Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
An alternate approach to Parkinson’s
While levodopa is the treatment of choice for Parkinson's disease, drugs called dopamine agonists, which mimic the neurotransmitter dopamine, may work as well early in the disease, cause fewer side effects, and preserve levodopa's effectiveness.
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- Health & Medicine
Salt trial provokes DASH of skepticism
Though a new study finds that dramatic salt restriction can lower blood pressure, even among people without hypertension, some critics challenge its value in setting new dietary guidelines for all adults.
- Health & Medicine
New inner ear hair cells grow in rat tissue
Using a gene known to control hair-cell growth, researchers have grown hair cells in tissue taken from newborn rats' cochleas, raising hopes that inner ear damage may someday be reversible.
- Health & Medicine
Drug combination may fight breast cancer
Retinoic acid, when combined with a drug that reverses a process called methylation in breast tumor cells, may awaken a key cancer-fighting gene.
- Health & Medicine
Two studies offer some cell-phone cautions
A British review of research gave cell-phone safety a guarded endorsement, while new findings indicate that radiation from older cell phones can trigger a stress-response gene, at least in animals.
- Health & Medicine
Waiting to exhale
A breath test that measures the activity of an enzyme involved in breaking down drugs in a person's body may help doctors minimize side effects from potent drugs such as docetaxel.
- Health & Medicine
Nervous tics in the heart
The irregular heartbeats sometimes triggered after a heart attack may be caused by abnormal nerve growth in heart tissue damaged by the attack.
- Health & Medicine
New gene-therapy techniques show potential
Two technologies for transferring genes, one that uses mobile DNA called transposons and another that uses a weak virus, have proved successful in overcoming genetic disorders in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Sweet news about ginseng
When taken before or with meals, ginseng appears to help people with diabetes control the normal rise in blood sugar that accompanies eating.
- Health & Medicine
Bats may spread new Malaysian virus
A Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia may have started when bats spread disease to pigs.
- Health & Medicine
A hint at a healthful effect of beer
Beer consumption seems to boost concentrations of vitamin B6 in blood and coincides with lower concentrations of homocysteine, a risk factor for heart disease.
