Free Republic

Having an epidural during labor is associated with a marked reduction in serious complications in the first few weeks after giving birth, finds a study. Doctors refer to these complications as severe maternal morbidity (SMM), which can include heart attack, heart failure, sepsis, and hysterectomy. To address this, a team set out to determine the effect of labor epidural on SMM and explore whether this was greater in women with a medical indication for epidural in labor, or those in preterm labor. Their findings are based on Scottish National Health Service data for 567,216 mothers in labor (average age 29,...

Orange peels may hold a key to better cardiovascular health, new research shows. Recent research has shown that some gut bacteria help develop cardiovascular disease. When they feed on certain nutrients during digestion, gut bacteria produce trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). Levels of TMAO can help predict future cardiovascular disease, according to researchers at the Cleveland Clinic. Yu Wang and her team investigated the potential of orange peel extracts—rich in beneficial phytochemicals—to reduce TMAO and trimethylamine (TMA) production. Scientists tested two types of extracts: a polar fraction and a non-polar fraction. To get the polar fractions, scientists used polar and non-polar solvents...

Researchers are investigating the effects ellagic acid, an antioxidant found in some fruits and vegetables, could have on halting and potentially reversing the damage caused by fatty liver disease. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the physiological manifestation of obesity in the liver. The prevalence of NAFLD has increased from 25.24% in 2015 to 29.38% in 2021, and this condition now accounts for 45.8% of all cases of chronic-liver-disease-related deaths worldwide. There currently exists no treatment for the long-term management of NAFLD; however, dietary interventions have been investigated for the treatment of this disease, including several polyphenolic compounds such as...

Antihypertensive drugs are associated with an increased risk for eczematous dermatitis in older adults, and the effect sizes are largest for diuretics and calcium channel blockers, according to a study. Morgan Ye, M.P.H. and colleagues examined whether antihypertensive drug use is associated with eczematous dermatitis in a longitudinal cohort study of individuals aged 60 years and older without eczematous dermatitis at baseline. The researchers found that the overall prevalence of eczematous dermatitis was 6.7% among 1,561,358 older adults during a median follow-up of six years. The incidence of eczematous dermatitis was higher among those receiving versus those not receiving antihypertensive...

The use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be associated with improved pulmonary hypertension in women, according to research. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a type of pulmonary vascular disease—disease that affects blood vessels along the route between the heart and lungs. Pulmonary hypertension is classified by the World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension (WSPH) into five groups (G1-5PH) based on its suspected cause. The heart's right ventricle accepts blood from the body's veins and propels it to the lungs, where it is oxygenated, and its carbon dioxide is eliminated. For this study's purposes, endogenous hormones were deemed to be those that...

Periodontitis is an inflammatory gum disease driven by bacterial infection and left untreated it can lead to complications including tooth loss. The disease has also been associated with diabetes mellitus, preterm birth, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. One of the chief bacterial culprits behind periodontitis is Porphyromonas gingivalis, which colonizes biofilms on tooth surfaces and proliferates in deep periodontal pockets. Matcha, a finely ground green tea powder, may help keep P. gingivalis at bay. Researchers in Japan report that matcha inhibited the growth of P. gingivalis in lab experiments. In addition, in a clinical study involving 45 people with...

Only 14.5% of adult patients with moderate or severe asthma are prescribed the recommended SMART combination inhaler regimen and over 40% of academic pulmonary and allergy clinicians have not adopted this optimal therapy, according to research. By 2021, both the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program and Global Initiative for Asthma had updated their guidelines to recommend the use of a single combination corticosteroid (ICS) and formoterol (a long acting beta agonist) inhaler for both Maintenance And Relief Therapy for moderate to severe asthma, or SMART. In the United States, ICS-formoterol inhalers include Symbicort (budesonide-formoterol) and Dulera (mometasone-formoterol). Under the...

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased risks for cardiovascular mortality and chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression in patients with early-stage disease, according to a study. Yanhong Lin and colleagues examined the effects of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) deficiency on cardiovascular mortality and kidney outcomes in patients with early-stage CKD. The analysis included 9,229 adult patients with CKD (stages 1 to 3) from 19 medical centers across China (January 2000 to May 2021). The researchers found that compared with patients having 25(OH)D ≥20 ng/mL, a there was a significantly higher risk for cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio, 1.90) and CKD progression (hazard...

The sweet taste receptor, expressed in taste bud cells, conveys sweetness from the mouth when it is activated. The receptor is also expressed in certain intestinal cells, where it may facilitate glucose absorption and assimilation, as part of this system. The team found that stimulation and inhibition of TAS1R2-TAS1R3 demonstrates that it helps regulate glucose metabolism in humans. They showed that a TAS1R2-TAS1R3 agonist (sucralose, a zero-calorie sweetener) or a TAS1R2-TAS1R3 antagonist (lactisole, a sodium salt that inhibits sweet taste) mixed with a glucose meal acutely altered human glucose tolerance in different ways. Here, an agonist binds to a receptor...

In the stomach, parietal cells are responsible for acid production. They react not only to the body's own messenger molecules, but also to bitter-tasting food constituents such as caffeine. A research team has now carried out a study on a human gastric cell line. Their results help to clarify the molecular regulatory mechanisms by which bitter substances influence gastric acid production. It is known that taste receptors for bitter substances are not only found on the tongue, but also on the surface of other tissues and cells. These include the parietal cells of the stomach, which secrete protons into the...

