How genes affect tobacco and alcohol use
Data from 1.2 million people reveal how tobacco and alcohol use may be linked to your genes and to various diseases.
the Human body
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C-sections by trained health officers a safe alternative
Sierra Leone has few doctors and even fewer surgeons to serve its seven million people. Since 2011, a non-profit group called CapaCare has been training community health officers to perform basic lifesaving surgeries. A new study shows the programme is working well when it comes to the most common surgery in the country — Caesarean sections.
Eight myths about your brain
Do we have a dominant brain hemisphere? Do we use our whole brain? Can we train our brains to be smarter? Does our ability to learn depend only on our genetic inheritance?
How you can reduce your pain
Are you bothered by persistent pain? Here’s a pain physician’s advice on how to change your perceptions of pain and get a grip on it.
Immune cells sacrifice themselves to protect against invading bacteria
Our immune systems are working overtime this time of year. Knowing that a bunch of dedicated immune cells are willing to explode themselves to inform other cells about the danger may offer a bit of consolation.
Experiments show that an “unknown” enzyme fights inflammation
An enzyme that normally repairs damaged DNA may be the key to a new treatment for inflammatory diseases.
Disabled people are often excluded from sex. With no reason.
The problem is global, say researchers, and caused primarily by ignorance and a lack of understanding.
Researchers make mini-brains from skin
By reprogramming skin cells to become brain cells, researchers have managed to cultivate lots of mini human brains. Some of them have begun to grow pupils for eyes. The technique helps researchers study the most minute details of the genetics of turning stem cells into other cells.
Norwegian family’s medical mystery solved
Back in the 1970s, a Norwegian family was found to have abnormally high red blood cell counts. Thirty-five years later, researchers succeeded in solving the mystery, thanks to new analytical methods and the latest developments in genetic engineering – and a chance meeting with a Swiss scientist.
Depressed? Never too late to improve your health
Are you in poor physical shape or struggling with depressive symptoms? Maybe both? You’ll live longer by improving either condition – even if you’re getting up in years.
Not easy finding dust masks suitable for women
The smelting industry needs to promote the availability of dust masks of more than one size, according to the research scientists behind a recent working environment study at Norwegian smelting plants.
First aid training for young children
The aim of the national campaign “Sammen redder vi liv” (Saving lives together) is to encourage Norwegians to save more lives. Children are included, and researchers have been given the job of ensuring that it succeeds.
How to train like the world’s most successful female cross-country skier
If you want to be as fast or as strong as the world’s most decorated female winter Olympian ever, you’ll have to train a lot — more than 900 hours a year. But don’t worry — most of that training will be low intensity.
Why you feel hungrier after you lose weight
Feeling hungrier and eating less for the rest of your life may be the price to pay once you’ve shed those extra pounds.
Heavy children more likely to underestimate their size
Children with a higher BMI are less accurate in estimating their own body size compared to their slimmer counterparts. And the bigger their body is, the more inaccurate their guesses.
Can orange light help the mentally ill?
A new treatment is being tested at an emergency psychiatric centre in Trondheim, where the windows and lamps are equipped with orange filters.
Obese individuals more prone to blood poisoning
Being overweight, little physical activity and smoking increase our vulnerability for severe bloodstream infections. These factors also increase mortality.
Less physical therapy just as effective
New study results may help shorten queues to see the physiotherapist by reducing excessive treatment.
Foetal genes can increase the risk of illness during pregnancy
A mother’s risk of getting preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening illness associated with pregnancy, can be linked in some cases to genes from her foetus.
Possible treatment for deadly weight loss
Many cancer patients are susceptible to potentially lethal weight loss. Now researchers understand better why this happens, and perhaps how to prevent the condition.
How plague attacks us – and how we can defend ourselves
The plague that is believed to have caused the Black Death still occasionally ravages populations, albeit to a much smaller extent than before. Now we know more about how the bacteria attack us.
Age no barrier for herniated disc surgery
People 65 and older benefit just as much from an operation for a slipped disc in the lower back as do younger patients.
Diabetics who can’t detect their own low blood sugar
Some people with diabetes do not notice when their blood sugar level is getting dangerously low. NTNU researchers are trying to understand why.
Using Big Data to understand immune system responses
An enzyme found in many bacteria, including the bacterium that gives us strep throat, has given mankind a cheap and effective tool with which to edit our own genes. This technology, called CRISPR, is also being used to understand how the immune system responds to a viral attack.