Health & Medicine

Scientists have halted the advance of heart disease in mice -- and even reversed some of its effects. The study provides hard evidence that tiny pieces of genetic material called microRNA can play a key role in the development of heart disease.

Improvements in behavior and screening have contributed greatly to the 13 percent decline in cancer mortality since 1990, with better cancer treatments playing a supporting role, according to new research from David Cutler of Harvard University.

That is one of the findings of a study forthcoming in the Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Science. The researchers analyzed the responses of 516 men and women age 70 and older who participated in the Berlin Aging Study, tracking how their perceptions about age and their satisfaction with aging changed over a six-year period.

Researchers have discovered one potential mechanism by which briefly cutting off, then restoring, blood flow to arteries prior to a heart attack lessens the damage caused, according to a study published today in the journal Cardiovascular Research. The new mechanism points to how future drugs could provide protection ahead of heart attacks and strokes for those at highest risk.

People with certain high risk gene combinations* are eight times more likely to suffer from a severe and prolonged illness when they have an infection, according to University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers.

A team of scientists from across Europe are embarking on new research to develop a treatment for food allergy.

Dieters or those who consume fewer calories during flu season could have a harder time fighting off the flu virus, according to research by Michigan State University nutritional immunology professor Elizabeth Gardner.

Today, the average size soft drink is 20 ounces and contains 17 teaspoons of sugar. More startling is that some citric acids found in fruit drinks are more erosive than hydrochloric or sulfuric acid-which is also known as battery acid. These refined sugars and acids found in soda and citrus juice promote tooth erosion, which wears away the hard part of the teeth, or the enamel. Once tooth enamel is lost, it's gone forever. There is a beverage that does not produce such irreversible results. When deciding between the many options available, the best thing to drink is brewed tea, according to a study in the July/August issue of General Dentistry, the clinical, peer-reviewed journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD).

The temperature might not be the only thing plummeting this winter. Many people also will experience a decrease in their vitamin D levels, which can play a role in heart disease, according to a new review article in Circulation.

Older people who spent at least 14 hours a week taking care of a disabled spouse lived longer than others. That is the unexpected finding of a University of Michigan study forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

A study performed by the team of Dr. Nabil G. Seidah, Director of the Biochemical Neuroendocrinology Research Unit at the IRCM, shows for the very first time that the degradation by PCSK9 of the LDLR receptor, which is responsible for removing the bad cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol) from the bloodstream, may be inhibited by a third protein, annexin A2. This major discovery co-authored by Gaétan Mayer, a postdoctoral fellow, Steve Poirier, a doctoral student, and Dr. Seidah was published on November 14 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC).

Although Americans are becoming increasingly aware of toxic chemical exposure from everyday household products like bisphenol A in some baby bottles and lead in some toys, women do not readily connect typical household products with personal chemical exposure and related adverse health effects, according to research from the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Brown University sociologist Phil Brown is a co-author of the study.

Tissue engineering has made possible this doubly innovative operation -- the first trachea transplant and the first tissue transplant to be performed without the need for immunosuppression. The transplanted tissue is a hybrid from a donor that was repopulated with stem and epithelial cells from the recipient. Five months later, Claudia Castillo, who required the operation to save a lung following tuberculosis, is in perfect health.

A new early-warning test from Tel Aviv University detects polyps before cancer sets in.

Using a novel technique developed by Mitchell Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) to identify different types of bacteria, scientists have completed the most precise survey to date of how microbial communities in the human gut respond to antibiotic treatment.