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Thousands of patients with undiagnosed hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or HIV have been identified through a testing programme for bloodborne viruses run in hospital emergency departments.The programme was launched in April 2022 and now covers 34 emergency departments in areas in England with the highest HIV prevalence.1 Blood tests taken during emergency care are automatically tested for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C unless patients choose to opt out.A new evaluation report2 commissioned by NHS England shows that over 33 months more than 7 million tests for bloodborne viruses were conducted at the 34 sites, with a …

Credit: CIPhotos / iStock / Getty Images Plus A powerful genomic tool that can spot genetic causes of disease hidden within the folds of chromosomes could transform the diagnosis and treatment of genetic disorders. Genomic Proximity Mapping (GPM) captures 3D chromatin interactions, enabling concealed, disease-causing structural variants to be detected in a way not possible through conventional means. The high-throughput chromosome conformation capture sequencing (HiC) method, outlined in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, provides a sequence-efficient approach for detecting large-scale chromosomal rearrangements. Unlike traditional linear approaches that treat DNA as a one-dimensional sequence, the Hi-C mapping tool reveals the spatial arrangement…

Sam’s Club is offering big discounts on holiday cooking and hosting staples.Popular items like Kerrygold butter, Starbucks coffee, and Pyrex sets are on sale.Deals cover essentials from cookware to dishwasher detergent, in-store and online. With the price of groceries always seeming to climb, it’s exciting when your go-to price club has a sale. Stocking up on essentials and favorites as we head into the holiday season is always a good idea, and that means Sam’s Club shoppers are in for a lot of luck—this new slate of deals runs through November 30 and is packed with helpful savings. For the…

“Straining really hard during a bowel movement can activate the vagus [nerve],” says Ellen M. Stein, MD, associate professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Rutgers Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.The vagus nerve is one of the main nerves in your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls functions like digestion, heart rate, and immune system function.[1] For some people, vagus nerve activation can slow heart rate and lower blood pressure, leading to something called vasovagal syncope, which can cause sudden lightheadedness and fatigue, says Dr. Stein.[2]“If you’re straining or pushing hard, your stomach muscles are…

The Sound Life study cohortHealthy 25- to 35-year-old and 55- to 65-year-old adult donors were prospectively recruited from the greater Seattle, Washington, USA, area as part of the Sound Life Project, a protocol (IRB19-045) approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Benaroya Research Institute. All adult participants provided informed consent before participation. Donors were excluded from enrolment if they had a history of chronic disease, autoimmune disease, severe allergy or chronic infection. All blood samples were collected, processed to PBMCs through a Ficoll-based approach and frozen within 4 h of blood draw. Plasma samples were processed, aliquoted and frozen within 4 h of blood…

What are the four pillars of gut health? A summaryConsumer interest in gut health rose sharply with searches up 35 percentGlobal gut health market valued at $14.4bn with 8.4 percent CAGRFour pillars of gut health are shaping the future of food and beverage innovationFood and beverage brands innovating with probiotics, adaptogens and moreProducts now target gut-brain axis, emotional resilience and sleep supportGut health is one of the hottest topics in food and beverage. If you haven’t yet heard of the microbiome, or are thinking of ways to add probiotics to your diet, then we can only assume you’ve been living…

An international research team led by scientists at the University of Toronto, and at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has created what it says is a first-of-its-kind resource to identify individuals with a genetic risk for elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or ‘bad’ cholesterol, a major contributor to heart disease. The team classified nearly 17,000 missense coding variants of the LDL receptor (LDLR) gene along with the corresponding changes in LDL receptor protein structure and uptake, creating maps relating sequence to function, and offering up functional insights and evidence for clinical utility. They suggest the resource could help clinicians…

Some women appear to sail through menopause with ease, transforming into nonfertile yet still sexy and sophisticated women of a certain age without breaking a sweat. For the vast majority, however, the experience is rockier: An estimated 80% have at least one menopausal symptom, which can range from occasionally waking up drenched in sweat to daily hot flashes that surprise you during important client meetings and dinner with your fiancé. And did we mention the brain fog, loss of libido, vaginal dryness, insomnia and moodiness?If you’re unlucky enough to have some—or several—of these problems, you can be fairly sure that…

Sertraline may start working on key depression symptoms such as suicidal thoughts and feelings of sadness within two weeks, much earlier than previously thought, new research shows.Published in Nature Mental Health,1 the study reanalysed data from 571 patients included in the Panda trial, a randomised controlled trial comparing the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sertraline with a placebo.The research team reported that the SSRI had “beneficial effects on core depression and anxiety symptoms as early as after two weeks of treatment” but that these may be masked by side effects of the drug and other symptoms of depression early on.The researchers…

Credit: Nikita John Creagh / Getty Images Results from a Phase III clinical trial have shown that patients who received a stem cell therapy within a week of a heart attack had a significantly lower risk of developing heart failure within the next three years compared to patients who received the standard care. Based on these findings, published today in the BMJ journal, the researchers propose stem cell therapy as an add-on treatment to prevent future heart failure and related hospital stays in patients at risk.  While deaths due to heart attacks have dropped by nearly 90% over the past…