News by Subject Medicine & Health

In a survey, UC San Diego researchers report most patients are willing to share medical records for research purposes, with a few caveats.

In an effort to find ways to improve long-term outcomes for people with opioid use disorder, University of Massachusetts Amherst epidemiology researcher Elizabeth Evans set out to study the obstacles to treating this chronic condition with an effective medication, buprenorphine-naloxone.

Among adults aged 18 years and older, 31 percent used prescription opioids only as prescribed by a physician medically and 4 percent misused them. Thus, the overwhelming majority (88 percent) of all past-12-month prescription opioid users used the drugs for medical purposes only.

It is often assumed that people use antibiotics inappropriately because they don't understand enough about the spread of drug resistant superbugs. A new study led by Warwick University Assistant Professor Marco J Haenssgen challenges this view. The study, published in the medical journal BMJ Open, reveals that basic understanding of drug resistance is in fact widespread in Southeast Asia but that higher levels of awareness are linked to higher antibiotic use in the general population.

New data showed that term, breastfed infants fed activated Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis EVC001 (B. infantis EVC001) experience improved metabolism of protein-bound glycans from human milk, compared to matched controls. Not only do these new data provide greater mechanistic understanding of how B. infantis selectively utilizes the glycans from human milk as growth substrate but may also provide a basis for facilitating B. infantis colonization in formula fed infants via utilization of bovine derived N-glycans.

Scientists have combined analyses from honey and salmon to show how lead from natural and industrial sources gets distributed throughout the environment. By analysing the relative presence of differing lead isotopes in honey and Pacific salmon, Vancouver-based scientists have been able to trace the sources of lead (and other metals) throughout the region. The research is being presented at the Goldschmidt conference in Barcelona.

New research finds that fish oil supplements have no effect on type 2 diabetes. Increased consumption of omega 3 fats is widely promoted globally because of a common belief that it will protect against, or even reverse, conditions such as diabetes. But a systematic review commissioned by the World Health Organization, to be published in the British Medical Journal, finds that omega 3 supplements offer no benefit.

Between 2010-17, 6,072 new tuberculosis cases occurred among children and adolescents in the USA and its territories, and rates have declined overall. However, incidence rates among certain racial or ethnic groups were 14 or more times higher than non-Hispanic white children and adolescents. Incidence rates among children and adolescents living in US-affiliated islands were 12 times higher compared to those living in US states. One third of cases would not have been recommended for screening under existing guidelines.

Evidence shows that higher levels of physical activity -- regardless of intensity -- are associated with a lower risk of early death in middle aged and older people.