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Prebiotics in infants for prevention of allergic disease and food hypersensitivity

Many parents add prebiotics and probiotics to children's food to help treat health problems, and according to two new reviews, the supplements might also help prevent eczema in babies at high risk.

17 Oct 2007

Scientists reassess heart disease causes

Almost 3,000 Northern Ireland people are to take part in a Queen's study analysing their risks of developing heart disease in the future.

17 Oct 2007

Training for walking after stroke

Repetitive training that simulates everyday leg function can help people walk more easily after stroke, according to a new review of studies.

17 Oct 2007

Lidocaine lollipop helps prepare for upper GI endoscopy

Researchers at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Lebanon have found that administering a lidocaine lollipop as a single-agent anesthetic to patients undergoing an upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy procedure eliminated the need for sedation in the majority of patients.

17 Oct 2007

Parenting interventions for the prevention of unintentional injuries in childhood

Teaching parenting skills could be an effective way to reduce childhood injuries, a new review of studies suggests, especially for disadvantaged families.

17 Oct 2007

Oral antibiotics effective to treat severe urinary tract infections

Although doctors routinely use IV antibiotics to cure patients with severe urinary tract infections (UTI), a new review from suggests that oral antibiotics work just as well - from treating acute symptoms to preventing long-term complications of UTI.

17 Oct 2007

Genetics play a key role in obesity

New evidence that genetics plays a key role in obesity is published today in the International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications.

17 Oct 2007

Using insoles may not reduce back pain

There is strong evidence that using insoles does not prevent people from getting non-specific back pain, and there is insufficient evidence to say whether or not they help solve existing low-back pain, a Cochrane Systematic Review has found.

17 Oct 2007

New technique to probe the dynamics of the Holliday junction

The Holliday junction is a four-stranded DNA structure that forms during a process known as homologous recombination, which occurs when damaged DNA is repaired. Understanding how DNA repairs itself is an essential step in ultimately developing therapies for genetic disorders.

17 Oct 2007

Sugars, not proteins make bones tough

Researchers have discovered that the structure of human bones is vastly different than previously believed - findings which will have implications for how some debilitating bone disorders are treated.

17 Oct 2007

New knowledge about basic cancer biology

Merging technological innovations and new knowledge about basic cancer biology, cancer researchers now target specific molecules involved in critical chemical pathways of cancerous cells.

17 Oct 2007

Myositis featured on Discovery Channel

LaShan Davis, featured this week on The Discovery Channel's “Mystery Diagnosis” spent three 10-hour days filming the segment and reliving the terrifying time she spent waiting for her “mystery disease” to be diagnosed.

17 Oct 2007

Blood modulates how neurons process information

MIT scientists propose that blood may help us think, in addition to its well-known role as the conveyor of fuel and oxygen to brain cells.

17 Oct 2007

Mental disorders are disorders of the brain

Depression, anxiety disorders such as panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorders, alcohol and drug dependence, dementia and Parkinson's disease are just a few examples of "disorders of the brain".

17 Oct 2007

Medical school departments, department heads often have industry relationships

A study led by members of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Policy (MGH-IHP) has found that institutional academic-industry relationships - financial relationships companies have with medical schools or teaching hospitals rather than with individual physicians or scientists - are as common and pervasive as individual relationships.

17 Oct 2007

One-third of patients receiving HIV medication in Africa don't continue treatment

More than one-third of patients receiving HIV medication in Africa die or discontinue their treatment within two years, according to a study published in PLoS Medicine.

17 Oct 2007

Liver fibrosis will be treated by a potential target

The outcome of hepatitis is either self recovery or its development into liver fibrosis or, further, liver cirrhosis.

17 Oct 2007

Is the spleen able to prohibit tumor cell proliferation?

Primary and metastatic tumors of the spleen are described as unusual, excluding involvement by lymphoma.

17 Oct 2007

In-vitro fertilization improved with 3-D/4-D-guided embryo transfer and new placement target

The pregnancy rate for patients undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is improved when doctors use advanced 3D/4D imaging to guide the placement of embryos to the point where the endometrium is most receptive to implantation, according to a study presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).

17 Oct 2007

Discovery of new area for exploration of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue.

17 Oct 2007