Month: May 2012

You could protect yourself better against viral infections, especially during autumn and winter, with vitamin D supplementation, says a new study.

Since vitamin D levels decrease during the year’s last quarter when days are shorter and sunlight is relatively weak, this may explain why people are more prone to viral infection during these times.

The study also suggests that vitamin D supplementation, especially in older populations, could strengthen people’s innate immunity against viral infections, the Journal of Leukocyte Biology reports.

Want to stay healthy – then place fruits in a clear bowl within arm’s reach, so that you could help yourself whenever you felt the urge to eat.

The new study says that when fruits are within reach, people are more likely to eat them. Greater visibility of fruit increases their intake, but the same does not hold true for vegetables.

When pregnant women are exposed to moderate levels of a common pesticide, their children may experience lasting changes in brain structure linked to lower intelligence, a US study said today.

The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined New York City pregnant mothers who were tested for exposure to chlorpyrifos, or CPF, which is widely used for pest control in farms and public spaces.

A blood test that can identify women at high risk of breast cancer decades before the disease develops could be available in five years, say scientists.

Scientists at Imperial College London have identified a ‘genetic switch’, carried by one in five women, which doubles their risk of developing breast cancer.

Experts described the breakthrough discovery as “exciting” and said signs of the disease could be detected “many decades in advance”.

Dr James Flanagan, who led the new research, said the test could be available in five to ten years, the Telegraph reported.

Researchers have discovered a number of previously unknown networks in the brain, which go a long way towards explaining why some teenagers are more vulnerable to start trying out drugs and alcohol —while others don’t.

The largest imaging study of the human brain ever conducted involved 1,896 14-year-olds.

Scientists from a pharmaceutical laboratory in Cuba have demonstrated a new and “highly-effective” medical product made from banana peel.

Jorge Luis Martinez and Yudit Rodriguez, executives from the Pharmaceutical Biological Laboratory — or Labiofam — presented the products to the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry at the Institute of Medicinal Materials in Vietnam capital Hanoi.

The medical products “stirred up interest and admiration among Vietnamese scientists and researchers”, the report said.