Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
Beneficial bacteria may protect babies from HIV
No one argues that when it comes to feeding baby, mom’s milk is best. But mothers infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, face a dilemma: Because some of their virus can be shed in breast milk, babies risk becoming infected as they drink it. Two research teams are now investigating a germ-warfare strategy to treat such vulnerable infants.
- Health & Medicine
Brain has emotional sense
Scientists have found regions that may be involved in storing the sights, smells, and sounds of emotional memories.
- Health & Medicine
Violent dreams may predict illness in advance
A sleep disorder can precede neurodegenerative disease by decades.
- Health & Medicine
Gut bacteria reflect dietary differences
A comparison of African and European children concludes that high-fiber, low-fat diets cultivate healthier intestinal microflora.
- Tech
Cashiers may face special risks from BPA
“People working at places that use thermal paper can have continual contact with bisphenol A. And if they knew, I think they would be horrified,” notes Koni Grob, an analytical chemist with an official government food laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland. He’s describing the thermal paper commonly used throughout Europe and North America to print store receipts.
- Health & Medicine
‘Housekeeping’ proteins may set aging limit
Aging cells may seal their fate by keeping worn-out proteins when they sprout offspring.
- Health & Medicine
Coffee perks up memory and balance in geriatric animals
Millions of Americans start their day with a cup of coffee and then reach for refills when their energy or attention flags. But new research in rats suggests that for the aging brain, coffee may serve as more than a mere stimulant. It can boost memory and the signaling essential to motor coordination.
- Health & Medicine
Diet and behavior changes may slow Alzheimer’s
A new study in dogs finds that antioxidants and enriched lifestyle can ward off symptoms, and suggests brain plaques may not be the cause of the disease.
- Health & Medicine
Separating wheat from chaff in celiac disease
Three partial proteins may trigger the T cell immune reactions that cause the symptoms of this intestinal ailment, new research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Good vibrations: A greener way to pasteurize milk
Many people like the taste of raw – as in unpasteurized – milk. The problem, of course, is that germs may infect raw milk, so food safety regulations require that commercial producers heat-treat their milk. But food scientists at Louisiana State University think they’ve stumbled onto a tastier way to sterilize milk. They bombard it with sound waves.
- Tech
Nano-scale additives fight food pathogens
Nano products are all the rage, even in food science. Here at the Institute of Food Technologists’ annual meeting, on July 18, scientists described dramatic success in fighting food-poisoning bacteria by doctoring foods or their packaging with microbe-killing nanoparticles – sometimes along with natural anti-bacterial agents.
- Health & Medicine
Taking some of the doubt out of IVF
Testing shows that a complex array of factors can be used to calculate the probability of in vitro fertilization success better than just using woman’s age as a guidepost.
