Health & Wellness
Scientists have expressed genes from snapdragon in tomatoes to grow purple tomatoes high in health-protecting anthocyanins.
Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments found at particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry. Scientists are investigating ways to increase the levels of health-promoting compounds in more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables.
© John Innes Centre
Purple, high anthocyanin tomatoes and red wild-type tomatoes.
"Most people do not eat 5 portions of fruits and vegetables a day, but they can get more benefit from those they do eat if common fruit and veg can be developed that are higher in bioactive compounds," says Prof Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre.
Alister Doyle
ReutersThu, 23 Oct 2008 09:12 UTC
Many pesticides used in the European Union may damage brain growth in foetuses and young children, according to a study published Friday.
The study urged the European Union to tighten restrictions.
"Toxicity to the brain is not routinely included in testing pesticides," Philippe Grandjean of the Havard School of Public Health and the University of Southern Denmark told Reuters.
Researchers say finding could lead to treatment for compulsive, addictive disorders
Competition between two areas of the brain involved in learning may explain common memory lapses, suggest Yale University researchers, who add that their findings may help lead to new treatments for drug abusers and people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Researchers at the Heidelberg University Hospital have discovered a new genetic disease that can lead to severe liver damage. Because a protective component of the bile is missing, the liver cells are exposed to the toxic components of the bile, resulting in cirrhosis of liver, a transformation of liver cells into connective tissue with a gradual loss of liver function.
Amanda Gardner
HealthDayFri, 24 Oct 2008 08:05 UTC
It may not be the cure for the common cold, but it may set the stage for a cure.
Canadian and U.S. researchers have found that the human rhinovirus, long blamed for causing the common cold, doesn't actually cause those annoying sniffles, sneezes, and coughs.
Instead, the ubiquitous virus alters genes in the body, which then results in the misery that afflicts most people every year or so, according to a study in the first November issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
A BYU-Harvard-Stanford research team has identified a molecule that is key to mothers' ability to pass along immunity to intestinal infections to their babies through breast milk.
The study highlights an amazing change that takes place in a mother's body when she begins producing breast milk. For years before her pregnancy, cells that produce antibodies against intestinal infections travel around her circulatory system as if it were a highway and regularly take an "off-ramp" to her intestine. There they stand ready to defend against infections such as cholera or rotavirus. But once she begins lactating, some of these same antibody-producing cells suddenly begin taking a different "off-ramp," so to speak, that leads to the mammary glands. That way, when her baby nurses, the antibodies go straight to his intestine and offer protection while he builds up his own immunity.
© Brigham Young University
BYU microbiology professor Eric Wilson led a research team that included undergraduates Kathryn Distelhorst (r) and Elizabeth Nielsen Low that showed how breastfeeding passes mothers' immunity on to babies.
This is why previous studies have shown that formula-fed infants have twice the incidence of diarrheal illness as breast-fed infants.
Until now, scientists did not know how the mother's body signaled the antibody-producing cells to take the different off-ramp. The new study identifies the molecule that gives them the green light.
Needles are often equated with pain and discomfort; however, for a horse named Gypsy the tiny sharp objects brought about much needed relief as Dr. Mark Crisman, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, administered acupuncture therapy.
© Virginia Tech
Dr. Mark Crisman administers acupuncture therapy.
Gypsy had an infection in her ankle and Crisman was using acupuncture -- along with traditional therapy -- to help strengthen her bones and immune system, and provide pain relief.
Acupuncture, which has its roots in eastern countries, is a technique of inserting and manipulating very fine needles into specific points on the body with the intention of relieving pain and other therapeutic purposes. This ancient practice has long been used among human patients and, over the past few decades, has gained popularity and recognition in veterinary medicine.
Nearly one quarter of Beijing families have fed their children milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, state press reported Sunday.
In an indication of the scale of the tainted milk scandal that has rocked the country, more than 74,000 of nearly 308,000 households questioned in the capital said their children were fed the products before they were taken off the shelves, the Beijing News reported.
So far at least four infants have died in China, and 53,000 sickened across the country, from drinking milk tainted with melamine. Normally used in making plastics and glue, melamine was added to baby milk formula and other dairy products to make them appear richer in protein.
Paris - One tiny brain cell is all it takes to restore voluntary movement of paralysed muscles, scientists in the United States reported Wednesday.
In experiments pointing to new treatments for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury or stroke, monkeys learned within minutes to harness the power of a single neuron to activate muscles immobilised by drugs.
There are some 100 billion neurons in the human brain, and the study suggests an unsuspected degree of flexibility in the kinds of tasks they can perform.
If your doctor has prescribed antibiotics for the flu or told you to try B12 vitamins for fatigue, those treatments were probably just a placebo - an unproven therapy offered with the hope you would feel better if you took something.
