Category Biology/Biotechnology

A research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has unearthed new findings which may help explain the connection between cancer risk and poor diet, as well as common diseases like diabetes, which arise from poor diet. The insights gained from this study hold promise for advancing cancer prevention strategies aimed at promoting healthy ageing.

Led by Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, this ground-breaking study was conducted by scientists from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at NUS and NUS Centre for Cancer Research (N2CR) under the Yon...

What if changes in a person’s stress levels could be detected while they sleep using wearable devices? A new study by University of Vermont researchers published in PLOS Digital Health is the first to find changes in perceived stress levels reflected in sleep data—an important step towards identifying biomarkers that may help flag individuals in need of support.

Given how critical sleep is to physical and mental health, the research team suspected signals might exist in sleep data, says Laura Bloomfield, a research assistant professor of mathematics and statistics and lead author of the study. “Changes in stress are visible.”

When parsing baseline sleep data, the researchers found “consistent associations” between people’s perceived stress scores and factors such as total slee...

A new review of research evidence has explored the key differences in how women and men sleep, variations in their body clocks, and how this affects their metabolism.

Published in Sleep Medicine Reviews, the paper highlights the crucial role sex plays in understanding these factors and suggests a person’s biological sex should be considered when treating sleep, circadian rhythm and metabolic disorders.

Differences in sleep

The review found women rate their sleep quality lower than men’s and report more fluctuations in their quality of sleep, corresponding to changes throughout the menstrual cycle.

“Lower sleep quality is associated with anxiety and depressive disorders, which are twice as common in women as in men,” says Dr Sarah L...

A clinical trial led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators showed that a nasal spray that patients administer at home, without a physician, successfully and safely treated recurrent episodes of a condition that causes rapid abnormal heart rhythms. The study, published March 25 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, provides real-world evidence that a wide range of patients can safely and effectively use the experimental drug, called etripamil, to treat recurrent paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) episodes at home, potentially sparing them the need for repeated hospital trips for more invasive treatments.

The study is the latest in a series of studies by lead author Dr...