Medicine

Habitual tea drinking has positive effects on brain organization and gives rise to greater efficiency in functional and structural connectivity, according to a new study led by the National University of Singapore (NSU). Li et al provide the first evidence of the positive contribution of tea drinking to brain structure. …

Higher coffee intake may help reduce the risk of symptomatic gallstone disease, according to a University of Copenhagen-led study. Coffee consumption is associated with low risk of symptomatic gallstone disease. Image credit: Nordestgaard et al, doi: 10.1111/joim.12970. In the study, Professor Anne Tybjærg-Hansen and her colleagues in Denmark tested the …

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a thread-like ferromagnetic robot that can glide through complex and constrained environments, such as the labrynthine vasculature of the brain. Kim et al developed robotic thread that can be steered magnetically and is small enough to work …

People who have dogs are more likely to achieve the recommended level of behavioral cardiovascular health metrics such as physical activity and diet than non-owners of dogs, according to a new study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality Outcomes. Pet owners, especially people who have dogs, are more …

Short-term and intermittent fasting reduces chronic inflammation and improves chronic inflammatory diseases without affecting the immune system’s response to acute infections, according to a new study led by Mount Sinai researchers. Jordan et al identified a drastic effect of short-term and intermittent fasting on the blood and tissue monocyte pool …

In a new study, an international team of researchers analyzed data from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort that monitored the diets of 53,048 Danes over 23 years, and found that people who habitually consumed moderate to high amounts of foods rich in flavonoids — a class of polyphenolic …

In a study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, a team of scientists from Rutgers University and elsewhere looked for alcohol-induced DNA changes in pregnant women and their children. The researchers found changes to two genes in women who drank moderate to high levels of alcohol during …

  A novel sensor designed by MIT researchers could dramatically accelerate the process of diagnosing sepsis, a leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals that kills nearly 250,000 patients annually. Sepsis occurs when the body’s immune response to infection triggers an inflammation chain reaction throughout the body, causing high heart …

Drinking too much coffee or other caffeinated beverages may be a trigger for headaches among migraineurs, according to new research. Mostofsky et al aimed to evaluate the role of caffeinated beverage intake as a potential trigger of migraine headaches on that day or on the following day. Image credit: StockSnap. …

In a new study, Dr. Casey Rebholz from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and colleagues examined the diets of middle-aged adults living in the United States and found that those following diets higher in plant foods and lower in animal foods had a lower risk of incident …