News by Subject Medicine & Health

While older adults with hypothyroidism face an elevated risk of death, individuals with subclinical hypothyroidism, a milder form of underactive thyroid, did not face the same risk, according to new research published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Aquatic researchers have long sought an easy way to determine when wild fish are under stress. Now, University of Guelph researchers have shown for the first time that cortisol, a key stress hormone, accumulates in fish scales slowly and remains there for weeks.

New research published today in The Journal of Physiology shows that breastfeeding is crucial in preventing diabetes.

Eight months of daily, afterschool physical activity in previously inactive 8- to 11-year-olds with obesity and overweight improved key measures of their cardiovascular health like good cholesterol levels, aerobic fitness and percent body fat, but didn't improve others like arterial stiffness, an early indicator of cardiovascular risk, Medical College of Georgia investigators report.

Researchers went into this study with the idea that metformin might communicate with other tissues in the body by causing the secretion of a protein from the liver. They were totally surprised they we found out that metformin caused the secretion of GDF15, a protein which is known to suppress appetite.

Patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a chronic liver disease and a leading cause for liver transplantation in the US, currently lack an approved drug therapy, but this may soon change. A large Phase III clinical trial designed in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University is the first to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of an oral medication to treat the disease.

Scientists from 22 institutions, including UCLA, are recommending early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of severe chronic inflammation to reduce the risk of chronic disease and death worldwide.

Researchers have developed a more accurate method of measuring bisphenol A (BPA) levels in humans and found that exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemical is far higher than previously assumed. The study provides the first evidence that the measurements relied upon by regulatory agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration, are flawed, underestimating exposure levels by as much as 44 times.

Simulations predict that behavioral interventions such as imposing strict no-food restrictions after meals can be as effective as strong anorectic drugs in reducing food intake in rodents, according to a study published Dec. 5 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Tom McGrath, Kevin Murphy and Nick Jones of Imperial College London, and colleagues.