Medicine News | Sci.News

Simplified pathway of vitamin D metabolism with a suggested approach to manage hypervitaminosis D. Key steps include the following: limit sun exposure; stop oral vitamin D supplements; use medications such as corticosteroids, ketoconazole and hydroxychloroquine to block 1α-hydroxylase activity; stop oral calcium supplements to reduce burden of hypercalcemia from hypervitaminosis D. Key enzymes involved in metabolism pathway are shown in green. Image credit: Auguste et al, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.180465 / Creativology / BSG Studio.

Taking Too Much Vitamin D Can Lead to Kidney Failure

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

Vitamin D — which exists in two forms: D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol) — helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in...

tBHQ, at a dose relevant to human diet, impairs the primary and memory immune responses to influenza infection. Image credit: C. S. Goldsmith & A. Balish / CDC.

Widely-Used Food Additive E319 Impairs Immune Responses to Influenza Infection

Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

A common food additive called tert-butylhydroquinone (E319) suppresses the immune response the body mounts when fighting the flu; it also reduces the effectiveness...

Dunlop et al sought to identify evidence-based thresholds to maintain disability-free status over 4 years among adults with lower extremity joint symptoms. Image credit: Coombesy.

Study: One Hour a Week of Brisk Walking Could Prevent Disability in Older Adults with Arthritis Pain

Apr 4, 2019 by News Staff

According to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, just one hour a week of brisk walking staves off disability in older adults...

Ordinary-looking pajamas are transformed into ‘smart’ ones with five strategically placed sensors that measure heartbeat, respiration and posture. Image credit: Trisha L. Andrew.

Phyjama: Smart Pajama with Self-Powered Sensors Could Help Improve Sleep Patterns

Apr 3, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by University of Massachusettes Amherst’s Dr. Trisha Andrew has developed ‘smart’ pajamas embedded with self-powered sensors...

Epileptic patients release a particular smell during a seizure and dogs can be trained to detect it. Image credit: Skeeze.

Epileptic Seizure Odor Does Exist and Dogs Can Be Trained to Detect It

Apr 2, 2019 by News Staff

Dogs are able to detect an odor collected from patients during an epileptic seizure, according to a study by researchers from Medical Mutts, a service...

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was positively associated with mortality primarily through cardiovascular disease mortality and showed a graded association with dose. Image credit: Raw Pixel.

Sugar-Sweetened Beverages May Be Associated with Increased Risk of Mortality

Mar 27, 2019 by News Staff

Frequently drinking sugar-sweetened beverages (carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, and sports drinks) was associated...

Weekend recovery sleep doesn’t prevent weight gain or reduce insulin sensitivity. Image credit: Wok & Apix.

Study: Weekend Snoozes Don’t Fully Make Up for Weekday Sleep Loss

Mar 25, 2019 by Sam Sander Effron

Sleeping in a few extra hours on the weekends might not be enough to combat the self-incurred damage from weekday sleep deprivation. According to a study...

Drinking hot tea increases the risk of esophageal cancer. Image credit: Fxxu.

Drinking Very Hot Tea Increases Risk of Esophageal Cancer, Study Shows

Mar 21, 2019 by News Staff

Drinking hot tea elevates the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, one of the two major types of esophageal cancer, by about 90%, according to a...

The stress of spaceflight gives viruses a holiday from immune surveillance, putting future deep-space missions in jeopardy. Image credit: NASA.

Dormant Herpes Viruses Reactivate in Astronauts During Spaceflight, New Study Shows

Mar 19, 2019 by News Staff

Latent herpes viruses such as herpes-simplex-1 (HSV-1), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivate in...

Green tea polyphenols have the potential to improve skeletal muscle metabolism in obese mice by improving glucose homeostasis, reducing lipid peroxidation, and increasing rate limiting enzymes of oxidative phosphorylation. Image credit: Andi Ketaren.

Green Tea Consumption Improves Metabolism, Overall Health in Obese Mice: Study

Mar 19, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, mice fed a diet of 2% green tea extract fared far better than those that ate a diet without...

