The diverse biochemical composition of Japanese apricot fruits explains their broad spectrum of action on the human body. The high levels of key phenolic compounds and hydroxycinnamic acids contribute to various health benefits including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties. A recent study published in Food Research International on July 19, 2024, led by Prof. Yukiharu Ogawa and Jutalak Suwannachot from Chiba University, quantitatively evaluated the changes in phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity during the production of Shiso-zuke Umeboshi (PP). The study also simulated the digestive process to characterize the release of these compounds and ...

Parkinson’s disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disorder globally, has long baffled scientists with its progressive nature and debilitating effects on motor function. A recent study from the School of Medicine at Fujita Health University has brought new insights into the metabolic disruptions experienced by patients with PD. By analyzing the blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the patients, researchers have discovered critical impairments in purine metabolism and the recycling of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)—the molecule responsible for energy production in cells. For years, scientists have noted the decreased levels ...

Busy with work and other obligations, some people concentrate their moderate-to-vigorous exercise in one or two days of the week or weekend. A study led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, has found that this “weekend warrior” pattern of exercise is associated with lower risk of developing 264 future diseases and was just as effective at decreasing risk as more evenly distributed exercise activity. Results are published in Circulation. “Physical activity is known to affect risk of many diseases,” said ...

Vaccination coverage for COVID-19 is high in both people with and without mental illness, according to a large multinational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in Nature Communications. However, Swedish registry data revealed that individuals with unmedicated mental illness have lower vaccination levels. The researchers analysed data from seven studies in five countries (Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Estonia, and Scotland) as part of the COVIDMENT consortium, totalling just over 325,000 individuals, and registry data from Sweden including over ...

The discovery of an Earth-like planet 4,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy provides a preview of one possible fate for our planet billions of years in the future, when the sun has turned into a white dwarf, and a blasted and frozen Earth has migrated beyond the orbit of Mars. This distant planetary system, identified by University of California, Berkeley, astronomers after observations with the Keck 10-meter telescope in Hawaii, looks very similar to expectations for the sun-Earth system: it consists of a white dwarf about half the mass of the sun and an Earth-size companion in an orbit twice as large as Earth’s today. That is likely to be Earth’s fate. ...

Rockville, MD ̶ ̶ When a woman becomes pregnant, her iron requirements increase almost tenfold to support fetal development as well as her own increased iron needs.  Her ability to meet these increased iron needs depends on her iron stores at the beginning of the pregnancy as well as the physiological adaptations that enhance iron absorption as pregnancy progresses.  These physiological adaptations, however, are not always enough to support a pregnant woman’s iron needs, especially ...

Four out of five pregnant women in Ireland are iron deficient by their third trimester, a University College Cork (UCC) study reveals. Researchers at the Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health (INFANT) and School of Food and Nutritional Sciences in UCC have shown that over 80% of women are iron deficient by their third trimester.    The findings raise concerns as the participants in the study were a low-risk and generally healthy cohort. Iron deficiency during pregnancy is linked to increased risks of complications for both mother and child, including neurodevelopmental challenges for the baby.   This study is the largest of its kind globally and was ...

Research at UMC Utrecht has identified 29 novel antibodies against the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, an important cause of drug-resistant infections. Using genetic and functional approaches, the researchers also managed to unravel how these antibodies interact with antigens on the bacterial surface. Finally, they found that some of these novel antibodies act synergistically to neutralize this pathogen. The increasing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) urgently calls for the development of alternative ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sept.  26, 2024 — Most Americans agree their community is in need of more affordable housing, healthcare and social supports and services to help residents remain living independently as they age, according to a new survey from West Health and Gallup. Sixty-five percent of Americans perceive a need for more affordable housing and 60% say there is a need for more affordable healthcare and social supports and services. The new West Health-Gallup research comes as the ...

Off the coast of Chile, in waters filled with krill and anchovy by the Humboldt Current system, live an elusive and little-known population of orcas. Thanks to citizen science and years of dedicated surveillance, a team of scientists led by Dr Ana García Cegarra of the Universidad de Antofagasta are unveiling their secrets — starting with dinner.   García Cegarra’s team, who previously observed these orcas using fishing boats to help them capture sea lions, have now spotted them successfully hunting dusky dolphins for the first time and sharing the food among the pod. This new evidence about their eating habits may help experts understand how populations ...

Amongst women who experience recurrent pregnancy loss, around 20% test positive for a specific antibody that targets the mother’s own body. A Kobe University-led research team now found a treatment that drastically increases these women’s chances of carrying to full-term without complications. Recurrent pregnancy loss is a condition of women who have lost two or more pregnancies for non-obvious reasons. The Kobe University obstetrician TANIMURA Kenji and his team have previously found that in 20% of these women, they can detect a specific antibody in ...

In recent years, the world has seen a recurrence of extreme floods and droughts due to climate change. In response to this, aquifer storage technology is being used for actual water supply in countries such as the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia. In South Korea, it rains intensively in the summer and extreme rainfall occurs, causing increasing difficulties in water supply in rural areas and island areas other than urban areas. In this situation, aquifer storage technology is attracting attention as a way to stably store and supply water. Dr. Seongpil Jeong and Kyungjin Cho of the Center for Water Cycle Research at the Korea ...

