Editor's Pick
High daily coffee use not linked to arterial stiffness — large study
June 12th, 2019 In a large middle-aged UK cohort without cardiovascular disease, moderate to heavy coffee consumption — up to 25 cups a day — was not associated with significant changes in arterial stiffness, contradicting previous research. The research...
Music enhances high-level cognitive brain networks in premature infants
June 12th, 2019 Considerably premature infants exposed to music in the neonatal intensive care units have significantly increased coupling between brain networks previously shown to be decreased in premature infants, found a Swiss study. In Switzerland, as in...
Midday naps: Happier children with higher IQs — cohort study
June 12th, 2019 Ask just about any parent whether napping has benefits and you'll likely hear a resounding "yes," particularly for the child's mood, energy levels, and school performance. Now research from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of...
Inability to act when experiencing heart attack symptoms
June 5th, 2019 Some patients experiencing a heart attack have a paralysing inability to act on the symptoms, putting them in a life-threatening situation, according to Swedish research. Most deaths from heart attack occur in the first few hours after the start...
Respiratory distress trial settles issue of paralysing and sedating
June 5th, 2019 A National Institutes of Health trial — stopped early due to futility — settles a long-standing debate in critical care medicine about whether it is better to paralyse and sedate patients in acute respiratory distress (ARD) to aid mechanical...
Protocol sends 92% of cancer surgery patients home without opioids
June 5th, 2019 A specialised pain management programme for patients who underwent robotic surgery for urologic cancers resulted in just 8% going home with narcotics after discharge, compared to 100% who would have received them without this enhanced recovery...
Meta-analysis isolates job advantages enjoyed by extroverts
June 5th, 2019 Extroversion in the workplace was found to be linked with a few key advantages, found a University of Toronto study. "There's been much debate in popular culture recently about the advantages and disadvantages extroverts have in the workplace,...
Aspirin okay for brain bleed stroke patients - RESTART clinical trial
May 29th, 2019 People who suffer a brain haemorrhage can take common medicines like aspirin and clopidogrel without raising their risk of another stroke, a major clinical trial has found. Researchers say the findings are reassuring for the thousands of people who...
Older fathers increase pregnancy risk — Rutgers research review
May 29th, 2019 Men who delay starting a family have a ticking “biological clock” – just like women – that may affect the health of their partners and children, according to Rutgers researchers. The study reviewed 40 years of research on the effect of...
Loss of heart function in type 2 diabetes reduced by high-intensity exercise
May 29th, 2019 University of Otago researchers have discovered that high-intensity exercise can reduce or reverse the loss in heart function caused by type 2 diabetes. The study found that three months of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) improved heart...
Largest FMT study in children to date identifies predictors of success
May 22nd, 2019 Faecal microbiota transplant (FMT), or the transfer of stool from a healthy donor to a patient, has been found highly effective in reversing severe Clostridiodes difficile diarrhoeal infections in adults. C. difficile disease is known to be...
Eating ultra-processed food increases risk of weight gain
May 22nd, 2019 People eating ultra-processed foods ate more calories and gained more weight than when they ate a minimally processed diet, according to results from a National Institutes of Health study. The difference occurred even though meals provided to the...
Walking and strength training may decrease cirrhosis mortality risk
May 22nd, 2019 Physical activity, including walking and muscle-strengthening activities, were associated with significantly reduced risk of cirrhosis-related death, according to research presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2019. Chronic liver disease is...
Alternative treatment for epileptic seizures in children
May 15th, 2019 The anti-convulsant drug levetiracetam could be considered as a first-choice second-line treatment for the management of paediatricc onvulsive status epilepticus (CSE), found a three-year randomised clinical trial involving 30 UK emergency...
Appendix removal associated with development of Parkinson’s disease
May 15th, 2019 Patients who had their appendix removed were more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than those whose appendix remained in place, according to the largest study to address the relationship between the two conditions. The retrospective study...