News by Subject Medicine & Health

Despite the fact that obesity increases both the risk for stroke and death, a new study has found that people who are overweight or even mildly obese survive strokes at a higher rate as compared to those with a normal body weight.

Van der Waals interactions between molecules are among the most important forces in biology, physics, and chemistry, as they determine the properties and physical behavior of many materials. For a long time, it was considered that these interactions between molecules are always attractive. Now, researchers from the University of Luxembourg found that in many rather common situations in nature the van der Waals force between two molecules becomes repulsive.

Scientists have produced new, effective and simplified forms of teixobactin -- a new generation antibiotic which defeats multi-drug resistant infections such as MRSA -- as part of a pioneering research effort to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

Almost everything we do -- walking, talking, or drinking coffee -- is completely dependent on accurate timing when activating many muscles at once. The prevailing theory has been that the exact timing of this type of movement is not voluntarily controlled, and the timing has therefore been assumed to be fully automated when learning movements. However, a new study shows that people are fully capable of controlling their blinking with a time precision that was previously believed not to be possible.

The new journal Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) has just published the second issue of Volume 2, with a Special China Focus Issue. The CVIA China Focus Issue has been Guest Edited by Professor Changsheng Ma, Capital Medical University and National Center for Cardiovascular Clinical Research, Beijing, China and brings together contributions from leading cardiologists in the United States and China together with several commentaries by C. Richard Conti, the Editor-in-Chief of CVIA.

Recent definitions of sarcopenia have integrated information on muscle mass, strength, and physical function. A new systematic review by researchers at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, has now evaluated the epidemiology of these three distinct physiological components affected by the disorder.

Salt is a hidden enemy in children's diets. So says the conclusion of a study by researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid, which suggests that over 80 percent of Spanish schoolchildren consume excess salt; this is associated to greater risk of high blood pressure, osteoporosis and obesity. According to the authors, we first need to know the sources of dietary salt intake before we can reduce it.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool with colleagues from Gynuity Health Care in New York and the Government Medial College, Nagpur, India, have published a major study of two different types of labour induction methods in The Lancet.

A new study, conducted by a team of UK based researchers led by the University of Liverpool known as the ENIGMA Project, has revealed the levels of bad behaviours in UK kitchens which increase the public's risk of getting food poisoning.