The herbal extract, butterbur, is as effective as antihistamines for treating hay fever, and does not have the sedative effects often associated with these drugs, finds a study in this week’s BMJ.

Researchers in Switzerland identified 125 patients with a history of hay fever. Patients received either butterbur extract tablets or a commonly used non-sedating antihistamine (cetirizine) as recommended by the manufacturers.

After two weeks, the effects of butterbur and cetirizine were s

Scientists believe that they have found a chemical responsible for increasing cardiovascular risk, it was revealed. And crucially they have identified how it is made and destroyed in the body raising the possibilty that new drugs to reduce the risk of heart disease are around the corner. A team of scientists based at the new British Heart Foundation (BHF) Laboratories at UCL first identified ADMA as a naturally occurring substance that blocks the production of a gas made by the body – Nitric Oxide. N

A new type of Earth ecosystem could be found on other planets.

Scientists have found a community of microbes unlike anything else on Earth. Conditions in this ecosystem could mimic those on Earth when life began, and might exist elsewhere in today’s Solar System.

Home to the microbes is a hot spring 200 metres beneath the US state of Idaho. Their lives owe nothing to the Sun. They generate energy by combining hydrogen from rocks with carbon dioxide, releasing methane as a by

Adolescents from families where mealtimes and other activities are shared seem to have fewer mental health problems, reports a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Researchers assessed the family habits and rituals of 82 first time users, aged between 14 and 23, of mental health services in one metropolitan area. Anxiety and depression were the main problems for which treatment was sought. Family practices in 177 young people within the same age band from various educa

Middle aged men should be heartened to know that frequent sex is not likely to increase their risk of stroke. It may actually reduce the risk of sudden death, suggests research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The Caerphilly study, which takes its name from a former mining town in South Wales, involves tracking the development of heart disease in almost 3000 men. All were aged between 45 and 59 when recruited to the study between 1979 and 1983.

Just under 1000 m

Cellular attack tactic keeps virus at bay.

A new AIDS vaccine could be one of the most promising yet. The drug’s effects in monkeys suggest that killing virus-laden cells may form a key part of future vaccination strategies.

Vaccinated monkeys survived a usually lethal infection with a monkey-human hybrid virus, SHIV. Their primed immune system kept virus levels below detection, Emilio Emini of Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, Pennsylvania, and his team now report

Radiologists in Nottingham have discovered a fast and accurate technique to diagnose deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which may be particularly helpful to pregnant women and travellers at risk of developing dangerous blood clots.

In a study funded by the British Heart Foundation and published this week in the American journal, the Annals of Internal Medicine, (15 January 2002, volume 136, number 2) Professor Alan Moody and his team in the department of academic radiology at the University of Nott

Missing protein leaves mice impervious to pain

Researchers have a new lead for treating pain. A protein called DREAM appears to play a key role in how mice respond to heat, touch and inflammation 1 .

Mice lacking DREAM seem oblivious to all types of pain, find Josef Penninger and his colleagues at The AMGEN Institute, Toronto, Canada. The animals can bear acute pain – the kind caused for example by heat, pressure, or injections as well as chronic inflammatory

A new theory on the evolution of ancient microbes is set to challenge widespread scientific views of early life on earth and could overturn previous interpretations of the huge bank of molecular taxonomic data that has been built up in recent years, according to research published today in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

“I`ve reinterpreted fossil records to show that eukaryotes, which includes plants, animals and fungi, are only half as old as previous

Most mothers-to-be must simply hope for healthy offspring. But female house finches tip the odds in their babies’ favor by pre-determining their gender, a new study suggests. According to a report published in the current issue of the journal Science, enterprising mother house finches adjust the sex and growth of their offspring to account for the order in which the eggs are laid, thereby reducing the mortality of their sons and daughters by 10 to 20 percent.

Alexander Badyaev of the Univer

Knowing the human genetic sequence helps unearth invaders.

Human DNA is a new device for disease detectives. The database of human genetics can expose misfit microbe genes in diseased tissues, a US team have found.

Matthew Meyerson, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and his colleagues compared 7,000 DNA sequences extracted from cervical cancer cells to the vast database of human genes – and pulled out two misfits. Both were from a virus known to cause the cancer

The ‘humble’ aspirin, which has been known for at least a decade to prevent heart attacks and strokes in thousands of people at high risk of cardiovascular disease, is still massively underused, according to new research published today (Fri Jan 11) in the British Medical Journal.

Previous studies show that aspirin (and other antiplatelet drugs) could prevent around 100,000 premature deaths worldwide every year, including at least 7,000 per year in Britain alone. As a result, aspirin is almo

General practitioners prescribe antibiotics to three-quarters of UK adults with acute bronchitis each year, even though there is little evidence to justify it. Yet, a study in this week’s BMJ finds that reassuring these patients and sharing the uncertainty about prescribing in an information leaflet reduces antibiotic use.

In this study, over 250 adults with acute bronchitis were divided into two groups. In group A, 212 patients were judged by their general practitioner not to need antibioti

Middle-aged men are over three times more likely to suffer a fatal stroke if they suffer from depression, according to latest research published in `Stroke`.
The results are taken from an on-going study, funded by The Stroke Association, of 2,124 men aged between 49-64 years old, living in Caerphilly, South Wales. The men were studied for over 14 years after an initial medical check up and a history of mood, smoking, blood pressure levels and other risk factors were collected.

During t

Authors of a study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET conclude that smokers should avoid smoking for around two months before surgery to reduce the risk of cardiovascular or wound-healing complications.

Smokers are at higher risk of cardiopulmonary and wound-related postoperative complications than non-smokers due to the adverse effects of tobacco smoke on the body’s cardiopulmonary function and immune system. Ann Moller and colleagues from Bispebjerg University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmar

Scientists are calling it “biology of the next generation,” and a major step towards transforming information from genome projects into applications such as the discovery of new drugs. Today researchers from Heidelberg have announced the completion of a large-scale study of the “molecular machines” formed by nearly two thousand proteins in a living cell.

In a paper published in the current edition of Nature, a team of scientists from the biotechnology start-up company CellZome and the Europe