A diet high in sugar and fat such as burgers, fries and fizzy drinks can negatively affect a new mother’s breast milk and baby’s health even before the child is conceived. The new study using lab mice has found that even relatively short-term consumption of a fast food diet impacts women’s health, reducing their ability to produce nutritional breast milk […]

One of the deadliest forms of cancer is biliary tract cancer. Only one in three patients diagnosed with the disease is operable. The rest must settle for life-sustaining treatment. The reason why this cancer is so deadly is that it is difficult to diagnose, and therefore, most patients are not diagnosed with the disease until after the cancer has had […]

Botswana has become the second nation in the world, after Eswatini, to reach a landmark UN goal towards eradicating AIDS, researchers said Wednesday, in what health experts hailed as “stellar results”. The country has met the so-called “95-95-95” target on HIV diagnosis, treatment and viral suppression several years early, according to a study published ahead of a global conference on […]

In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers assessed the sensitivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron BA.2.75 variant to neutralizing antibodies (nAbs). Study: Evasion of neutralizing antibodies by Omicron sublineage BA.2.75. Image Credit: neative/Shutterstock Background The emergence of the highly mutant SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant at the end of 2021 significantly affected the effectiveness […]

Cluster headaches, anxiety and depression can be debilitating for people living with these conditions. Psychedelic drugs have shown benefits as treatments for these conditions in clinical studies, but not for everyone. Now, in ACS Chemical Neuroscience, researchers report that one reason could be common genetic variations in one serotonin receptor. They found that seven variants uniquely and differentially impacted the […]

In retrospect, Peggy Dula said, she shouldn't have taken the ambulance. She was the least injured of the three siblings who were in a car when it was struck by a pickup truck last September. Her daughter had even offered to come to the crash site and pick her up. Jim Martens, 62, and Cynthia Martens, 63, Peggy's brother and […]

Getting children closer to green spaces as they grow up could improve their lung health, according to a study published today in the European Respiratory Journal. The research found that children tended to have better lung function if their exposure to vegetation close to their homes increased in the first ten years of life. Researchers say their findings support the […]

Ofsted has today published a report on the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children's social care, drawing on evidence from inspections, focus groups and interviews with inspectors. Read 'Children's social care 2022: recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic'. The report finds that the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing staffing challenges in children's social care, which has serious consequences on the […]

A genetic risk for heart disease is far less predictive of problems than actual lifestyle risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes—even among younger adults. In a finding published July 26 in the journal Circulation, researchers led by a team at Duke AI Health found that genetic tests do little to accurately identify cardiovascular risks compared […]

In a recent Science journal study, researchers investigate the association between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and multiple sclerosis (MS). Study: Longitudinal analysis reveals high prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus associated with multiple sclerosis. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.com Background MS is an immune-mediated condition that results in chronic inflammatory demyelination of the brain and spinal cord, possibly triggered by a viral […]