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‘Inattentional smell blindness’, or inattentional anosmia, has been proven to exist in a study from the University of Sussex. Just as it has previously been found that people can miss visual cues when they are busily engaged in a task, the same is true of smells. And unlike visual stimuli, which would be noticed once the person stops being busy, […]
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Tori Lee was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), a blood cancer of very a aggressive form, when she started kindergarten in 2008. Immediately after the horrifying news, she started chemotherapy. Sadly, the chemo didn’t work, and the cancer persisted. According to her mother, Dana Lee, Tori underwent chemotherapy for almost two years before relapsing to the cancer after which they signed […]
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Virtually all cervical cancers are caused by HPV, or human papillomavirus, dubbed the “common cold” of sexually transmitted infections because nearly every sexually active person catches it. Fortunately, the immune system vanquishes the majority of HPV infections, with only a small percentage progressing to precancer and, ultimately, cancer. But why do some people clear the infection while others are unable […]
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When the blood supply is low, cancer cells can use lipid molecules as fuel instead of blood glucose. This has been shown in animal tumour models by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, in a study published in Cell Metabolism. The mechanism may explain why tumours often develop resistance to cancer drugs that inhibit the formation of blood vessels. Tumour growth […]
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A University of Toronto scientist has discovered the brain’s frontal lobe is involved in pain transmission to the spine. If his findings in animals bear out in people, the discovery could lead to a new class of non-addictive painkillers. For 20 years, Min Zhuo, a professor of physiology in the Faculty of Medicine, has been intrigued by invisible pain, in particular chronic […]
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The brain’s ability to form new neural connections, called neuroplasticity, is crucial to recovery from some types of brain injury, but this process is hard to study and remains poorly understood. A new study of neural circuit repair in the retina shows that neurons can make new connections to the right types of photoreceptors to restore selective connectivity after an […]
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Gestational diabetes may predispose women to early-stage kidney damage, a precursor to chronic kidney disease, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. The study appears in Diabetes Care. Gestational diabetes occurs only in pregnancy and results when the level of blood sugar is too high. The condition increases the risk for preterm […]
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Amazon is reportedly looking for people who are willing to have their bodies scanned in 3-D in order to track and measure subtle changes in their sizes and shapes. It’s part of the company’s broader push to sell more clothes by more accurately predicting how garments will fit different body shapes. But Amazon may not be considering the psychological effects […]
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New research indicates that when pregnant women take certain rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drugs that may cause immunosuppression, their children do not have a marked excess risk of developing serious infections. The Arthritis & Rheumatology findings are potentially encouraging for women with RA who are or wish to become pregnant. In North America, infections are the leading cause of mortality in […]
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Action is urgently needed to address declining vaccination rates against pneumococcal pneumonia, which causes more than 2,000 deaths each year in people aged over 65. Researchers, doctors and patients have teamed with Lung Foundation Australia during this week’s Pneumonia Awareness Week to call for proactive community action to address the declining vaccination rates against pneumococcal pneumonia – an infection responsible for more […]
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