

A team of Florida State University researchers used a simple tumor model to show the importance of tissue microenvironment in primary tumor formation. In the journal Developmental Cell, FSU researchers explain how certain signaling pathways define tumor hotspots, tissue microenvironment favorable for tumorigenesis, and show that simple stimulation of a […]
April 29, 2019

Skipping breakfast associated with higher risk of cardiovascular death

Eating breakfast every day has always been considered an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but a new study from the University of Iowa shows just how important it is. The study, by Wei Bao, assistant professor of epidemiology in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, finds that people who […]
April 29, 2019

Research shows connection between sleep apnea, deadly blood cancer

Researchers at the University of Iowa have discovered a link between sleep apnea and multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that could lead to earlier and more effective treatment of the disease. Mahmoud Ali, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the UI, says the findings provide a better understanding […]
April 29, 2019

Heart attack and stroke screening times should be more individual

Certain lifestyle choices and conditions can increase your risk of having a stroke or a heart attack. Of course, routine check-ups is one of the more reliable ways to reduce this risk. In fact, now scientists from UCL and the University of Helsinki say that as many as 1 in […]
April 29, 2019

Why Women Get Autoimmune Diseases Far More Often Than Men

Researchers cause a lupus-like disease in mice by amplifying the amount of a single “master regulator” factor — suggesting both a root cause for known differences between the sexes and a target for new treatments. It’s one of the great mysteries of medicine, and one that affects the lives of […]
April 29, 2019

Creativity is not just for the young, study finds

If you believe that great scientists are most creative when they’re young, you are missing part of the story. A new study of winners of the Nobel Prize in economics finds that there are two different life cycles of creativity, one that hits some people early in their career and another that […]