Month: May 2013

The most common form of joint disease and a leading cause of disability in the elderly, osteoarthritis (OA) affects about 200 million people worldwide.

A new joint lubricant could bring longer lasting relief to millions of osteoarthritis sufferers, say researchers who developed it.

The new synthetic polymer supplements synovial fluid, the natural lubricant in joints, and works better than comparable treatments currently available.

A number of new cancer drugs are targeting a common cancer pathway that causes tumor growth with promising results.

Now, a team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has developed a novel method to disrupt this growth signaling pathway, with findings that suggest a new treatment for breast, colon, melanoma and other cancers.

Senior scientists in the UK have accused researchers in China of “appalling irresponsibility” for deliberately creating new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.

The scientists warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people, reports The Independent.

A genome-wide association study reveals that the amount of weight loss after gastric bypass surgery can be predicted by genetic factors.

The findings explain why the success of gastric bypass surgery varies so widely and could help clinicians identify those who would benefit the most from this type of surgery.

“Surgery is the most effective therapy for severe obesity, but these procedures are invasive, and not all patients get the same degree of benefit,” senior study author Lee Kaplan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School said.

Humans have two different kinds of brown fat cells and not one kind as previously thought, according to researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

This discovery opens up new opportunities for future medicines that exploit the brown fat cells` ability to consume calories.

Unlike white fat cells, which store the body`s surplus energy in the form of fat, brown fat cells have the unique property of being able to burn energy and turn it into heat.

Most people are able to lose weight while dieting but once the diet is over, the pounds come back.

Now, Oregon Research Institute (ORI) senior scientist Eric Stice, Ph.D., and colleagues have explained why most weight loss diets fail and provided a more comprehensive description of the impact of caloric restriction.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley`s School of Public Health detected lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and five other metals in lipsticks, some of which were found at levels that could raise potential health concerns.

They tested 32 different lipsticks and lip glosses commonly found in drugstores and department stores.