Category Health/Medical

The study found that machine learning techniques improved diet prediction by 10-20%. When it comes to studying food and diet, it’s difficult to know what people are eating — let alone their risk of disease caused by what they eat.

Doctors and researchers usually ask people to fill out a long-from food frequency questionnaire that estimates caloric intake, food groups and nutrients. That relies on a person’s memory and may not provide the most accurate picture.

However, a research team led by a Michigan Medicine cardiologist have found a method using molecular profiling and machine learning to develop blood-based dietary signatures that more accurately predict both diet and the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes...

With an emphasis on fruits, vegetables and legumes, the Mediterranean diet has long been applauded for its multiple health benefits. Now, new research shows that it may also help overcome infertility, making it a non-intrusive and affordable strategy for couples trying to conceive.

Conducted by Monash University, the University of the Sunshine Coast, and the University of South Australia, the review found that the Mediterranean diet can improve fertility, assisted reproductive technology (ART) success, and sperm quality in men.

Specifically, researchers identified that anti-inflammatory properties of a Mediterranean diet can improve couples’ chances of conception.

Infertility is a global health concern affecting 48 million couples and 186 million individuals worldwide.

Uni...

The nanomaterial graphene oxide — which is used in everything from electronics to sensors for biomolecules — can indirectly affect the immune system via the gut microbiome, as shown in a new study on zebrafish by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings are reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“This shows that we must factor the gut microbiome into our understanding of how nanomaterials affect the immune system,” says the paper’s corresponding author Bengt Fadeel, professor at the Institute o...

The findings shed a rare light on mitoribosomes, the unique ribosomes found within the cell’s mitochondria. Ribosomes, the tiny protein-producing factories within cells, are ubiquitous and look largely identical across the tree of life. Those that keep bacteria chugging along are, structurally, not much different from the ribosomes churning out proteins in our own human cells.

But even two organisms with similar ribosomes may display significant structural differences in the RNA and protein components of their mitoribosomes...