Nutrition News

While the majority of people hospitalized with the H1N1 swine flu have chronic medical conditions, many were healthy before coming down with the disease, a U.S. health official said Tuesday. More than half of hospitalized adults had conditions such as asthma, chronic lung diseases, heart disease or immune system disorders, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during...

Fatalities show lungs are overwhelmed; antiviral drugs, ventilation to replace lost oxygen can rescue patients Lung inflammation and respiratory failure are largely responsible for the fatal cases of H1N1 (swine) flu seen so far, three new studies show. The findings also confirm observations that the influenza hits young adults the hardest but can be fought off in many cases with the use of...

A large study found strong evidence that older people who have age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are at increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD), although not for stroke. This result adds to mounting evidence that AMD and cardiovascular disease may share some risk factors–smoking, high blood pressure, inflammatory indicators such as...

Despite the severity of disease and the intensity of treatment, most patients in Australia and New Zealand who experienced respiratory failure as a result of 2009 influenza A(H1N1) and were treated with a system that adds oxygen to the patient's blood survived the disease, according to a new study. The influenza A(H1N1) pandemic affected Australia and New Zealand during the 2009 southern hemisphere winter, causing an epidemic of...

One group of neurons follow a different pattern than others that guide the brain’s master clock. On the television show “24” a silent countdown usually means a character has died. But for some cells in the brain’s time-keeping center, silent running is part of life. Cells in the suprachiasmatic nuclei, a tiny group of neurons in the hypothalamus, serve as a master clock to regulate the body’s circadian rhythms — daily fluctuations in hormone release, body temperature, blood pressure and other processes...

The discovery of the brain cell which determines our sleep patterns could pave the way for the introduction of a pill to beat jetlag. A pill that cures jet lag is a step closer today, after scientists discovered how signals from the brain control our biological clocks. Tests on mice suggested the human body clock - controlled by a region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei...

A diagnosis of cancer, diabetes — even cirrhosis or Parkinson’s disease — will send shivers down the spines of most people. But flu? We tend to view it as little more than an occasional feverish nuisance that sends us to bed with joint pain, congestion and nausea (or worse). What so many of us fail to appreciate is that flu can kill. Having filed a news story, yesterday, on concerns about the potential for development of resistance to the leading flu-fighting drug (Tamiflu), I was sensitized to influenza incidence data. From the World Health Organization...

People with the condition are much more likely than others to harbor a little-known pathogen. The long, fruitless search for the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome has taken a curious turn. Scientists report online October 8 in Science that an obscure retrovirus shows up in two-thirds of people diagnosed with the condition. The researchers also show...

Skeletal muscle plays a critical role in regulating blood sugar levels in the body. But few studies have comprehensively examined how obesity caused by a high-fat diet affects the health of muscle in adolescents who are pre-diabetic. In a paper published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, a team of McMaster University researchers report that the health of young adult muscle declines during...

For years, pear-shaped people who carry weight in the thighs and backside have been told they are at lower risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than apple-shaped people who carry fat in the abdomen. But new findings from nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest body-shape comparisons don't completely...

Which comes first, depression or inflammation? To help solve this long standing chicken and egg conundrum, researchers led by Jesse Stewart, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis asked two critical questions. Does depression lead to elevated inflammatory proteins in the human body? Or does...

Numerous studies have shown that depression is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, but exactly how has never been clear. Now, researchers at Rush University Medical Center have shown that depression is linked with the accumulation of visceral fat, the kind of fat packed between internal organs at the waistline, which has...