The liver performs several critical functions including filtering blood, detoxifying chemicals and metabolizing drugs. When the liver is damaged by hepatitis, alcohol, or primary liver disease, fibrosis ensues. Long-term fibrosis contributes to cirrhosis of the liver, which in turn can cause severe complications, including hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a condition that results in a temporary decline…
ROCKVILLE, MD – The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) last Thursday, November 14, conducted its latest Salisbury Award Competition for Entrepreneurial Translational Research. This event featured 16 individual cancer research projects from 15 institutions, selected from among a total of 36 applications. It concluded with an evening ceremony at which finalists were recognized, the…
If you buy something through a link on this page, we may earn a small commission. How this works. Some people may find it hard to tell the difference between being bloated or pregnant as they can share similar symptoms. If a person is unsure whether they are pregnant, they may wish to take a…
Ferritin is a protein that stores iron for the body to use as needed. Many parts of the body contain ferritin, including the spleen, liver, blood, and hair follicles. When a person has a low ferritin count, they will also be low in iron. Because hair follicles contain ferritin, some people think that raising ferritin…
Although most people know that they must handle animal products appropriately to prevent illness, fruits and vegetables can also carry harmful germs. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimate that around 48 million people every year get sick from eating contaminated food. In recent years, outbreaks of foodborne illnesses have occurred due to bacteria on…
There has been some evidence that statins cause cognitive problems, and enough case reports to make the Food and Drug Administration require a warning label on the medicines. But a large Australian study reports that the cholesterol-lowering drugs are not associated with a decline in memory or thinking ability. Over six years, researchers periodically measured…
Schools in the Pacific island nation of Samoa were closed indefinitely on Monday and children have been barred from public gatherings amid a measles epidemic that has killed at least six people, most of them younger than age 2. As Samoa, a country of about 200,000 people that is part of the same island chain…
There are some crimes that are almost impossible to forget. For me, they include the death in 1999 of Kendra Webdale, an aspiring young journalist who was pushed in front of a New York subway train by a 29-year-old man with schizophrenia who had stopped taking his medication. That same year, two mentally…
Last year, my daughter asked if I would knit her a turkey hat for the five-mile Turkey Trot run in Prospect Park on Thanksgiving morning. For almost a decade, she and her former college roommate have run this race together, getting up early to start the day with a little healthy exercise. My contribution generally…
In critically ill patients who require a heart pump to support blood circulation as part of stent procedures, specific heart pumps have been associated with serious complications, according to a new study led by cardiologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Though the observational study does not prove that the heart pumps…