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Symptoms for patients with the gastrointestinal disease IBS improved as much by eating less sugar and starch as for those who followed FODMAP—the diet currently recommended to patients. Bodil Ohlsson is a professor. Her choice to investigate the role of sugars and starches in IBS is linked to a geneticist's discovery: a genetic variation that hinders the breakdown of sugars and starches in the gut is overrepresented among IBS patients. A few years ago, she led a study involving 105 people with IBS. For four weeks, they ate significantly less sugar and starch, known as the starch and sucrose-reduced diet...

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth are more than five times more likely to screen positive for suicide risk compared to cisgender females, who tend to screen positive at higher rates than cisgender males, according to a study. Suicide risk was identified in 78% of TGD youth who were screened in the Emergency Department (ED) from November 2019 to August 2022. One out of four TGD youth had active suicidal thoughts. "Our study found elevated suicide risk in transgender and gender diverse youth, even in patients who presented to the ED for reasons other than mental health concerns," said lead...

As we age, our bones lose density and become more fragile, putting us in danger of breaks and fractures. This is especially a concern among post-menopausal women. Ock Chun has been working with blackcurrant. This study showed that the best time for intervention was in the transition between pre- and post-menopause before bone loss has significantly progressed. Forty peri- and early post-menopausal participants between the ages of 45 and 60 took capsules of blackcurrant powder daily for six months. Participants were randomly assigned to either take one capsule, two capsules, or a placebo. Each capsule was 392 milligrams. The researchers...

While the link between diabetes and periodontal disease is known, the impact of diabetes treatment on periodontal health is less well understood. Research demonstrates that periodontal inflammation can be positively affected just by receiving intensive diabetes treatment. It is widely believed that there is an interrelationship between diabetes and periodontal disease. While it has been shown that treatment of periodontal disease improves blood glucose control, the effect of diabetes treatment on periodontal disease has remained largely unknown. A collaborative research team administered a two-week intensive diabetes treatment to 29 type 2 diabetes patients, analyzing systemic and dental indicators before and...

Research from has uncovered a critical mechanism by which mutations in the p53 protein—a key tumor suppressor known as the "guardian of the genome"—turn other proteins into cancer-promoting agents. The study, led by Dr. Jerson Lima Silva, offers fresh insights into a process that plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of many cancers. p53 is central to the body's defense against cancer, tasked with regulating the cell cycle and triggering the death of damaged cells before they can become malignant. However, in more than 50% of all tumors, mutations in p53 undermine its protective role, converting it...

Recent studies show that women can experience bothersome menopause symptoms, like hot flashes, for longer than originally estimated. As a result, more research is focusing on the long-term effects of hormone therapy. A new study suggests certain estrogen-based hormone therapies have favorable long-term effects on the risk of heart disease. Hormone therapy has been the subject of intense debate for more than 20 years since the results of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) became public. Despite the fact that hormone therapy has proven to be the most effective treatment for managing some of the more common symptoms of menopause, such...

In a study, Dr. Shai Bel and his research team have uncovered crucial insights into how antibiotic use increases the risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study demonstrates that antibiotics interfere with the protective mucus layer in the intestine, a discovery that could reshape our understanding of antibiotic effects and IBD development. IBD, which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, affects approximately 1% of the global population. This debilitating condition is marked by the erosion of the mucosal layer that serves as a critical barrier between the gut microbiome and the immune system. Despite ongoing research, the exact causes...

For many people, an enjoyable summer staple food is a scoop of their favorite ice cream. What they may not know is that this creamy treat often contains refined dietary fibers, such as guar gum, that could have negative effects on intestinal health, according to researchers. Guar gum is a common food additive used for its thickening and stabilizing characteristics in ice cream, processed cheeses, bakery products, salad dressings, beverages and more. However, a recent study discovered that ultra-processed diets containing guar gum showed an increased likelihood of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in an animal model. To determine the...

In some places around the globe, the lights never go off. Streetlights, roadway lighting, and illuminated signs can deter crime, make roads safer, and enhance landscaping. Undisrupted light, however, comes with ecological, behavioral, and health consequences. In the US, some states have legislation in place to reduce light pollution; however, levels of light at night remain high in many parts of the country. Now, researchers there have investigated correlations between outside nightly light pollution and Alzheimer's disease (AD). "We show that in the US there is a positive association between AD prevalence and exposure to light at night, particularly in...

In 2014, the International Olympic Committee named a syndrome affecting many of its athletes: relative energy deficiency in sport, or REDs. It's now estimated that more than 40% of professional athletes have REDs, and the rate could be even higher in recreational athletes and exercisers. Athletes develop REDs when they consistently expend more energy through their physical activity than they take in through their diet. Over time, this prolonged energy deficit can lead to a wide range of symptoms, including hormonal and reproductive issues, insomnia and fatigue, bone weakness and injury, and a higher risk of anxiety and depression. Now,...

