Monthly Archives: July 2023

Unique Mexican Black and Pinto Bean Varieties Are High in Healthy Compounds

Common beans are important food sources with high nutritional content. Bean seeds also contain phenolic compounds, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that promote health.  A study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and CIATEJ in Guadalajara, Mexico, explored the composition of seed coat extracts from black and pinto bean varieties unique to the Chiapas […]

Neonatal Stem Cells from the Heart Could Treat Crohn’s Disease

Research from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that direct injection of neonatal mesenchymal stem cells, derived from heart tissue discarded during surgery, reduces intestinal inflammation and promotes wound healing in a mouse model of Crohn’s disease-like ileitis, an illness marked by chronic intestinal inflammation and progressive tissue damage. The study, […]

Air Pollution Linked with Blood Pressure

Adolescents’ rapidly growing bodies may be particularly susceptible to long-lasting effects of exposure to air pollutants, including effects on blood pressure. However, most prior studies on air pollution and blood pressure have focused on adults. For this analysis, Karamanos and colleagues used data on 3,284 adolescents in Determinants of Adolescent Social Well-Being and Health (DASH) […]

Using the Antidepressant Tianeptine to Manage Chronic Pain

Management of neuropathic pain (that results from a damaged or malfunctioning nervous system) has been particularly challenging as currently prescribed drugs, such as anticonvulsants and antidepressants can have severe adverse effects, are not well-tolerated, take a longer time to work and only help a subset of patients.  In a new study investigators report that the […]

People with Increased Genetic Risk of Alzheimer’s May Lose Sense of Smell First

People who carry the gene variant associated with the strongest risk for Alzheimer’s disease may lose their ability to detect odors earlier than people who do not carry the gene variant, which may be an early sign of future memory and thinking problems, according to a study published in the July 26, 2023, online issue […]

Step Count and Heart Health

More often, people are turning to consumer wearable devices, such as smartwatches, to monitor their health and physical activity. Using these wearable devices, a study led by Michigan Medicine and the University of Missouri with Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute finds that taking more daily steps is associated improved health, including fewer symptoms and […]

Protein Found in Milk Speeds Up Wound Healing

Bandages infused with casein, a protein that occurs naturally in cow’s milk, significantly improved wound healing in rats compared to those in control groups, according to a new study by UCL researchers. The study, published today in Interface, is the first to test casein’s reputed healing benefits on an animal model. The promising results suggest […]

Storing Fat at the Waist May Not Up Diabetes Risk, Surprise Findings Indicate

Conventional wisdom holds that storing fat around your belly puts you at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. But surprising new findings from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggest that naturally occurring variations in our genes can lead some people to store fat at the waist but also protect them from diabetes. The […]

Stem Cell-Based Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease

Scientists have made key discoveries in support of a new stem cell-based therapy for Parkinson’s disease. The approach, called an autologous therapy, uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), made from a patient’s own skin or blood cells, to replace the neurons in the brain that are lost in Parkinson’s.  In a new study, the researchers […]

New Insights on Boosting Learning and Improving Mental Health

New research from Duke found that people who imagined being a thief scouting a virtual art museum in preparation for a heist were better at remembering the paintings they saw, compared to people who played the same computer game while imagining that they were executing the heist in-the-moment. Alyssa Sinclair, Ph.D. M.D., recruited 420 adults […]