Tag: light

England’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) could start prescribing medically licensed electronic cigarettes to smokers in a world first, the health ministry said Friday. The move comes despite international concerns about the effects of commercially sold e-cigarettes and the popularity of vaping among young people. The country’s medicines regulator is publishing updated guidance that the

While efforts to develop Alzheimer’s medications have so far borne little fruit, new research highlights the therapeutic promise of two non-drug tools: light and sound. According to a pair of small new studies, exposing Alzheimer’s patients to an hour a day of carefully modulated light and/or sound appears, over time, to slow down the telltale

A research group led by Prof. Piao Hailong from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) identified hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) subtypes with distinctive metabolic phenotypes through bioinformatics and machine learning methods, and elucidated the potential mechanisms based on a metabolite-protein interaction network and multi-omics data. The study, published

Gradual exposure to light restored vision to a migraine sufferer who developed miner’s nystagmus after an extended period of severe light deprivation, reports a team led by UCL experts. Nystagmus is characterized by involuntary eye movements causing jumping and blurred vision, and is sometimes known as wobbly eyes or jerky eyes. Miner’s nystagmus is a

Researchers from the PTSD Systems Biology Consortium, led by scientists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, have identified distinct biotypes for post-traumatic stress disorder, the first of their kind for any psychological disorder. “These biotypes can refine the development of screening tools and may explain the varying efficacy of PTSD treatments,” said Dr.

Up to one in four Danes has an unhealthy accumulation of fat in the liver, also known as fatty liver. Fatty liver is rarely the cause of symptoms in itself, but people with fatty liver have an increased risk of developing diabetes. Exactly how the two diseases are linked has, however, so far been unknown.

It may be hard to imagine how sitting next to a bright light can make you feel better, but that’s exactly what you can expect with light therapy. One mental health expert at Harvard says a session usually involves having someone sit next to a light box that provides 10,000 lux worth of light —

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, hospitals are finding themselves short of masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment (PPE). Some are doing what would previously have been unthinkable—disinfecting and reusing PPE. One way to do this is with ultraviolet (UV) light, which is already used to disinfect patient rooms and operating theatres. In theory, it

New research has shed light on the origins of spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) and demonstrates effective new therapeutic pathways for SCA7 and the more than 40 other types of spinocerebellar ataxia. The study, which appears online Monday on the website of the journal Neuron, implicates metabolic dysregulation leading to altered calcium homeostasis in neurons

Researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and University of Salento, both in Lecce, Italy, and Harvard Medical School in Boston have developed a new light-based method to capture and pinpoint the epicenter of neural activity in the brain. The approach, described in Nature Methods, lays the foundation for novel ways to map connections across

A new study published today by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and UT Health’s McGovern Medical School in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals an unprecedented close-up view of cilia linked to blindness. Cilia are short hair-like structures found on the surface of certain cells. They are particularly important in vision

A mechanism in the cells that line our blood vessels that helps them to process glucose becomes uncontrolled in diabetes, and could be linked to the formation of blood clots and inflammation according to researchers from the University of Warwick. Reported in a new study in Scientific Reports led by Dr. Naila Rabbani from Warwick

Scientists have identified an enzyme that is a “master regulator” of kidney function that if excessively suppressed, can trigger renal failure. Their findings have implications for the use of existing drugs and the development of new pharmaceuticals. As reported in Nature Communications, a global research team led by the University of Bristol studied how the

The sun serves many functions. It helps dictate the seasons and brings life to insects, plants, flowers and trees and vitamin D — a vitamin that is produced when the human body is exposed to sunlight — has copious health benefits, from lowering one’s blood pressure to elevating their mood. But a new study published

In Central America, Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is spread by the “kissing bug” Triatoma dimidiata. By collecting DNA from the guts of these bugs, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have described patterns in the behavior of the bugs, the strain of parasite, and the communities of microbes that interact with the parasite.

Two decades ago, Clifford B. Saper, MD/Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and colleagues discovered a set of nerve cells they thought might be the switch that turns the brain off, allowing it to sleep. In a new study published in Nature Communications today, Saper and colleagues

The recent news about an international tourist with measles who visited Santa Monica raised anew concerns about the potential for an outbreak of the disease, which has been all but eradicated in the United States. Measles remains endemic in many parts of the world, including popular tourist destinations in parts of Western Europe, and travelers

Most animals have a keen sense of smell, which assists them in everyday tasks. Now, a new study led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine sheds light on exactly how animals follow smells. Published online in the journal eLife on Aug. 21, the study measured the behavior of fruit flies as they navigated through

A team from the Institute of Medicine, RUDN University discovered that light therapy (treating mental disorders with bright light) increased blood pressure in animals with inherited hypertension. It will help to make light therapy safer for patients with essential hypertension. The report was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Light Treatment and

Could this be a cure for insomnia? How a sleep mask can send out a ‘camera flash’ of light to reset the clock for night owls A new, high-tech sleep mask sends out millisecond pulses of light as you sleep The pulses stimulate nerves that are sensitive to light and that help produce melatonin, the