Using hypertonic saline nasal drops can reduce the length of the common cold in children by two days, according to a study. They can also reduce the onward transmission of colds to family members. The research team recruited 407 children aged up to six years for a study where they were given either hypertonic saline ~2.6% (salt-water) nasal drops or usual care when they developed a cold. Overall, 301 children developed a cold; for 150 of these, their parents were given sea salt and taught to make and apply salt-water nose drops to the children's noses (three drops per nostril,...

Dietary intake of vitamin E may potentially lower the risk for atopic dermatitis, according to a study. Siqing Wang and colleagues conducted a Mendelian randomization analysis to explore the causal relationship between dietary antioxidant vitamin intake (vitamin C, vitamin E, carotene, and retinol) and atopic dermatitis. The researchers observed a causal relationship between vitamin E intake and atopic dermatitis (odds ratio, 0.859; 95% confidence interval, 0.745 to 0.992; P = 0.038). No causal relationship was seen between the other three vitamins and atopic dermatitis (odds ratios [95% confidence intervals], 0.953 [0.826 to 1.099; P = 0.507], 1.011 [0.864 to 1.184;...

An already registered antidepressant, duloxetine, may also have positive effects on memory and cognitive functions in the elderly. A new study shows that duloxetine, in addition to treating depression, also inhibits an enzyme involved in the regulation of the nervous system that affects memory and cognition. This could potentially prevent the development of dementia diseases, especially Alzheimer's disease. "Both depression and cognitive impairment often occur simultaneously in elderly individuals, particularly those in the early stages of a dementia disease," says Taher Darreh-Shori. "The discovery that duloxetine can have a dual effect is very promising." "This has been an unexpected discovery...

Higher intake of heme iron, the type found in red meat and other animal products—as opposed to non-heme iron, found mostly in plant-based foods—was associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a new study. The researchers assessed the link between iron and T2D using 36 years of dietary reports from 206,615 adults enrolled in the Nurses' Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The researchers also analyzed the biological mechanisms underpinning heme iron's relationship to T2D among smaller subsets of the participants. They looked at 37,544 participants' plasma metabolic biomarkers, including...

Iron deficiency (ID) is common in an American statewide health system, and the time to resolution is prolonged, according to a study. Jacob C. Cogan, M.D. and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of electronic medical record data from a Minnesota statewide health system and identified patients with ID (ferritin level ≤25 ng/mL). Participants had at least one follow-up ferritin level within three years. Resolved ID was classified as having a subsequent ferritin level ≥50 ng/mL. Data were included for 13,084 patients with ID between 2010 and 2020. The researchers found that 41.9% of patients had resolution within three years of...

Participants on a self-directed dietary education program who had the greatest success at losing weight across a 25-month period consumed greater amounts of protein and fiber, a study found. Personalization and flexibility also were key in creating plans that dieters could adhere to over time. At the one-year mark, successful dieters (41% of participants) had lost 12.9% of their body weight, compared with the remainder of the study sample, who lost slightly more than 2% of their starting weight, according to a study. The dieters were participants in the Individualized Diet Improvement Program, said Manabu T. Nakamura. "The iDip approach...

One-minute, short bursts of high-intensity interval training for 19 minutes may be more effective for improving fitness among people six months or more after a stroke than traditional, 20–30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise sessions, according to research. The multi-site trial took place between September 2018 and March 2024 and included stroke survivors between six months to 5 years after a stroke. Researchers randomly grouped participants to receive either three days per week of 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training or three days per week of 12 weeks of traditional moderate exercise sessions. The high-intensity interval training protocol involved ten 1-minute...

A new paper shows how an amino acid may hold the secrets of oral cancers. Upper aerodigestive squamous cell carcinoma is a common and aggressive malignancy—it attacks more than half a million people each year, leaving them battling fatal tumors in the airways of the head and neck. Even with so many individuals impacted, there are few effective therapeutic options. Assistant Professor Dechen Lin may just have a solution. New research shows that a pathway of a particular amino acid may be critical in shutting down the growth and proliferation of oral cancers, and a specific diet could be a...

Regular aspirin may help lower risk of colorectal cancer in people with greater lifestyle-related risk factors for the disease, according to a study. For the study, researchers analyzed the health data from 107,655 participants from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. They compared the colorectal cancer rates in those who took aspirin regularly with those who did not take aspirin regularly. Regular aspirin use was defined as either two or more standard dose (325 mg) tablets per week or daily low-dose (81 mg) aspirin. Study participants were followed starting from an average age of 49.4 years. Those...

Researchers have discovered that a diet free of the amino acid tryptophan can effectively halt the growth of liver cancer in mice. Their findings offer new insights for dietary-based cancer treatments and highlight the critical role of the tryptophan metabolite indole 3-pyruvate (I3P) in liver tumor development. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third-leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with limited options for effective treatment and a five-year survival rate of about 30%. The study shows that growth of liver cancers driven by the MYC oncogene is particularly dependent on tryptophan, which is converted into I3P as well as other metabolites....