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61 news posts in Health

Featured news

12 Jan 2023

Simple blood test shows promise for screening common and dangerous pregnancy complications

By Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Scientists find that short-chain fatty acids in blood can be used as biomarkers in testing for dangerous pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. Scientists at Ningbo University, China have identified biomarkers that could provide an early warning system for three common and dangerous pregnancy complications: pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and a liver condition called intrahepatic cholestasis. All three conditions are dangerous; early diagnosis and treatment is key to preventing poor outcomes and lifelong consequences. Their causes are not fully understood, and nor is their connection to the gut microbiome, which is affected by pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions. A team led by Dr Siqian Chen at the Affiliated Hospital of Medical School decided to investigate whether specific changes in the microbiome — detected using levels of short-chain fatty acids, metabolites which are produced following the fermentation of microbiota — could be used as biomarkers for pregnancy complications. “We analyzed and correlated the distribution of short-chain fatty acids during normal pregnancy and during three specific types of complicated pregnancy, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and intrahepatic cholestasis,” said Dr Rongrong Xuan, senior author of the study, published today in Frontiers in […]

Featured news

20 Dec 2022

Lonely heart-failure patients face worse outcomes than sociable peers

by Tania Fitzgeorge-balfour, science writer Social frailty, which includes the loss of social roles, social networks, and social activities, is widely identified as a risk to healthy aging. A new study is the first to show a close association between the loss of perceived social role amongst friends and family and poor clinical outcomes for older heart failure patients. These findings suggest that social engagement and activities should form part of the aftercare program for these patients. Older heart failure patients who feel that they have lost their social role amongst friends and family are more likely to suffer poor clinical outcomes. This is the finding of a new study in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine that has examined the specific aspects of social interaction that can lead to a poor prognosis for these patients. “We are the first to show a close association between the loss of perceived social role and long-term poor clinical outcomes in older heart failure patients,” said Dr Satoshi Katano, first author of this research, based at Sapporo Medical University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan. “Our study highlights the real need to develop a management program that includes a social approach to the care of these patients.” Read […]

Featured news

05 Dec 2022

Scientists find inorganic food additives might make babies more vulnerable to allergies

By Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Inorganic nanoparticles used to help process food may be crossing the placental barrier and getting into breastmilk, potentially damaging intestinal regulation and compromising babies’ oral tolerance, predisposing them to food allergies. Nanotechnologies have revolutionized food technology with changes to food production, manufacture, and processing that are intended to make our food safer and healthier. Phytosanitary products, processing aids, food additives, and surfaces that touch food in storage can all transfer nanoparticles that might be consumed by humans. In a review published in Frontiers in Allergy today, Mohammad Issa, at the Université Paris-Saclay, and colleagues pointed out that such a significant change to food production could have unforeseen health consequences. The team presented evidence that suggested that nanoparticles not only cross the placenta to reach developing fetuses but leave them at greater risk of potentially life-threatening food allergies. “Due to the immunotoxic and biocidal properties of nanoparticles, exposure may disrupt the host-intestinal microbiota’s beneficial exchanges and may interfere with intestinal barrier and gut-associated immune system development in fetus and neonate,” said Dr Karine Adel-Patient, corresponding author of the study. “This may be linked to the epidemic of immune-related disorders in children, such as […]

Featured news

27 Sep 2022

4 articles you need to check out on the future of behavioral neuroscience

By Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com How mice and rats help study depression Mice and rats are key model animals that help us understand how depression works and how to treat it. A huge number of people around the world live with this devastating disorder, but its causes and symptoms are so varied that it is hard to test new treatments and to reproduce experiments to prove those treatments work. Scientists writing in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience reviewed the evidence for rodent models of depression and found that models imitating social stress or a disrupted early life have had some success. Meanwhile, models with behavioral stressors designed to induce helplessness are easily compared to other labs’ work but aren’t complex enough to model depression. A key element of depression is anhedonia, struggling to enjoy life, but this is extremely difficult to model in nonhuman animals. The most popular options available test preference for sweet tastes. The team concluded that the best option is to provide mice with a more naturalistic setting to live in, with more space to socialize and to follow their own inclinations. This helps avoid experimenter influence and allows spontaneous behavior from the mice […]

Featured news

26 Sep 2022

Rodents are reservoirs for life-threatening disease, finds new study

By Tania Fitzgeorge-balfour, science writer Image: Vicky Outen/Shutterstock.com Fungal diseases in the human population are on the rise, so it is important for health authorities to understand where these pathogens come from. A new study has searched for fungi in the lung tissues of small mammals and found fungal pathogens that cause diseases in humans. This suggests that these rodents can serve as reservoirs, agents of dispersal, and incubators of emerging fungal pathogens. Fungal diseases in the human population are on the rise, so it is important for health authorities to understand where these pathogens come from. A new study, published in Frontiers in Fungal Biology, has revealed that small mammals could act as a reservoir for these fungal infections. “Our analysis, which specifically focused on lung pathogens that cause disease in humans, detected a wide range of fungi in the lung tissues of small mammals,” said Paris Salazar-Hamm, first author of this research, of the University of New Mexico. “We found that many of the rodents we sampled from areas in the Southwestern US were harboring the type of fungi that can cause lung infections in humans, such as the fungus that leads to Valley Fever, a disease that […]

