Alternative Health

A new study exploring vitamin D levels in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) opens up the possibility of a new avenue of early intervention that may delay or prevent the onset of cognitive impairment and depression. The findings are published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease. Investigators conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 286 patients with PD and found that … [Read more...]

Most students attend schools where they are exposed to fast food and beverages through meals, advertising and promotions, according to a study released Monday. Ten percent of elementary school and 30 percent of high school cafeterias serve branded fast food weekly, while 19 percent of high schools served these foods daily, according to researchers at the Institute for Social … [Read more...]

A blood test to measure folate concentrations in a mother's red blood cells could help in the prevention of neural tube birth defects, suggests a large study published on the British Medical Journal website. Folate is a naturally occurring form of vitamin B found in food, while folic acid is synthetically produced and used in fortified foods and supplements. It is well … [Read more...]

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed a novel method to test for vitamin B12 deficiency that is sensitive enough to work on anyone, including newborn babies and large swaths of the general population. Vitamin B12 deficiency can be tested with a single drop of blood collected from a finger prick, then blotted and dried overnight on a card consisting … [Read more...]

Patients experience fewer postoperative complications when a surgical safety checklist is used by their surgical team, reports the first large-scale review on the subject published in the June issue of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists® (ASA®). By following a simple checklist, health care providers can minimize the most … [Read more...]

One in 5,000 Americans has mitochondrial disease — a progressive disorder that causes weak muscles, vision and hearing loss, and seizures. Now after years of hopelessness, new research shows that “old” drugs may help. When she was five months old — doctors diagnosed Giuliana D’Aria with mitochondrial disease. Gianna Foglia, Giuliana’s mother told Ivanhoe, “Basically they … [Read more...]

Tea is the most highly consumed beverage in the world next to water. The methods of preparing the beverage varies throughout the world and also depends on the type of tea. In a recent Journal of Food Science study, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), researchers from University of Malaya found that the temperature and length of time tea leaves are steeped … [Read more...]

Scientists and business people have known for decades that certain scents -- pine boughs at Christmas, baked cookies in a house for sale -- can get customers in the buying spirit. Eric Spangenberg, a pioneer in the field and dean of the Washington State University College of Business, has been homing in on just what makes the most commercially inspiring odor. Spangenberg and … [Read more...]

A new study by a team of researchers from New Zealand's University of Otago and Japan suggests that the appetite-regulating hormone ghrelin could be used clinically for the early treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI), an advanced form of peripheral artery disease. CLI is the severe obstruction of blood flow to the extremities that often requires major amputations and in … [Read more...]

LupuzorTM may become the first specific and non-immunosuppressant therapy for lupus, a disabling autoimmune disease that is currently incurable. Discovered by Sylviane Muller's team in the CNRS Immunopathologie et Chimie Thérapeutique laboratory, in Strasbourg, this peptide is the subject of a CNRS patent (granted in 2009) and has already successfully completed phases I and II … [Read more...]

Celiac UK, the national charity for celiac disease announces today, 12th May 2014, new research from the University of Nottingham that has found a fourfold increase in the rate of diagnosed cases of celiac disease in the United Kingdom over the past two decades, but, still three quarters of people with celiac disease may remain undiagnosed. The National Institute of Health … [Read more...]

A new study in the American Journal of Health Promotion finds that, on average, a morbidly obese employee costs an employer over $4,000 more per year in health care and related costs than an employee who is of normal weight. The study also revealed that obese individuals who had comorbidities such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol incurred more costs … [Read more...]

Feeling sluggish? Gaining weight? What you need is a shot in the arm, claim advertisers for trendy vitamin B12 injections. Don't let marketers needle you. "If medical testing confirms that an individual has a vitamin B12 deficiency, a vitamin B12 supplement will help. But if a B12 deficiency has not been identified by a physician or primary care doctor, there is no need to … [Read more...]

Using olive or sunflower oil on new born babies' skin damages the barrier which prevents water loss and blocks allergens and infections, new research led by The University of Manchester has found. Despite most midwives recommending olive or sunflower oil for dry skin, as highlighted in a previous University study, there has been little research into the effects of these … [Read more...]

Marriage is good for the health of men's bones -- but only if they marry when they're 25 or older, new UCLA research suggests. In a study published online in the peer-reviewed journal Osteoporosis International, researchers found evidence that men who married when they were younger than 25 had lower bone strength than men who married for the first time at a later age. In … [Read more...]

Scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have figured out a key step in how "free" calcium -- the kind not contained in bones -- is managed in the body, a finding that could aid in the development of new treatments for a variety of neurological disorders that include Parkinson's disease. Appearing online this week in Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers describe their use … [Read more...]

A team of researchers at Northeastern University has developed an innovative 3-D printing technology that uses magnetic fields to shape composite materials--mixes of plastics and ceramics--into patient-specific products. The biomedical devices they are developing will be both stronger and lighter than current models and, with their customized design, ensure an appropriate fit. … [Read more...]

Ischemic brain injury due to heart and vascular surgery cause more than 100,000 deaths annually in Europe and the United States. In addition, approximately 10-20% of patients undergoing heart and vascular surgery -- at least 1.5 million people in Europe and the United States every year -- suffer from ischemic brain injury as a side-effect of their surgery. Researchers from … [Read more...]

A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden finds that testing for human papilloma virus (HPV) allows for longer time between screening tests when compared to cytology-based testing. The study is published in the scientific journal British Medical Journal (BMJ). Cervical screening programs have until recently relied on cytology to identify women at risk for developing … [Read more...]

New research has helped unpick a long-standing mystery about how dietary fiber supresses appetite. In a study led by Imperial College London and the Medical Research Council (MRC), an international team of researchers identified an anti-appetite molecule called acetate that is naturally released when we digest fiber in the gut. Once released, the acetate is transported to the … [Read more...]

People with multiple sclerosis who for one year followed a plant-based diet very low in saturated fat had much less MS-related fatigue at the end of that year -- and significantly less fatigue than a control group of people with MS who didn't follow the diet, according to an Oregon Health & Science University study being presented today at the American Academy of … [Read more...]

New research published in the December 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that in mouse models of the disease oral administration of magnesium-L-threonate (MgT) alleviated cognitive decline by suppressing the Aß deposition in amyloid plaques in an APH-1a/1ß-dependent manner. Although questions still remain about how MgT permeates the blood-brain barrier, the work suggests … [Read more...]

A new study found that children who were bullied during P.E. class or other physical activities were less likely to participate in physical activity one year later. Overweight or obese children who experienced teasing during physical activity had a lower perceived health-related quality of life (referring to physical, social, academic and emotional functioning) one year … [Read more...]

Preschool-aged children require the majority of their waking day, approximately 11 hours, to achieve their recommended daily physical activity, a Vanderbilt study published in Obesity found. Children in the study, ages 3-5, achieved this activity through relatively short bursts of energy expenditure as opposed to the longer and more routine periods of exercise typically … [Read more...]

Car accidents, neck injury, smoking, and cancer can all cause irreparable harm to the trachea, the flexible tube that keeps us breathing normally. Researchers are developing new windpipes to help those who have serious or life-threatening damage and 3D printed tracheas could be medicine’s next big thing. Researchers and surgeons are teaming up to see if a lab-grown windpipe … [Read more...]

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego developed a new technology that uses an oscillating electric field to easily and quickly isolate drug-delivery nanoparticles from blood. The technology could serve as a general tool to separate and recover nanoparticles from other complex fluids for medical, environmental, and industrial applications. Nanoparticles, … [Read more...]

Antibiotics improve growth in children at risk of undernourishment in low and middle income countries, according to researchers at McGill University who have just conducted a research literature review on the subject. Their results, published in the British Medical Journal, suggest that the youngest children from the most vulnerable populations benefit most and show significant … [Read more...]

New research published in The Lancet has shown that a drug, currently used in the treatment of Type II diabetes, can be effective in clearing fatty liver disease from some patients. The researchers from the University of Birmingham believe that the findings present the possibility of new therapies for patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, for which there is no … [Read more...]

If diabetes in Mexico continues unchecked, at least one in three people, and as many as one in two, could be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetimes. In the first comprehensive effort to document incidence of the disease in Mexico, research led by Rafael Meza, assistant professor of epidemiology at the U-M School of Public Health, found that from 1960 to 2012 diabetes … [Read more...]

Professor Hideki Takagi, at the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences at the University of Tsukuba and his colleagues, through joint research with Descente Ltd., have succeeded in developing a new high-performance swimsuit with a "kick assist system" that improves the power of the dolphin kick. High-speed swimsuits, which made their appearance at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, … [Read more...]