Just like the body contains lungs, liver, and lymph nodes, so does each of the body’s cells contain tiny specialized organs. Perhaps most peculiar among them are lysosomes–bubble-like sacks that act as part recycling bin, part stomach. Among other things, a lysosome devours cellular debris–and, like a stomach, it needs to be acidic to do…
Living near major roads or highways is linked to higher incidence of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis (MS), suggests new research published this week in the journal Environmental Health. Researchers from the University of British Columbia analyzed data for 678,000 adults in Metro Vancouver. They found that living less than 50 metres…
The International Sweeteners Association (ISA) welcomes the publication this month of a new scientific report* by Ashwell et al. in Nutrition Research Reviews.(1) This new publication points to the extensive body of robust scientific evidence that shows that low/no calorie sweeteners: – Are safe: all of them have undergone an extensive safety evaluation process by…
Global climate change has raised concerns that mosquito-borne diseases could become increasingly prevalent in the United States as warmer temperatures lead to increased mosquito activity. The 2015-2016 Zika outbreak, which impacted much of the Americas, prompted efforts to accelerate the development of a Zika vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),…
Family caregivers of the deceased rated the quality of end-of-life care in the intensive care unit (ICU) higher than the end-of-life care in other hospital departments (also called wards), according to new, large Penn Medicine study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The research challenges a common belief that dying in…
According to an article published ahead-of-print in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), a Stanford University team has developed a quantitative framework able to sonographically differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid nodules at a level comparable to that of expert radiologists, which may prove useful for establishing a fully automated system…
Washington, DC – January 23, 2020 – Government and academic investigators have developed a vaccine against African swine fever that appears to be far more effective than previously developed vaccines. The research appears this week in the Journal of Virology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. Currently, there is no commercially available vaccine…
The SARS disaster was supposed to drag China into a new era of openness and responsibility. The deadly disease rippled across the world 17 years ago, abetted by a Chinese government that covered up its spread. As the scope of it became clear, China’s journalists, intellectuals and other critics helped shame Beijing into opening up…
It goes without saying that cigarettes and surgery are not a winning combination. Scores of studies have shown that patients who use tobacco have poorer post-surgical outcomes. But many doctors give smokers conflicting advice on the ideal length of time they should go cold turkey before their operations. A new report released this week by…
BEIJING — The Lunar New Year holiday in China is the world’s largest annual migration of people, with hundreds of millions of travelers fanning out across the country and the world, and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on hotels, restaurants and shopping. Now, with a mysterious new pneumonia-like coronavirus that has killed at least…