Keep Asthma, Allergies at Bay for the Holidays

They're not Scrooges, but people with allergies and asthma can have bad reactions to certain holiday traditions and need to take special steps to prevent sneezing and wheezing, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). Those who are allergic to live evergreens may choose to decorate with artificial plants, but both live and artificial trees...

Biochemical Signals Associated With Atherosclerosis May Damage Other Organs

Many scientists view atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, as a localized disease characterized by the build up of fatty plaques in the arteries, which can eventually cause heart attacks and strokes. Now, in a finding that challenges conventional knowledge, researchers in New York and North Carolina report that plaques formed in arteries are...

Depression Common In People With Chronic Cough

More than half of people with chronic cough-a nagging cough that can last for months or even years-suffer from depressive symptoms, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 23. The study of 100 people with chronic cough that had lasted an average of 9 years found that...

How Coughing Is Triggered by Environmental Irritants

Scientists have revealed how environmental irritants such as air pollution and cigarette smoke cause people to cough, in research published November 23 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The authors of the study...

When East Meets West: Why Consumers Turn to Alternative Medicine

Alternative health remedies are increasingly important in the health care marketplace. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research explores how consumers choose among the many available remedies. "Examples of the wide array of health remedy options available to consumers include...

Scientists Discover Cells That Control Inflammation in Chronic Disease

A new type of immune cell that can be out of control in certain chronic inflammatory diseases, worsening the symptoms of conditions like psoriasis and asthma, is described for the first time this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London, the...

Asthma A Significant Risk Factor For Complications In Children With H1N1

A new study on pediatric H1N1 influenza admissions has found that asthma is a significant risk factor for severe disease in children with pandemic H1N1 compared with the seasonal flu. The study, led by researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Ontario, is published online November 18 in CMAJ ...

Two Beta Blockers Also Protect Heart Tissue, Study Finds

A newly discovered chemical pathway that helps protect heart tissue can be stimulated by two of 20 common beta-blockers, drugs that are prescribed to millions of patients who have experienced heart failure. Researchers from Duke University Medical Center tested 20 beta blockers and found that two of them -- alprenolol and carvedilol -- could stimulate a...

Beta-Blockers Can Have Helpful, Or Harmful, Effect On Heart

In a new study, researchers report that a class of heart medications called beta-blockers can have a helpful, or harmful, effect on the heart, depending on their molecular activity. The study, which appears in the journal Circulation Research, found that beta-blockers that target both the alpha- and beta-receptors on the heart muscle offer the most benefit to cardiac patients, while those that target...

Polyphenols and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Boost the Birth of New Neurons,...

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) researchers have confirmed that a diet rich in polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids, patented as an LMN diet, helps boost the production of the brain's stem cells -neurogenesis- and strengthens their differentiation in different types of neuron cells. The research revealed that mice fed...