Walnuts may help lower blood pressure for those at risk of heart disease
When combined with a diet low in saturated fats, eating walnuts may help lower blood pressure in people at risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new Penn State study. In a randomized, controlled trial, researchers examined the effects of replacing some of the saturated fats in participants' diets with walnuts. They found that when participants ate whole walnuts daily in combination with lower overall amounts of saturated fat, they had lower central blood pressure.
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Drugs to prevent stroke and dementia show promise in early trial
Treatments that prevent recurrence of types of stroke and dementia caused by damage to small blood vessels in the brain have moved a step closer, following a small study. The drugs - called cilostazol and isosorbide mononitrate - are already used to treat other conditions, such as heart disease and angina. This is the first time they have been tested in the UK for the treatment of stroke or vascular dementia.
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Personalizing precision medicine with combination therapies improves outcomes in cancer
Precision oncology often relies on treating patients with a single, molecularly matched therapy that targets one mutation in their tumor. In a report, published online in Nature Medicine on April 22, 2019, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that treating patients with personalized, combination therapies improved outcomes in patients with therapy resistant cancers.
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Cannabidiol could help deliver medications to the brain
Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound in cannabis, is being touted as beneficial for many health conditions, ranging from anxiety to epilepsy. Although much more research is needed to verify these claims, scientists have now shown that CBD could have a different use as a "Trojan horse": helping slip medications across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and into mouse brains.
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One-third of cancer patients use complementary and alternative medicine
A stunning one-third of people with a cancer diagnosis use complementary and alternative medicines such as meditation, yoga, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and supplements. UT Southwestern Medical Center's Dr. Nina Sanford made the discovery that's now drawing renewed attention to habits she said cancer patients must disclose during treatment. Dr. Sanford is an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology who specializes in and treats cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.
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Immune cells fighting blood cancer visualized for the first time
When cancer escapes the immune system, our defenses are rendered powerless and are unable to fight against the disease. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells) represent a promising immunotherapy strategy, developed with the aim of tackling tumors head-on. But the occurrence of relapse in some patients remains a challenge.
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Compound that kills drug-resistant fungi is isolated from ant microbiota
Antimicrobial and antifungal resistance, which describe the ability of bacteria and other pathogens to resist the effects of drugs to which they were once sensitive, is a major public health problem worldwide. A study published recently in the journal Nature Communications suggests that the solution may come from the tiny bodies of insects, or more accurately, from the microbiota that they host.
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