Body

(Boston) -- Antihistamines are a group of medications that are used to treat various conditions, including allergies and nausea and vomiting. Some antihistamines require a prescription, but most are available over-the-counter (OTC), and both prescription and OTC antihistamines are often used by women during pregnancy. Until recently, little information was available to women and their health care providers on the possible risks and relative safety of these medications in pregnancy, particularly when it came to specific birth defects.

Researchers identify a metabolite as a biomarker of diabetes risk

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the most common form of diabetes and is associated with many complications. T2D is preventable through weight control and exercise; however, many individuals are unaware that they are at risk and do not change their lifestyle in time to avoid disease.

Elite endurance athletes commonly have mutations that result in the loss of the protein α-actinin-3, which is a major component of fast-twitch muscle fibers. Loss of α-actinin-3 is associated with reduced power, increased endurance capacity, and enhanced response to endurance training.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A new understanding of the essential role of gut microbes in the immune system may hold the key to dealing with some of the more significant health problems facing people in the world today, Oregon State University researchers say in a new analysis.

BOSTON (September 16, 2013) — Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have identified how one type of bacteria, Yersinia, immobilizes the immune system in order to grow in the organs of mice. To do so, the researchers extended the use of a technique and suggest that it could be used to study other bacteria that use the same or similar means of infection. The study is published in the September 11 issue of Cell Host & Microbe.

WAREHAM, MA--Cranberries are important agricultural commodities in states such as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Washington, and Oregon. But cranberry-growing operations are challenged by weeds, which compete for precious resources and often decrease fruit yields and revenues. Producers currently rely on weed management strategies such as flooding and sanding cranberry beds, hand-weeding, or applications of pre- and postemergence herbicides.

Scientists have discovered that a drug which increases the risk of sudden cardiac death interacts with mistranslated protein-coding genes present in heart muscle.

The cardiac drug flecainide was developed to prevent and treat serious arrhythmias in the ventricles - the main pumps of the heart. These cause very rapid heart rates which can be lethal if unchecked. However in clinical trials, flecainide, and its sister molecule encainide, were reported to more than double the risk of sudden cardiac death.

Scientists at the University of Warwick have modelled an outbreak of the bee infection American foulbrood in Jersey, using a technique which could be applied to other honeybee diseases such as European foulbrood and the Varroa parasite.

As well as modelling how bee infections spread, the method also allows scientists to simulate various disease control interventions in order to measure their efficacy.

Why some people are troubled by cold sores while others are not has finally been explained by scientists.

Cold sores affect around one in five people but, until now, no one has been sure why some are more prone to the virus that causes them.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that people affected by cold sores have a mutation in a gene, which means their immune system is not able to prevent them from developing.

A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that during a decade when prescription opioid use has skyrocketed, the identification and treatment of pain has failed to improve, and the use of non-opioid analgesics has plateaued, or even declined. The study was published online September 13 in the journal Medical Care.

In co-operation with a research group from Singapore, scientists at University of Copenhagen have shown that immature sugar molecules in the form of truncated O-glycans aid growth properties of cancer cells. Previously, scientists have not been able to decode the significance of these truncated O-glycans, and therefore, the results, which were recently published in the journal PNAS, represent an important contribution to understanding the growth of cancer cells as well as the work towards developing a cure that can limit or stop the growth.

Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 16, 2013)—From bird flu to the West Nile virus, bird diseases can have a vast impact on humans. Thus, understanding bird immune systems can help people in a variety of ways, including protecting ourselves from disease and protecting our interests in birds as food animals. An important element in the immune system of many animals' immune systems—including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and most animals with a backbone—is a protein called tristetraprolin, or TTP.

Granada - (16 September 2013) – Backed by research that demonstrates significant health benefits as well as unparalleled taste that meets consumer needs, food ingredients are taking center stage as thousands of experts from around the world converge to discuss the state of global health and nutrition at the leading international nutrition conference taking place this week in Spain.

Philadelphia, Pa. -- Spinal injuries are present in 1 out of 9 U.S. military personnel sustaining combat injuries in Iraq or Afghanistan -- a much higher rate than in previous wars, according to a report in the Sept. 15 issue of Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.