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An anticonvulsant drug called lamotrigine is the first chemical inhibitor of the assembly of ribosomes in bacteria.

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Findings emphasize the need to develop a standardized surveillance system for non-communicable diseases, such as CVD, cancer and lung diseases, by ethnic group in Canada

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Patients with severe asthma often require high doses of steroid-based treatments that can significantly impair their quality of life. This new drug is the only therapy that has been proven to be effective in well-established clinical trials to help reduce doses of steroid-based treatments such as prednisone for those with severe asthma.

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Weight loss differences between popular diets are minimal and likely of little importance to those wanting to lose weight, the researchers say. However, diets with behavioural support and exercise enhance the weight loss.

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The research shows that for better heart health, rich countries should continue to deliver high quality health care while trying to reduce risk factors, while poor countries need to avoid the rise of risk factors but also substantially improve their health care.

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Treatment for opioid addiction tampers with the testosterone levels of male but not female opioid users.

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Middle-aged or older patients with mild or no osteoarthritis of the knee may not benefit from the procedure of arthroscopic knee surgery.

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The largest study of its kind ever conducted -- involving 18 countries and more than100,000 people -- indicates the current recommended maximum sodium intake is actually too low and may even be unsafe. However, high sodium is also harmful, so an “optimal” range is the best target.

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Developmental psychologist Daphne Maurer has spent more than four decades studying the complexities of the human mind. As the director of the Visual Development Lab at McMaster University and president of the International Society on Infant Studies, Maurer will present her life’s work at the Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies in Berlin July 4th.

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A fungus living in the soils of Nova Scotia could offer new hope in the pressing battle against drug-resistant germs that kill tens of thousands of people every year, including one considered a serious global threat.

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Researchers have shown that moving with others in time to music increases altruistic behavior in babies who have barely learned to walk.

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Researchers have demonstrated for the first time in an animal model that maternal use of a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, resulted in increased fat accumulation and inflammation in the liver of the adult offspring, raising new concerns about the long-term metabolic complications in children born to women who take SSRI antidepressants during pregnancy.

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McMaster University researchers may have found a novel way to suppress the devastating side effect of statins, one of the worlds’ most widely used drugs to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease. Their findings could lead to the next generation of statins by informing potential combination therapies while taking the drug.

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McMaster University is planning to welcome 600 to 700 researchers from Canada, the US and beyond to share and debate information about how to cope with the newest problems, when it hosts the International Association for Great Lakes Research conference, Monday to Friday (May 26 to 30).

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The study found that giving a mild allergic asthma patient an antibody, which blocks a specific protein in the lungs, markedly improved asthmatic symptoms such as wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and cough after the allergic asthmatics had inhaled an environmental allergen.

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This study is the largest, based on high-quality imaging and reading of scans, to understand the role of PET-CT in selecting the best colorectal cancer candidates whose cancer has spread to the liver for surgery.

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New research from McMaster University suggests that a commonly performed test during certain types of heart surgery is not helpful and possibly harmful.

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A group of McMaster researchers has solved the problem of cumbersome, painfully slow water-testing by turning the process upside-down. They have created a way to take the lab to the water, putting potentially life-saving technology into a tiny pill.

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Elafin, by interacting with the transglutaminase 2 enzyme, decreased the enzymatic reaction that increases the toxicity of peptides derived from gluten.

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The McMaster team found that segmentation motion occurs when not one but two sets of pacemakers interact with each other to create a specific rhythm. Then they work together with nerves and muscle to generate the movement that allows for nutrient absorption.The discovery is important as it gives direction for development of drugs or nutrients which will combat disorders when people have diarrhea, constipation, bloating or malabsorption of nutrients from food.

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An international team of scientists has discovered that two of the world’s most devastating plagues – the plague of Justinian and the Black Death, each responsible for killing as many as half the people in Europe—were caused by distinct strains of the same pathogen, one that faded out on its own, the other leading to worldwide spread and re-emergence in the late 1800s. These findings suggest a new strain of plague could emerge again in humans in the future.

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The researchers assembled information from many sources, including experiments on human volunteers and on ferrets, then used a mathematical model to compute how the increase in the amount of virus given off by a single person taking fever-reducing drugs would increase the overall number of cases in a typical year, or in a year when a new strain of influenza caused a flu pandemic. The bottom line is that fever suppression increases the number of annual cases by approximately five per cent, corresponding to more than 1,000 additional deaths from influenza in a typical year across North America.

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Working with a nearly 200-year-old sample of preserved intestine, researchers at McMaster University and the University of Sydney have traced the bacterium behind a global cholera pandemic that killed millions – a version of the same bug that continues to strike vulnerable populations in the world’s poorest regions.

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Celebrities have substantial sway as health advisers, as there are strong biological, psychological and social bases for why people follow celebrity medical advice, say McMaster University researchers. Celebrity power can be harnessed to disseminate information based on best available research or abused to promote useless treatments. The researchers add that health professionals can counter the negative influences.

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A New Zealand bird that conspicuously displays its status on the top of its head can provide valuable insight into the social conventions of all creatures, including humans, scientists have found.

