Infants exposed to a diverse range of bacterial species in house dust during the first year of life appear to be less likely to develop asthma in early childhood, according to a new study published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.Children who…

Improved diagnosis and management of one of the most common cancers in men – prostate cancer – could result from research at the University of Adelaide, which has discovered that seminal fluid contains biomarkers for the disease.Results of a study now published in the journal…

In the fight against teenage obesity, some researchers have proposed targeting popular teens, in the belief that such kids would have an outsize influence on their peers.But in a Loyola University Chicago study, researchers were surprised to find that this strategy would be only marginally…

Breakfast is often said to be the most important meal of the day. Nutritionists regularly suggest it be eaten each morning for many health benefits, including weight loss and weight maintenance. But new research led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham shows that, when…

Long-term follow-up of the DIGAMI 1 trial – a landmark study of type 2 diabetes in Sweden – shows that intensive insulin treatment prolonged life by more than 2 years in patients with diabetes after a heart attack, compared with standard treatment for diabetes, reports…

Hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases increased during the Greek financial crisis, according to two studies from Athens. The research was presented at the Heart Failure Congress 2014. Dr Alexios Samentzas said: “Greece plunged into an economic crisis in 2008 and since then there have been…

Sleeping pills increase the risk of cardiovascular events in heart failure patients by 8-fold, according to research from Japan. The study was presented today at the Heart Failure Congress 2014. The Congress is the main annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European…

Obesity is a chronic disease that can shorten one’s life span, but new findings from the University of Alabama at Birmingham show that its effect on mortality has reduced in recent years among many groups, particularly women.Tapan Mehta, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of…

An imbalance of female sex hormones among men in Western nations may be contributing to high levels of male obesity, according to new research from the University of Adelaide.In a paper published in the online journal PLOS ONE, researchers from the University’s School of Medical…

Dancing eases hip or knee pain and helps older adults move better, according to a small Saint Louis University study.“After dancing, over several months they reported less pain and were able to walk faster,” said Jean Krampe, Ph.D., assistant professor of nursing at Saint Louis…

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that persons with lower blood levels of vitamin D were twice as likely to die prematurely as people with higher blood levels of vitamin D.The finding, published in the American Journal of…

Forgetful immune systems leave infants particularly prone to infections, according to a new Cornell University study. Upending the common theory that weak immune cells are to blame, the study has found that infants’ immune systems actually respond to infection with more speed and strength than…