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Policymakers around the world should consider introducing more targeted early interventions in a bid to tackle cancer, according to experts at the University of Stirling. A new paper – published in the International Journal of Healthcare Policy – analysed data from 162 countries to examine the relationship between economic growth and cancer incidence. Dr. Bryan McIntosh, of the Faculty of […]
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A clinical trial to determine whether a smartwatch app that analyzes pulse-rate data can screen for a heart-rhythm disorder has enrolled more than 400,000 participants. Researchers at Stanford Medicine, in collaboration with Apple, launched the Apple Heart Study last November to determine whether a mobile app that uses the optical sensor on the Apple Watch to analyze pulse rate data […]
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A team led by a Cedars-Sinai physician-scientist has discovered a biomarker—a protein found in the blood—for the most common type of heart failure, a new study published today in JAMA Cardiology shows. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) affects more than 6.5 million Americans each year. And now, thanks to the discovery of the first-ever biomarker for HFpEF, a […]
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Researchers at the University of Georgia have found that a high-fat diet enriched with cottonseed oil drastically improved cholesterol profiles in young adult men. The researchers conducted a five-day outpatient feeding trial of 15 healthy, normal weight men to test the effects of diets enriched with cottonseed oil and olive oil on lipid profiles. Participants showed significant reductions in cholesterol […]
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Three patients with chronic paraplegia were able to walk thanks to precise electrical stimulation of their spinal cords via a wireless implant. In a double study published in Nature and Nature Neuroscience, Swiss scientists Grégoire Courtine (EPFL and CHUV/Unil) and Jocelyne Bloch (CHUV/Unil) show that after a few months of training, the patients were able to control previously paralyzed leg […]
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Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, claiming 700,000 lives each year. Most cases are discovered too late for a cure—but now a study offers hope of early detection, and targets for new treatments. Published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, the results show a dramatic increase in expression of sugar-burning ‘glycolytic’ enzymes in precancerous […]
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(HealthDay)—Three experimental Ebola vaccines trigger an immune response that lasts for more than two years against the deadly disease, researchers report. In addition to being welcome news for the Ebola outbreak that’s now spreading throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo, this success story is spurring research into the development of similar vaccines for other infectious diseases, the researchers added. In […]
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Behavioral risk factors including smoking, obesity, limited physical activity and a less healthy diet strongly predict the likelihood of depression—and that likelihood increases with each additional risk factor a person possesses. Additionally, the risk factors most strongly linked to depression change with age. Previous studies had identified behavioral risk factors for depression, but it was unclear how these variables changed […]
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A new ultrasound technique can help distinguish benign breast tumours from malignant ones. The technology was developed with support from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Ultrasound is one of the three main technologies used in medical imaging. It is more compact and affordable than nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, and safer than x-rays. But the images it produces are […]
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Could microbes in our guts be sending out the wrong message? Queen’s University Belfast researchers have, for the first time, found a specific microbe in the gut that pumps out protein molecules that mimic a human protein, causing the human defence system to turn on its own cells by mistake. The culprit in this case is called Bacteroides fragilis, a […]
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