While there are trillions of microbes in the gut microbiota, they are easily affected when exposed to various environmental influences. These are reflected in the behavior of one microbe, Lactobacillus (LB), in response to mood pathology and stressors. A new study in the journal Brain, Behavior, zocor drug interactions and Immunity extends these findings in a mouse model, showing that […]

Reviewed As the use of wearable technology grows, smart watches are marketed across the globe to consumers as a way to monitor health. For some, they're told by these devices that they have atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, which is known to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Unfortunately, this has led to a tsunami of healthy patients […]

The CDC has issued an update on a salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes, raising the number of states to 34 after Alaska and Kansas were found to have cases. The number of people who have been sickened has increased, but the death toll remains at two. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention […]

Reviewed A simple-to-apply, needle-free vaccine patch is being developed to protect people from the potentially deadly mosquito-borne Zika virus. A prototype using The University of Queensland-developed and Vaxxas-commercialised high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) has delivered a University of Adelaide-developed vaccine and elicited an effective immune response to Zika virus in mice. UQ alum and Vaxxas researcher Dr Danushka Wijesundara said Zika […]

Skin-to-skin contact between parent and infant during the first hours after a very premature birth helps develop the child’s social skills. This is according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and others. The study also shows that fathers may play a more important role than previous research has shown. In current practice, […]

Mammals can engage in a wide range of cooperative and aggressive social behaviors. These behaviors are known to be influenced by different neural circuits, yet the molecular underpinnings of these circuits and their development over time remain poorly understood. Researchers at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and Children’s National Hospital recently carried out a study exploring the unique […]

Last week reports came out of China of thousands of children coming down with pneumonia. While children are more likely to become ill during the winter, the number of cases in Beijing caused concern. Over a week after the alarm was raised about the skyrocketing rates of illness in China scientists are coming to terms with the viruses that are […]

TOPLINE: Pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) increases during late life and predicts the development of dyspnea, highlighting the importance of risk factor assessment and control over the life course, researchers say. METHODOLOGY: Investigators quantified longitudinal changes in PASP over the 6 years between ages 75.5 and 81.5 years in 1420 adults (68% women, 24% Black) in the Atherosclerosis Risk in […]

For high-risk surgical patients with severe symptomatic mitral regurgitation (MR), insertion of the Tendyne transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR; Abbott) using a cardiac transapical approach resulted in excellent procedural success, relief of mitral regurgitation, and increases in cardiac hemodynamics and quality of life sustained at 1 year. Further, patients with severe mitral annular calcification (MAC) showed improvements in hemodynamics, functional […]

When teenagers and young adults see pro-tobacco content on social media, they face higher risks. They are more likely to report using tobacco products such as e-cigarettes (also called vapes), more likely to start using those products for the first time and less likely to view them as harmful. Algorithms programmed to automatically remove tobacco ads are designed to protect […]