Category Health/Medical

This image shows a serving of seaweed crackers. Credit: Birgitte Svennevig/SDU

Adding seaweed to processed foods such as frozen pizzas, hot dogs and dried pasta will reduce cardiovascular diseases, concludes a new scientific article. One suggestion is to replace 5% of the flour in pizza dough with dried and granulated seaweed. Many seaweed species have a variety of health benefits. They contain, among other things, beneficial proteins, antioxidants, minerals, trace elements, dietary fiber and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Seaweed’s content of potassium salts does not led to high blood pressure – unlike the sodium salts, typically encountered in the processed food...

Target cells (green) stick to the microarray platform (red). Credit: Michael Hirtz / KIT

To date, it has been difficult to detect cancer cells in the blood at an early stage: about 1 malignant cell is encountered per billion of healthy cells. “Detection of cancer cells in blood in the early stage of a disease is difficult, because concentrations of the cancer cells are extremely small,” Harald Fuchs explains. “We are searching for the needles in the haystack.” The number of extracted tumor cells allows conclusions to be drawn with respect to the success of therapy and the future course of the disease. Genetic analysis of cells allows therapies to be adapted to the type of cancer to be treated.

“With our method, we reach a very high hit rate: More than 85% of the extracted cells really are ...

Doctors have shown the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise in patients with heart failure. The annual congress of the Mexican Society of Cardiology is being held in Acapulco from 21 to 25 November 2015. Experts from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will present a special programme

In Mexico there are 750,000 patients living with heart failure and the problem is growing. It is estimated that 75,000 more patients will get heart failure each year. “Just 25% of men and 38% of women with heart failure in Mexico will be alive after 5 years,” said Dr Arturo Orea...

What does inflammation in the context of depression look like inside the brain? Emory researchers have found that high inflammation is linked to a “failure to communicate” between two parts of the brain: the ventral striatum (VS, vertical cross section) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC, horizontal). Credit: Felger et al, Molecular Psychiatry (2015)

Brain imaging shows distinctive aspects of high-inflammation depression. About 1/3 of people with depression have high levels of inflammation markers in their blood. New research indicates persistent inflammation affects the brain in ways that are connected with stubborn symptoms of depression, such as anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure.

The findings bolster the case that the high-inflammation form of depression is dist...