Image Low blood levels of vitamin D are tied to bone loss that can lead to falls and fractures. But taking vitamin D supplements in high doses showed no benefits over low-dose vitamin D, a randomized trial found. The study, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, included 379 British men and women whose average…
Image Sleeping less than six hours a night, and sleeping poorly, are associated with hardening of the arteries, a new study has found. Researchers used accelerometers attached to the waists of 3,974 healthy men and women, average age 46, to monitor the duration and quality of their sleep over seven nights. All underwent physical exams…
TURNERS FALLS, Mass. — It seemed like the perfect setting for a shy, thoughtful 10-year-old boy’s first steps on stage: a kids’ Shakespeare program that doesn’t hold auditions, guarantees everyone a substantial speaking role, emphasizes community, and excludes no one. Unless, as Mason Wicks-Lim and his mother Ali discovered, you have a life-threatening nut allergy.…
New research suggests that following the American Heart Association’s guidelines for maintaining heart health can also drastically reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Exercising and healthful eating are among the “simple 7” guidelines that the AHA recommend. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), there are seven cardiovascular risk factors that people can…
A hormone that is released during exercise may improve brain health and lessen the damage and memory loss that occur during dementia, a new study finds. The study, which was published this month in Nature Medicine, involved mice, but its findings could help to explain how, at a molecular level, exercise protects our brains and…
Republican and Democratic governors have strikingly different visions for the future of health care, according to a new analysis published in the American Journal of Public Health. While Republican leaders favor maintaining or shrinking public health insurance programs, Democratic leaders are advancing several new proposals to expand public coverage, including “public option” and single-payer health…
Scientists have pinpointed cells in the immune system that could be key to tackling high blood pressure. The findings also shed light on current medications that could increase risk of the disorder, which affects more than 12 million people in the UK. High blood pressure – or hypertension – is a leading cause of life-threatening…
Solar cells, quantum computing and photodynamic cancer therapy. These all involve molecules switching between magnetic and nonmagnetic forms. Previously this process, called a “spin flip,” was thought to occur slowly in most cases. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered spin flips happen in one half of one trillionth of a second, or…
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed an artificial enzymatic pathway for synthesizing isoprenoids, or terpenes, in E. coli. This shorter, more efficient, cost-effective and customizable pathway transforms E. coli into a factory that can produce terpenes for use in everything from cancer drugs to biofuels. Terpenes are a large class of naturally occurring…
Members of the Sackler family, which owns the company that makes OxyContin, directed years of efforts to mislead doctors and patients about the dangers of the powerful opioid painkiller, a court filing citing previously undisclosed documents contends. When evidence of growing abuse of the drug became clear in the early 2000s, one of them, Richard…