Preeclampsia can be a life-threatening complication of pregnancy, but a new blood test can help predict a woman's risk for the condition while she is in her first trimester, the test's maker said Wednesday. It's the first test that can be used between 11 and 14 weeks gestation to determine the risk of preeclampsia before 34 weeks of pregnancy, Labcorp said in a news release announcing the launch of the test. Roughly one in 25 U.S. pregnancies is affected by preeclampsia, which poses an even greater risk for Black women, who experience the condition at a 60% higher rate than...

New research provides insights into how exercise may help to prevent or slow cognitive decline during aging. For the study, investigators assessed the expression of genes in individual cells in the brains of mice. The team found that exercise has a significant impact on gene expression in microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system that support brain function. Specifically, the group found that exercise reverts the gene expression patterns of aged microglia to patterns seen in young microglia. Treatments that depleted microglia revealed that these cells are required for the stimulatory effects of exercise on the formation of...

A clinical trial has found that intravenous acetaminophen reduced sepsis patients' risk of having organ injury or developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. Sepsis is the body's uncontrolled and extreme response to an infection. The researchers found that acetaminophen gave the greatest benefit to the patients most at risk for organ damage. With the therapy, those patients needed less assisted ventilation. Limited research has suggested that acetaminophen might work better for patients with the most severe sepsis—those with higher levels of cell-free hemoglobin. To test the therapeutic potential of acetaminophen more fully in a mid-stage clinical trial, researchers enrolled 447 adults...

It has long been known that a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, and most other neurodegenerative diseases, is the clumping together of insoluble protein aggregates in the brain. During normal disease-free aging, there is also an accumulation of insoluble proteins. Researchers have recently completed a systematic study in worms that paints an intricate picture of the connections between insoluble proteins in neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Furthermore, the work demonstrated an intervention that could reverse the toxic effects of the aggregates by boosting mitochondrial health. "Our study shows how maintaining healthy mitochondria can combat protein clumping linked to both aging and Alzheimer's,"...

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body's immune system attacks healthy cells instead of protecting them. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is one such autoimmune condition characterized by faulty circulatory and immune systems, leading to the occurrence of fibrosis (hardening and scarring of healthy tissue) of the skin and internal organs. Countering oxidative stress using antioxidant compounds, is therefore, being increasingly explored as a therapeutic strategy. To this end, a team of researchers has investigated the effectiveness of Twendee X (TwX)—a dietary supplement comprising of a combination of eight active antioxidants—in reducing oxidative stress in SSc mouse models. Prof. Inufusa says, "Studies have...

Aerobic training is known to regulate blood pressure more effectively when practiced in the evening than in the morning. Researchers who conducted a study of elderly patients concluded that evening exercise is better for blood pressure regulation thanks to improved cardiovascular control by the autonomic nervous system via a mechanism known as baroreflex sensitivity. "There are multiple mechanisms to regulate blood pressure, and although morning training was beneficial, only evening training improved short-term control of blood pressure by enhancing baroreflex sensitivity. This is important because baroreflex control has a positive effect on blood pressure regulation, and there aren't any medications...

In emergency rooms and intensive care units across the country, clinicians make split-second decisions about which antibiotics to give a patient. A new study reveals that these decisions may have unintended consequences for patient outcomes. Beginning in 2015, a 15-month national shortage of a commonly prescribed antibiotic, piperacillin/tazobactam--known by the brand name Zosyn--provided a unique opportunity to compare rates of death in hospitalized patients with sepsis who were administered two different types of antibiotics—one that spares the gut microbiome and one that profoundly alters it. Piperacillin/tazobactam is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is commonly administered for sepsis, a life-threatening complication from...

For the roughly 150,000 AIDS patients who come down with a life-threatening infection called fungal meningitis each year, there's only one treatment: a drug called fluconazole that works for less than half of patients. Now, a study suggests there may be a way to improve the odds—simply by changing what patients eat. In animal tests, the researchers found that taking fluconazole in combination with a low-carb, high-fat keto diet worked significantly better at killing the fungus than taking the medication alone. For the new study, the researchers wondered if a keto diet—which deprives the body of glucose by cutting carbohydrate...

Researchers have made a discovery that could bring relief to those struggling with long COVID. In a world-first finding, they've identified a way to restore the faulty function of ion channels on immune cells using a well-known drug. The breakthrough, builds on previous research showing long COVID patients share similar issues with ion channels as those with chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME/CFS). The team had previously shown success in restoring ion channel function in ME/CFS patients using a drug called Naltrexone, and now they've achieved similar results with long COVID patients. "Ion channels are integral...

Gut microbiota or the population of microbial inhabitants in the intestine, plays a key role in digestion and maintenance of overall health. Intestinal microbes metabolize dietary components into beneficial fatty acids (FAs), supporting metabolism and maintaining host body homeostasis. Metabolites originating from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), influenced by gut microbes such as Lactobacillus plantarum, exhibit potent effects on inflammation and immune responses. The researchers used antigen-stimulated spleen cells to elicit an enhanced immune response. Subsequently, they investigated the impacts of different polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) derivatives, focusing on metabolites of linoleic acid, a prevalent dietary fatty acid. Their findings revealed...