Category Health/Medical

Physical activity of any kind can prevent heart disease and death, says a large international study involving more than 130,000 people from 17 countries published this week in The Lancet. The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, led by the Population Health Research Institute of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, shows any activity is good for people to meet the current guideline of 30 minutes of activity a day, or 150 min/ week to raise heart rate.

Although previous research, from high income countries, shows leisure time activity helps prevent heart disease and death, the PURE study also includes people from low and middle-income countries where people don’t generally don’t participant in leisure-time physical activity...

Experiments by a team of NIH-funded scientists suggests a potential method for halting the expansion of certain brain tumors. Credit: Image courtesy of Michelle Monje, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University

The growth of certain aggressive brain tumors can be halted by cutting off their access to a signaling molecule produced by the brain’s nerve cells, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. When the signaling molecule neuroligin-3 was absent, or when its signal was interrupted with medication, human cancers called high-grade gliomas could not spread in the brains of mice, the researchers found.

“We thought that when we put glioma cells into a mouse brain that was neuroligin-3 deficient, that might decrease tumor growth to some measurable extent...

A new paper-based sensor patch developed by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York could allow diabetics to effectively measure glucose levels during exercise. Credit: Binghamton University Electrical and Computer Science Assistant Professor Seokheun Choi

A new paper-based sensor patch developed by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York could allow diabetics to effectively measure glucose levels during exercise. Today’s most widespread methods for glucose self-testing involve monitoring glucose levels in blood. Conventional measurements, however, are not suitable for preventing hypoglycemia during exercise.

“This is because 1) the underlying process relies on invasive and inconvenient blood sampling, causing the possibility of sample ...

Schlemm’s canal (green) plays a fundamental role in draining the aqueous humor (white arrows) from the anterior chamber of the eye to blood circulation. If the aqueous humor is not able to flow out freely, elevated intraocular pressure damages the optical nerve causing glaucoma and eventually blindness. Credit: IBS

Biologists have found an explanation for the increase in intraocular pressure in glaucoma and a promising therapeutic option to rejuvenate the eye. Researchers at the Center for Vascular Research, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), have identified a new mechanism involved in the development and progression of glaucoma, and found a potential therapeutic option to treat it. Glaucoma is the second cause of irreversible blindness, after cataracts. It affects about 3...