Many eco-friendly children’s products found to contain toxic PFAS chemicals
With more consumers demanding children’s products free of toxic ingredients, discerning which ones might be harmful and which ones are safe isn’t easy. A new study shows many children’s products, including those with green certifications, contain harmful PFAS chemicals that were not listed on the label. The findings demonstrate the pervasiveness of PFAS in products […]
Bye, bye, biopsy? Handheld device could painlessly identify skin cancers
Skin biopsies are no fun: Doctors carve away small lumps of tissue for laboratory testing, leaving patients with painful wounds that can take weeks to heal. That’s a price worth paying if it enables early cancer treatment. However, in recent years, aggressive diagnostic efforts have seen the number of biopsies grow around four times faster […]
Study identifies exact amounts of extra vitamin C for optimal immune health
If you are carrying a few extra kilos in weight, an extra apple or two per day might make a difference in boosting your immune system and helping ward off COVID-19 and winter illnesses. New University of Otago, Christchurch research has identified, for the first time, exactly how much extra vitamin C humans need to […]
Investigating cancer drug toxicity leads to a critical discovery
It’s not often that a failed clinical trial leads to a scientific breakthrough. When patients in the UK started showing adverse side effects during a cancer immunotherapy trial, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and University of Liverpool went back through the data and worked with patient samples to […]
Recurrent UTIs linked to gut microbiome, chronic inflammation
One of the greatest frustrations regarding urinary tract infections (UTIs) is that they so often recur. UTIs are caused by bacteria in the urinary tract and characterized by frequent and painful urination. A round of antibiotics usually clears up the symptoms, but the relief is often temporary: A quarter of women go on to develop […]
Why is the 100-year-old BCG vaccine so broadly protective in newborns?
The century-old Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis is one of the world’s oldest and most widely used vaccines, used to immunize 100 million newborns every year. Given in countries with endemic TB, it has surprisingly been found to protect newborns and young infants against multiple bacterial and viral infections unrelated to TB. There’s even […]
Green walls in offices have a positive impact on skin microbiota and enhance immune regulation
An experimental study led by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) showed that air-circulating green walls installed inside offices modified microbiota affecting employees’ skin health and enhanced the immune system’s regulation. Effects could already be seen during one month. It is estimated that one out of five people living in the developed countries suffers from […]
New insights on the importance of skull channels for brain health
Investigators led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) that previously discovered tiny channels in the skull have now found that cerebrospinal fluid (also known as “brain water”) can exit the brain into the skull’s bone marrow through these channels. The discovery, which is published in Nature Neuroscience, is important because immune cells produced […]
People Taking New Hunger-Blocking Drug Lose 24 Kilograms On Average
Another week, another obesity drug tested – but a new one by the US pharmaceutical giant Lilly may prove to be promising, with people who had weekly injections of the drug losing 22.5 percent of their body weight on average. Obesity is at global epidemic levels and spans many different ages and socioeconomic groups. There […]
The Precise Neurons That Die In Parkinson’s Disease Have Finally Been Identified
The specific subset of brain cells that die off in patients with Parkinson’s disease has been identified, thus solving one of the greatest mysteries surrounding the disorder. Presenting their research in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the study authors say their findings could lead to the development of new treatments that target these vulnerable neurons. The […]