Body

A study of circadian rhythms in skin stem cells found that this clock plays a key role in coordinating daily metabolic cycles and cell division.

The in Cell Reports shows for the first time how the body's intrinsic day-night cycles protect and nurture stem cell differentiation. Furthermore, this work offers novel insights into a mechanism whereby an out of synch circadian clock can contribute to accelerated skin aging and cancers.

It is estimated that a third of women in the United States will have had a hysterectomy by the age of 60. That sounds like a lot but it has actually gone down and a new study of more than three thousand women in Michigan who underwent hysterectomy for benign indications reveals that alternatives to hysterectomy are being underused and that treatment guidelines are often not followed.

Researchers have discovered that a drug FDA-approved to treat overactive bladder may boost brown fat's metabolic powers, making it a promising candidate for combating obesity. Unlike energy-storing white fat, brown fat burns energy to generate heat, which can help maintain body weight and prevent obesity in rodents.

Can spiders be carriers of human pathogens? Can they cause an infection through a break in the skin?

A team of scientists has data-mined the history of publications on spider envenomations to conclude that the evidence for spider-vectored infection is scanty. Further, the researchers note that the mere presence of bacteria on spider fangs or mouthparts does not establish spiders as vectors for these bacteria.

Staying active allows you to age optimally, according to a small study in The Journal of Physiology. The analysis of amateur older cyclists found that many had levels of physiological function that would place them at a much younger age compared to the general population; debunking the common assumption that aging automatically makes you more frail.

The researchers recruited 84 male and 41 female cycling enthusiasts aged 55 to 79 to explore how the aging process affects the human body, and whether specific physiological markers can be used to determine your age.

Eating more whole grains is associated with reduced mortality, especially deaths due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a new report.

Whole grains are widely recommended in many dietary guidelines as healthful food. However, data regarding how much whole grains people eat and mortality were not entirely consistent. They don't help cancer deaths, though.

DDT hasn't been used in America for 40 years but it is still a popular research subject because everyone has heard of it. And it is still quite popular in other countries because science recognizes it is the best way to control malaria with the least impact on humans and the environment.

When biologists fed mice sugar in doses proportional to what many people eat, the fructose-glucose mixture found in high-fructose corn syrup was more toxic than sucrose or table sugar. It reduced both the reproduction and lifespan of female rodents. The study found no differences in survival, reproduction or territoriality of male mice on the high-fructose and sucrose diets., because both sugars may be equally toxic to male mice.

Adding radiation treatment to hormone therapy saves more lives among older men with locally advanced prostate therapy than hormone therapy alone, according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology this week from Penn Medicine researchers.

The idea of "healthy" obesity is a misleading concept in that most obese individuals become progressively less healthy over time, according to a study that tracked the health of more than 2,500 men and women for 20 years. The research was published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The common cold virus can reproduce itself more efficiently in the cooler temperatures found inside the nose than at core body temperature, according to a new Yale-led study. This finding may confirm the popular yet contested notion that people are more likely to catch a cold in cool-weather conditions.

In studying the cellular structure and function of insulin, a research team has uncovered previously unknown steps in the development of insulin resistance, a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.

The roles that white fat and brown fat play in metabolism is well documented, but new research published in the January 2015 issue of the FASEB Journal presents a new wrinkle: each type of fat may change into the other, depending on the temperature. In particular, cold temperatures may encourage "unhealthy" white fat to change into "healthy" brown fat.

Metformin is a proven, oral diabetes medicine but many patients with type 2 diabetes in the United States may be discouraged from taking it because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inappropriately labels the drug unsafe for some patients also suffering from kidney problems, researchers from Penn Medicine and Weill Cornel Medical College report this week in a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

And that's without supplement-selling nutritionists promoting the belief that real medicine is harmful.

A new study of over 17,000 Israelis has found that long-term exposure to the threat of terrorism can elevate resting heart rates and increase their risk of dying - and if even Israelis are not immune to the physical effects of terrorism by now, you can imagine the effect it has no the rest of the world. This is the first statistics-based study, and the largest of its kind, which indicates that fear induced by consistent exposure to the threat of terror can lead to negative health consequences and increase the risk of mortality.