Environment

23 Sep 2022

Bees, blue light, and bacteria in beetles’ ‘back pockets’: Most viewed articles of August 2022

Image: Shutterstock.com by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Each month, Frontiers shines a spotlight on some of the leading research across a wide range of topics. Here are just some of the highlights that resonated strongly with readers on our news site in the month of August. 1. Modern pesticides make it hard for bees to keep on the straight and narrow Research published in Frontiers in Insect Science showed that common pesticides affected bees’ brains so that they couldn’t orient themselves properly. Bees exposed to sulfoxaflor and imidacloprid were tested on their ability to respond to stimuli that tricked them into thinking they’d been blown off course, a situation which required them to use their optomotor response to reorient themselves. Compared to control bees, they performed very poorly, reacting inappropriately or not at all to the stimuli. The problem seems to be caused by damage to the nervous system, but the exact mechanism is unclear. Since bees need this optomotor response to travel between different sources of pollen, and since these insecticides are widely used, this is a source of significant concern. The authors tested the optomotor response in walking bees rather than flying bees, so further research […]

Featured news

29 Aug 2022

41% of teenagers can’t tell the difference between true and fake online health messages

By Suzanna Burgelman, science writer Image: Shutterstock.com A new study has found that teenagers have a hard time discerning between fake and true health messages. Only 48% of the participants trusted accurate health messages (without editorial elements) more than fake ones. Meanwhile, 41% considered fake and true neutral messages equally trustworthy and 11% considered true neutral health messages less trustworthy than fake health messages. The results highlight a need for better training of teenagers to navigate a world where fake health news is so widespread. Health mis- and disinformation are a serious public health concern, with an increased spread of fake health news on social media platforms in the last few years. Previous research has shown that online health messages are mostly incomplete and inaccurate and have potentially harmful health information. Fake health news can lead to poor health choices, risk-taking behavior, and loss of trust in health authorities. “There has been an explosion of misinformation in the area of health during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said principal investigator Dr Radomír Masaryk, of Comenius University. Most research on message credibility has focused on adults. Masaryk and his colleagues have now investigated whether teenagers are equipped to tackle the high volume of […]

Health

24 Jun 2022

Dr Deborah Nadal: Why a rigid rabies elimination strategy can struggle to take hold in a world of local complexities

Dr Deborah Nadal. Image: Rebecca Rodrigues Dr Deborah Nadal is an affiliate researcher at the University of Glasgow, where she works on rabies-related projects, and a consultant for the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO). Her PhD research on the co-existence between people, free-roaming animals, and the rabies virus in urban India got turned into an award-winning book. Her two main research areas are health and animals (human and non-human), with a particular interest in how different species can contribute to each other’s physical, mental, and social wellbeing, especially in impoverished settings. Now, she tells us more about the need to understand local perceptions of rabies to tackle this deadly disease efficiently and sustainably. What inspired you to become a researcher? Becoming a researcher was not in my plans until rather recently. When, as a pre-school kid, I was asked what my job would be, I always replied “Licia Colò”. She is an Italian TV hostess famous for travel and animal shows. To the young me, she was the job. Then, as a school kid, the veterinary profession was my dream. In fact, my book is dedicated to this dream. But during my school years, my fascination with India started to grow as well and, despite the skepticism […]

Featured news

30 Sep 2021

Living at high altitudes may lower chance of having a deadly stroke

By Conn Hastings, science writer A town in the Ecuadorian Andes mountains. Image: ireneuke/Shutterstock.com Researchers in Ecuador are the first to investigate the risk of stroke-related death and hospitalization in people living at four different altitude ranges. They found that those living at higher altitudes have a reduced risk of death or hospitalization because of a stroke, and tend to experience strokes at a greater age. This protective effect was greatest between 2,500 and 3,500 meters.  Could living at high altitudes affect your chance of suffering a stroke? This intriguing question is at the heart of a new study in open-access journal Frontiers in Physiology. The study is the first to examine the incidence of stroke-related hospitalization and death in people living at four different elevations in Ecuador, and includes data gathered over 17 years on more than 100,000 stroke patients. Strikingly, the study finds that people living at higher altitudes have a lower risk of stroke and stroke-related death, and that this protective effect is strongest at between 2,000 and 3,500 meters. ► Read original article► Download original article (pdf) Having the right altitude Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. A stroke typically occurs because of a […]