Scientists at the University of Bonn, together with colleagues from Romania, have discovered a gene variant that significantly increases the risk of developing gallstones (Hepatology No. 46, July 11, 2007, DOI 10.1002/hep.21847). It is estimated that one in ten Europeans has this variant in their hereditary disposition. For those affected, the likelihood of developing a gallstone in the course of their life is two to three times higher.
A startling discovery on the development of human embryonic stem cells by scientists at McMaster University will change how future research in the area is done.
A UCSF-led team of researchers has found that larger HIV prevention programs in low and middle-income countries can increase efficiency and cause program unit costs to plummet. HIV prevention programs in Uganda, South Africa, Mexico, Russia and India were examined.
Those with heavy hearts ? in the literal not figurative sense ? long have been known to be prone to cardiac arrest and sudden death. But many are not, and who among them is subject to serious risk is a mystery.
New evidence published on bmj.com confirms that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should not be prescribed to older women who are many years past menopause to help prevent chronic conditions such as heart disease.
Chronic mild stress in pregnant mothers may increase the risk that their offspring will develop cerebral palsy — a group of neurological disorders marked by physical disability — according to new research in mice. The results may be the first to demonstrate such effects of stress on animals in the womb.
Silence may impact women?s health since few women or their doctors are comfortable talking about vaginal health openly. This hesitation, combined with a limited understanding of the differences between women, can lead to misinformation, misdiagnosis and potentially ineffective treatments.
Johns Hopkins researchers have demonstrated that one of the major architectural markers of the human genome, DNA repeat elements that make up over 40 percent of our genome, rose to prominence without offering any benefits to the organism it inhabits.
A new study challenges conventional thinking that a high carbohydrate, low fat slimming plan should contain little or no added sugar. A team of scientists at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh has found that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet — containing sucrose — combined with physical activity achieved the greatest health benefits in overweight subjects.
A molecularly engineered therapy selectively embeds a gene in pancreatic cancer that shrinks or eradicates tumors, inhibits metastasis, and prolongs survival with virtually no toxicity, researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the July 9 edition of Cancer Cell.