Category Health/Medical

Researchers at UC San Francisco and the University of Queensland have discovered a scorpion toxin that targets the “wasabi receptor,” a chemical-sensing protein found in nerve cells that’s responsible for the sinus-jolting sting of wasabi and the flood of tears associated with chopping onions. Because the toxin triggers a pain response through a previously unknown mechanism, scientists think it can be used as a tool for studying chronic pain and inflammation, and may eventually lead to the development of new kinds of non-opioid pain relievers.

The scientists isolated the toxin, a short protein (or peptide) that they dubbed the “wasabi receptor toxin” (W...

Australian men are now living longer than any other group of males in the world, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU). The study introduces a new way of measuring life expectancy, accounting for the historical mortality conditions that today’s older generations lived through. By this measure, Australian men, on average, live to 74.1.

The news is good for Australian women too; the study shows they’re ranked second, behind their Swiss counterparts.

Dr Collin Payne co-led the study, which used data from 15 countries across Europe, North America and Asia with high life...

Antibiotic use (pills/capsules) is linked to a heightened risk of bowel (colon) cancer, but a lower risk of rectal cancer, and depends, to some extent, on the type and class of drug prescribed, suggests research published online in the journal Gut.

The findings suggest a pattern of risk that may be linked to differences in gut microbiome (bacteria) activity along the length of the bowel and reiterate the importance of judicious prescribing, say the researchers.

In 2010, patients around the world took an estimated 70 billion doses of antibiotics – equivalent to 10 doses each...

Reparative medicine scientists have discovered a new compound that could shield heart tissue before a heart attack, as well as preserve healthy cells when administered after a heart attack. Imagine there were a drug that you could take soon after a heart attack that could reduce damage by protecting healthy heart muscle tissue.

“Cardiologists say that when a heart attack occurs, time is muscle,” said Robert Gourdie, director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC Center for Heart and Reparative Medicine Research.

Without oxygen supplied by blood flow, heart cells die – fast...