Buprenorphine, an evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder, is currently underprescribed because of concerns that it can cause ‘precipitated withdrawal’, in which the first dose causes sudden, intense pain and anxiety that resolves within a few hours.  A new review of the best available evidence has found that the rate of buprenorphine-precipitated withdrawal in adults with opioid use disorder is low and should not be a barrier to use.  The review is published in the scientific journal Addiction. Lead author Dr Caroline Gregory, of the University of Ottawa, explains: “There is a lot of speculation ...

NEW YORK, NY—September 26, 2024—Today FAIR Health released the Opioid Tracker, a free, interactive tool tracking opioid abuse and dependence state by state. A brief released simultaneously offers a user’s guide to the Opioid Tracker. Available on FAIR Health’s website fairhealth.org, the Opioid Tracker includes a heat map representing the percentage of patients with opioid abuse and dependence diagnoses compared to all patients receiving medical services in 2023 for each state. Clicking on a state displays an infographic for ...

With the global population ageing rapidly, sarcopenia, a condition that affects millions of older adults and severely diminishes their quality of life, is emerging as an urgent public health issue. Now, a new discovery by scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School could lead to improved treatments for the condition. In the study, published in the journal Autophagy, the scientists found that the levels of a certain type of protein, called DEAF1 (Deformed epidermal autoregulatory factor-1), need to be maintained within optimal levels ...

Severe autoimmune conditions such Type I diabetes, Addison’s disease, lupus and inflammatory bowel disease, are between two to three times more common in women who have been diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) compared to the general population.   The research, published today (Thursday) in Human Reproduction, one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals, is the largest to investigate the link between autoimmune conditions and POI, has followed nearly 20,000 women for ...

Remote video consultations between patients and mental health specialists show a small but significant improvement on symptoms of depression and anxiety, finds a trial published by The BMJ today.   Although the effect size is small, the researchers say the effect is still meaningful given the high levels of these disorders in the community. Globally, depression and anxiety disorders are among the top leading causes of years lived with disability, but most people with depression and anxiety ...

The safety and effectiveness of donanemab - an Alzheimer’s drug recently approved by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) - is called into question in an investigation published by The BMJ today. Journalists Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee explore concerns not only about its effectiveness and the number of deaths among patients taking the drug, but also about financial ties to drug makers among the “independent” advisory panellists who recommended approval. Donanemab, developed by Eli Lilly, is the latest in a new class ...

Budgetary decisions by commissioners across England are affecting GPs’ ability to offer their patients what most people regard as essential services and forcing some practices to close, an investigation by The BMJ has found. This year, eight in 10 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) - responsible for planning health services for their local population - either reduced or froze discretionary funding for general practices as a proportion of their overall budget for services such as taking blood, wound care, ...

Women worldwide could see better treatment with new AI technology which enables better detection of damaged cells and more precisely predict the risk of getting breast cancer, shows new research from the University of Copenhagen. Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer. In 2022, the disease caused 670,000 deaths worldwide. Now, a new study from the University of Copenhagen shows that AI can help women with improved treatment by scanning for irregular-looking cells to give better risk assessment. The study, published in The Lancet Digital Health, found that the AI technology was far better at predicting risk of cancer ...

(Thursday, 26 September 2024) Novel research, presented today at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress 2024, has identified key molecular targets that could significantly enhance the healing of both acute and chronic wounds.1  These findings represent a crucial advancement in wound care, paving the way for more effective treatment options and improved patient outcomes. Globally, acute and chronic wounds affect nearly one billion people.2 In particular, chronic wounds pose a substantial economic burden on healthcare systems and severely impact ...

The five largest continental transform earthquakes since 2000 all originated on a branch of the main fault—and two researchers predict that the next great earthquake of this type will also get its start on a branch or splay fault. Last year’s magnitude 7.8 Pazarcık earthquake in Türkiye was one of these large and damaging earthquakes, where two continental tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally. That earthquake began on a branch fault, as did the 2001 magnitude 7.8 Kokoxili earthquake in northern Tibet, the 2002 magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquake in Alaska, the 2008 magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake in China, and the 2016 ...

(Thursday, 26 September 2024, Amsterdam, Netherlands) Innovative research has unveiled promising advancements in melanoma detection, which could significantly enhance diagnosis and prognosis by identifying the disease at its earliest, most treatable stages.1 This new method, presented today at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress 2024, uses tumour-specific profiling to detect antibodies unique to stage I and II melanoma patients. Melanoma, a skin cancer with a high mutation rate,2 ...

Whether it’s a sore arm or a fear of injections, how a child is treated when they present with pain could significantly affect how they respond to and manage pain later in life.   In a new study from the University of South Australia, researchers say that parents and doctors should be mindful of how they talk to and treat children experiencing pain – no matter how big or small the injury – knowing that these foundational experiences can be carried forward into adulthood.   Drawing from diverse research across developmental psychology, child mental health, and pain sciences, researchers say that it may be important to validate children’s pain by ...

PHILADELPHIA – Adults with hemophilia B saw their number of bleeding episodes drop by an average of 71 percent after a single infusion of gene therapy, according to the results of an international Phase III clinical trial published today in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and a multicenter group of investigators. Hemophilia is a genetic disorder that limits the blood’s ability to clot and affects around 30,000 people in the United States, ...