Health

The way emotions affect eating behaviours as well as dieting style can help predict when an eating disorder in an individual may occur. Image credit - Pixabay/MikesPhotos

29 May 2019

To treat an eating disorder, we need to know what emotion fuels it

Pinpointing how different emotional states and neural pathways influence our eating behaviours could pave the way for better ways to tackle eating disorders and obesity.

Harmless doses of chemicals can form mixtures inside our bodies and the health risks of this are not yet fully understood. Image credit - Flickr/CGP Grey, licensed under CC BY 2.0

environment | health

15 May 2019

Chemical mixtures pose ‘underestimated’ risk to human health say scientists

Each of us harbours hundreds of man-made chemicals inside our bodies because we are exposed to them in our daily lives. While individual chemicals may not be of immediate concern to public health, scientists now worry that certain mixtures of them may pose previously underestimated risks to health.

Prof. Knut-Inge Klepp says that the increased availability of energy rich food with little nutritional value is a major driver of childhood obesity. Image credit - Prof. Knut-Inge Klepp

interview | health

13 May 2019

‘Teenagers are going to be the ones to beat childhood obesity’

Teenagers rarely have a say in the public health policies that concern them, but we can’t halt the childhood obesity problem without working with them, says Professor Knut-Inge Klepp, executive director of the mental and physical health division at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Modifying sorghum so that it releases zinc more easily could help tackle micronutrient deficiency. Image credit - Schwoaze, Pixabay

health

02 May 2019

Boosting nutrients in crops to beat ‘hidden hunger’ of poor diet

Boosting the levels of micronutrients like zinc in popular grain crops could help to reduce a ‘hidden hunger’ experienced by millions of people across Europe and around the world.

Researchers are testing the therapeutic vaccine on dogs with the hope that trials could progress to humans. Image Credit - Pixabay/No License

health | frontier research

23 April 2019

Danish dogs to receive virus-inspired cancer vaccine treatment

Fifteen Danish dogs with advanced cancer are to receive a new type of therapeutic vaccine which, it is hoped, will rid them of the disease and pave the way for human testing.

A WhatsApp group for surgical advice is reducing the number of patients needing to be transferred between hospitals in Malawi. Image credit - Jakub Gajewski

health

18 April 2019

Real-time WhatsApp advice aids surgery in rural Malawi

In remote, rural corners of Malawi, hospitals are often faced with life-and-death decisions. Women in need of emergency caesarean sections, older people with hernias, and children with appendicitis need surgery. But should they be rushed to the operating theatre or transferred to specialists in city hospitals?

Scientists have linked post-operative changes in gut bacteria to improvements in metabolic diseases. Image Credit - Sue Sapp (CC BY 2.0)

health | frontier research

16 April 2019

Can gut microbes and genes do the job of weight loss surgery?

Mice that have undergone weight loss surgery experience a change in the composition of their gut bacteria and the functioning of their genes, leading scientists to explore the possibility of mimicking these changes to develop a non-surgical treatment for obesity and liver disease in humans.

An automated wheelchair with an exoskeleton arm is designed to help people with varying forms of disability carry out daily tasks independently. Image credit - AIDE, Universidad Miguel Hernandez

health | ict | industry

26 March 2019

Robotic arms and temporary motorisation – the next generation of wheelchairs

Next-generation wheelchairs could incorporate brain-controlled robotic arms and rentable add-on motors in order to help people with disabilities more easily carry out daily tasks or get around a city.

Prof. McShane's team is trying to simulate an immune response using proteins from the TB bacteria. Image credit - John Cairns

interview | health

22 March 2019

A new TB vaccine is within reach – Prof. Helen McShane

Nearly 100 years ago scientists developed a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB). Today, there are 10 million new cases worldwide and 1.6 million deaths from the disease every year. Increasingly, these cases are becoming difficult to treat as the bug that causes the disease can be resistant to antibiotics. However, several new TB vaccines are under development and there is growing optimism that a new vaccine will emerge, says Helen McShane, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, UK. This could save millions of lives, she said, but more work is needed to reassure the general public that vaccines are safe and effective.

Human trials for possible treatments are getting started more quickly when an outbreak hits. Image credit - European Commission DG ECHO, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

health

06 March 2019

Preparing for the outbreak: helping research swing into action in central Africa

When an outbreak strikes, speed is critical. Health workers must act quickly not only to contain and treat an emerging or re-emerging disease, but also to use this window to evaluate potential treatments and vaccines. And the challenge becomes even greater in sub-Saharan Africa when you’re trying to develop new approaches in the face of multiple emerging diseases.