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Just as fragments of ancient pottery and bones offer valuable information about human history, music can also reveal clues about the past, according to new research from an international team led by McMaster University psychologist Steven Brown.

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Among patients receiving standard care, 47% suffered a major complication of death, heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, blood clot or major bleeding event. However, only 30% of the patients in the accelerated surgery group suffered one of these complications.

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As a complication of treatment, breast cancer patients may develop swelling in the arm, called lymphedema, which can last a long time. But there’s no difference if simple compression bandages or a complicated daily lymphatic massage are used as treatment.

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Regardless of the way in which muscle was damaged, either through trauma or disease, Xin was strongly correlated to the degree of damage.

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The key is that metformin doesn’t work to lower blood glucose by directly working on the glucose. It works on reducing harmful fat molecules in the liver, which then allows insulin to work better and lower blood sugar levels.

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Men with low-pitched voices have an advantage in attracting women, even though women know they’re not likely to stick around for long. Researchers at McMaster University have found that women were more attracted to men with masculine voices, at least for short-term relationships. Those men were also seen as more likely to cheat and unsuitable for a longer relationship, such as marriage.

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Discovery of chemical compounds that block the ability of bacteria to make vitamins and amino acids, processes that are emerging as Achilles’ heels for bacteria that infect the human body.

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Researchers have successfully tested treatments for people with allergies to grasses and to dust mites. The treatments are from a new class of therapy, known as ‘synthetic peptide immuno-regulatory epitopes’, or SPIREs. Positive results, first with a cat allergy therapy and now with house dust mite and grass allergy treatments, suggest that this approach may be used for many common allergies.

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The new vaccine was developed to act as a booster to Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG), currently the only TB vaccine available. BCG was developed in the 1920s and has been used worldwide. The new “booster” would reactivate immune elements that over time diminish following BCG vaccination.

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The overwhelming urge that drives many pregnant women to clean, organize and get life in order—otherwise known as nesting—is not irrational, but an adaptive behaviour stemming from humans’ evolutionary past.

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The highest lung function was found in individuals from North America and Europe. This was followed by South America, Middle East, China, sub-Saharan Africa, Malaysia and South Asia. South Asians had the lowest lung function, by 30% compared to North Americans and Europeans.

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A global study has found that many patients don’t know they have hypertension and, even if they do, too few are receiving adequate drug therapy for their hypertension.

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The international research team found risk factors for cardiovascular disease was lowest in low income countries, intermediate in middle income countries and highest in high income countries. However, the incidence of serious cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and deaths followed the opposite pattern: highest in the low income countries, intermediate in middle income countries and lowest in high income countries. Hospitalizations for less severe cardiovascular diseases were highest in the high income countries.

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New mothers and obese people, two groups not typically regarded as risk groups, were found to have a higher risk of death and other severe outcomes from influenza, according to the global study sponsored by the World Health Organization.

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While it’s rare for a parent to fabricate an illness in their child, a McMaster University researcher says physicians and other health professionals need to be on the alert for this form of child abuse.

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The research found no evidence of abnormalities in the internal jugular or vertebral veins or in the deep cerebral veins of any of 100 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) compared with 100 people who had no history of any neurological condition.

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McMaster University researchers have revealed the location of human blood stem cells that may improve bone marrow transplants. The best stem cells are at the ends of the bone.

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The larva of the fruit fly is helping scientists understand the way humans learn information from each other. Fruit flies have long served as models for studying behaviour, but new findings show their larvae may be even more valuable.

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Researchers at McMaster University have discovered a solution to a long-standing medical mystery in Huntington's disease (HD).

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Financial incentives for Ontario surgeons are likely a key factor driving greater use of laparoscopic colon cancer surgery, says a study led by a McMaster University surgeon. The research, published by the Annals of Surgical Oncology, found an increase in laparoscopic colon and rectal cancer surgery but few benefits for patients.

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With an aging population and people living longer with chronic illness, it is increasingly important for patients and family members to decide how they and their loved ones would like to spend their final days. And for physicians in both hospital and primary care settings, it is crucial that they know how to address this issue with sensitivity. A new “conversation guide” aims to guide physicians through these sensitive discussions with patients in hospital and their family members.

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To investigate factors underlying the three-wave shape of the 1918 influenza epidemic, McMaster researchers developed what they describe as a simple epidemic model. It incorporates three factors in addition to natural disease spread: school terms, temperature changes during an outbreak and changes in human behavior.

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After laboring under other theories that never seemed to add up, McMaster University researchers have concluded that menopause is an unintended outcome of natural selection, generated by men's historical preference for younger mates.

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One in six women arriving at orthopedic fracture clinics have been victims of physical, emotional, or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner within the past year, and one in 50 arrive as a direct result of intimate partner violence (IPV), according to the largest multinational study of its kind to date, led by McMaster University researchers. Worldwide, intimate partner violence is the leading cause of non-fatal injury to women. Musculoskeletal injuries are the second most common type of injury resulting from IPV and are often seen by orthopedic surgeons.

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A team of researchers has made a significant discovery which may have a dramatic impact on children stricken with Tay-Sachs disease, a degenerative and fatal neurological condition that often strikes in the early months of life. Available drugs may dramatically ease a child’s suffering, say scientists.