Auditory stimulation combined with light-induced gamma oscillations in the hippocampus and auditory cortex regions of the brain reduces amyloid levels and improves memory in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease. Image credit: Martorell et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.02.014.

Brain Wave Stimulation Reduces Alzheimer’s Plaques in Mice

Mar 18, 2019 by News Staff

Alzheimer’s disease, which affects more than 5 million people in the United States, is characterized by beta-amyloid plaques that are suspected to be...

Dabas et al explored the anti-inflammatory potential of colored avocado seed extract. Image credit: Tookapic.

Avocado Seed Extract Shows Anti-Inflammatory Activity

Mar 14, 2019 by News Staff

Anti-inflammatory medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and steroids are commonly used to treat various diseases. According...

Pain in osteoarthritis poses a substantial social and economic burden with fewer than 25% of patients having adequate pain control. NGF has emerged as a key driver of pain behavior in murine studies and antibodies to NGF are potent analgesics in human osteoarthritis. Using a novel virus-like particle, von Loga et al created a therapeutic vaccine that reversibly induced antibodies against NGF and abrogated pain behavior in murine osteoarthritis. Image credit: OpenStax / CC BY 4.0.

Novel Vaccine Blocks Osteoarthritis Pain in Mice

Mar 12, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the UK, Switzerland and Latvia has developed a virus-like particle vaccine that could be used to treat chronic...

Lane et al identified 57 loci for self-reported insomnia symptoms in the UK Biobank (n = 453,379) and confirmed their effects on self-reported insomnia symptoms in the HUNT Study (n = 14,923 cases and 47,610 controls), physician-diagnosed insomnia in the Partners Biobank (n = 2,217 cases and 14,240 controls), and accelerometer-derived measures of sleep efficiency and sleep duration in the UK Biobank (n = 83,726). Image credit: Medical Gallery of Mikael Häggström, 2014 / WikiJournal of Medicine, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.008.

Researchers Identify New Gene Regions Associated with Insomnia

Mar 11, 2019 by News Staff

Insomnia is a common disorder linked with adverse long-term medical and psychiatric outcomes. It affects 10-20% of adults, and several twin and family...

Poulimenos et al found that people who took advantage of a mid-day snooze were more likely to have a noticeable drop in blood pressure compared with those who didn’t nap. Image credit: Pexels.

Study: Mid-Day Sleep Can Lower High Blood Pressure

Mar 8, 2019 by News Staff

Mid-day sleep significantly decreases systolic and diastolic blood pressure in people with arterial hypertension, according to new research. Poulimenos...

Study Finds No Link between Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine and Autism

Mar 7, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children, and is not associated...

Flavonoid-rich cocoa could reduce fatigue in multiple sclerosis patients. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Flavonoid-Rich Cocoa Could Reduce Multiple Sclerosis-Related Fatigue

Mar 6, 2019 by News Staff

Flavonoids are a group of natural polyphenolic compounds with variable structures. They are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, bark, roots, stems, flowers,...

Fancourt & Steptoe aimed to explore whether television viewing behaviors in adults aged 50 or over are associated with a decline in cognition. Image credit: Pavlofox.

Too Much TV Linked to Verbal Memory Decline in Older People

Mar 5, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, a duo of researchers at University College London, UK, analyzed data from 3,662 adults aged 50...

Sesquizygosis -- whereby twins are genetically identical to each other with respect to one parent but differ from each other by approximately 50% with respect to the composition of DNA inherited from the other parent -- is a third form of twinning. Genetically, sesquizygosis can be considered to be on a continuum between monozygosis and dizygosis. It probably arises after heterogoneic assortment of two paternal genomes and one maternal genome during the first postzygotic cleavage division. Image credit: Gabbett et al, doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1701313.

Extremely Rare Sesquizygotic Twins Identified in Australia

Mar 4, 2019 by News Staff

Twins are traditionally classified as monozygotic (identical) or dizygotic (fraternal). Monozygotic twinning results in genetically identical individuals,...