Category Health/Medical

Eating your greens could be the secret to breathing easier, with a new study from Edith Cowan University (ECU) revealing that people who eat more vitamin K1-rich foods such as leafy green vegetables may lower their risk of chronic lung disease. The paper is published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers from ECU’s Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute looked at the two main forms of vitamin K in our diet: K1, found in foods like spinach, kale and broccoli, and K2, found in meat, eggs and dairy.

They discovered that those who ate the most vitamin K1 were less likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Almost half a million Australians have COPD, a life-threatening, worsening lung condition that makes it hard to breathe.

University of Louisville researchers have discovered how a naturally occurring microbial compound may help protect the gut and support future treatment strategies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

IBD, which includes conditions such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, affects millions of people worldwide. The disease is characterized by chronic inflammation and damage to the intestinal lining. A healthy gut barrier helps keep harmful bacteria from leaking out of the intestines while allowing nutrients to enter the body. In people with IBD, that barrier becomes weakened, leading to inflammation, pain and long-term complications.

A research team led by Venkatakrishna Rao Jala, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and UofL’s Brown Cancer C...

University of Louisville researchers have discovered how a naturally occurring microbial compound may help protect the gut and support future treatment strategies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

IBD, which includes conditions such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, affects millions of people worldwide. The disease is characterized by chronic inflammation and damage to the intestinal lining. A healthy gut barrier helps keep harmful bacteria from leaking out of the intestines while allowing nutrients to enter the body. In people with IBD, that barrier becomes weakened, leading to inflammation, pain and long-term complications.

A research team led by Venkatakrishna Rao Jala, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and UofL’s Brown Cancer C...

A night without sleep produced increased markers of connections between brain cells, showing that sleep in humans may be important for restoring cellular balance in the brain, according to a study published in PLOS Biology by David Elmenhorst from the Forschungszentrum Jülich Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and colleagues.

Scientists have long wondered why humans and other animals need to sleep. One potential mechanism is that sleep is required to restore synaptic connections and homeostasis in the brain...