New research indicates that the eating disorder anorexia nervosa is associated with being an early riser, unlike many other disorders that tend to be evening-based such as depression, binge eating disorder and schizophrenia. Previous research has suggested a possible connection between eating disorders and the body’s internal clock, or circadian clock, which controls a wide […]
A cochlear implant enables people with severe hearing loss to hear again. An audiologist adjusts the device based on the user’s input, but this is not always easy. Think of children who are born deaf or elderly people with dementia. They have more difficulty assessing and communicating how well they hear the sounds, resulting in […]
Patients with long COVID can exhibit a reduction in circulating levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, according to a new research. The mechanisms that cause long COVID have not been studied in depth, and treatments that are widely effective in reducing these long-term symptoms have not yet been developed. “Many aspects of the basic biology underlying […]
Inflammatory processes are associated with a large range of human diseases, including rheumatic diseases and allergies. Protein biomarkers are measurable molecules that can have a prognostic value in patients, be used to diagnose disease, or indicate severity of disease. However, the causal relationship between a protein biomarker and inflammatory diseases is generally unknown. The protein […]
In Finland, there is a clear increase in the number of sick days taken due to depression, anxiety and sleep disorders in October and November, whereas the number of absences is lower than expected between June and September. In late autumn, the number of sick days taken is almost twice as high as in the […]
Amino acids are the building blocks of life. We obtain them from the food we eat, and the body uses them to make proteins, which in turn are used for growth, development, and a multitude of other functions. When amino acids are available, a master regulator protein called TORC1 is switched on, causing proteins to […]
A surprising MIT study helped to spur interest in the possibility that light flickering at the frequency of a particular gamma-band brain rhythm could produce meaningful therapeutic effects for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Brain rhythms (also called brain “waves” or “oscillations”) arise from the synchronized, network activity of brain cells and circuits as they coordinate […]
MIT researchers have discovered a class of compounds that can kill a drug-resistant bacterium that causes more than 10,000 deaths in the United States every year. The researchers showed that these compounds could kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) grown in a lab dish and in two mouse models of MRSA infection. The compounds also show […]
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic sleep condition affecting more than one billion people worldwide. Evidence suggests OSA can alter the gut microbiome (GM) and may promote OSA-associated comorbidities, including diabetes, hypertension and cognitive problems. David Gozal, MD, the Marie M. and Harry L. Smith said the study shows the gut microbiome plays a […]
A small molecule inhibitor that attacks the difficult to target, cancer-causing gene mutation KRAS, found in nearly 30 percent of all human tumors, successfully shrink tumors or stopped cancer growth in preclinical models of pancreatic cancer. Patients with pancreatic cancer have an overall poor prognosis with a five-year survival rate of 11 percent and limited […]