Body | Page 1289 | Science Codex

Menopause: Hot flashes, night sweats last for 7 years in many women

Frequent menopausal vasomotor symptoms (VMS), including hot flashes and night sweats, lasted for more than seven years during the transition to menopause for more than half of the women in a large study and African American women reported the longest total VMS duration, according to a new study.

VMS are the hallmark of the menopausal transition and they can affect the quality of women's lives. Up to 80 percent of women experience VMS during the transition to menopause and, despite the pervasiveness of these symptoms, robust estimates about how long VMS last are lacking.

Mothers pass traits to offspring through bacteria DNA

It's a firmly established fact straight from Biology 101: Traits such as eye color and height are passed from one generation to the next through the parents' DNA.

Torpor traits in woodchucks: The real reason we have Groundhog Day

According to legend, if the groundhog sees his shadow on February 2nd, there will be six more weeks of winter; if not, an early spring is predicted.

Of course groundhogs – also known as woodchucks – don’t emerge at this time just to be furry weather predictors. So what’s the real reason? Research into groundhog biology shows they have other priorities in early February than mingling with the people of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

It’s Groundhog Day!

Synthetic biology: Artificial proteins revolution could start with MRI

Scientists and engineers have looked to nature for their inspiration for centuries. The field of biomimetics uses ideas from nature to solve complex human challenges.

Probiotic hype: No relationship between the gut microbiome and obesity

Latching onto the probiotics diet fad, several studies have claimed that the gut microbiome, the diverse array of bacteria that live in the stomach and intestines, may be to blame for obesity. But Katherine Pollard, PhD, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, says it is not that simple.

Marijuana use is associated with excessive daytime sleepiness in adolescents

A study published by researchers from Nationwide Children's Hospital, found 10 percent of adolescents sent to a Sleep Center for evaluation of excessive daytime sleepiness with testing results consistent with narcolepsy had urine drug screens positive for marijuana, confounding the results.

Stopping at red lights exposes drivers to high levels of air pollution

UK commuters spend an average of about 1.5 hours a day at the wheel. Road vehicles in particular are known to emit polluting nanoparticles which contribute to respiratory and heart diseases. Now, researchers at the University of Surrey have found that where drivers spend just 2% of their journey time passing through traffic intersections managed by lights, this short duration contributes to about 25% of total exposure to these harmful particles.

Hormone replacement therapy associated with increased ovarian cancer risk

Taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the menopause, even for just a few years, is associated with a significantly increased risk of developing the two most common types of ovarian cancer, according to a detailed re-analysis of all the available evidence, published in The Lancet.

Pollution and suicide: Middle-aged men at highest risk after breathing poor air

A new study from the University of Utah is adding to the small, but growing body of research that links air pollution exposure to suicide.

Order matters: Sequence of genetic mutations determines how cancer behaves

The order in which genetic mutations are acquired determines how an individual cancer behaves, according to research from the University of Cambridge, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Lower systolic blood pressure reduces risk of stroke

People 60 or older, especially minorities and women, have a lower risk of stroke if the top number (systolic) in their blood pressure is below 140 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), according to a study presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2015.

Iron supplementation improves hemoglobin recovery time following blood donation

Among blood donors with normal hemoglobin levels, low-dose oral iron supplementation, compared with no supplementation, reduced the time to recovery of the postdonation decrease in hemoglobin concentration in donors with low or higher levels of a marker of overall iron storage (ferritin), according to a study in the February 10 issue of JAMA.

Impact of obesity on fertility can be reversed

Researchers have revealed how damage from obesity is passed from a mother to her children, and also how that damage can be reversed.

"It's now well established that obesity in females leads to very serious fertility problems, including the inability to conceive. Obesity can also result in altered growth of babies during pregnancy, and it permanently programs the metabolism of offspring, passing the damage caused by obesity from one generation to the next," says lead author Associate Professor Rebecca Robker from the the University of Adelaide Robinson Research Institute.

Women with history of preterm delivery at higher risk of heart disease

A history of spontaneous preterm delivery appears to double a woman's risk of heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, according to results of a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.(1,2) The strength of the association was described by the investigators as "robust", and, as an independent risk factor for CVD, "almost equally strong" as raised blood pressure, elevated lipid levels, overweight, smoking and diabetes mellitus (with similar hazard ratios between 2.0 and 2.5).

Beat high blood pressure with a combination of coconut oil and physical exercise

Coconut oil is one of many foods that get called a "superfood" by nutritionists promoting fad diets, but it may actually be true. It has a combination of fatty acids that can have profound positive effects on health, including claims of fat loss, better brain function and more.

Researchers working at the Biotechnology Center at the Federal University of Paraiba in Brazil set out to test the hypothesis that a combination of daily coconut oil intake and exercise training would restore baroreflex sensitivity and reduce oxidative stress, resulting in reduction in blood pressure.