A sweeping review of research studies of aspartame says there is no evidence that the non-nutritive sweetener causes cancer, neurological damage or other health problems in humans

Looking at more than 500 reports, including toxicological, clinical and epidemiological studies dating from 1970’s preclinical work to the latest studies on the high-intensity sweetener, along with use levels and regulations data, an international expert panel from 10 universities and medical schools evaluated the safety of aspartame for people of all ages and with a variety of health conditions. Their study is published in the September issue of Critical Reviews in Toxicology.

What killed the Neanderthals? No one can say for sure but an international study led by the University of Leeds has ruled out one of the popular recent theories, catastrophic climate change, as the most likely cause.

The bones of more than 400 Neanderthals have been found since the first discoveries were made in the early 19th century. The finds suggest the Neanderthals, named after the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, where they were first recognized as an extinct kind of archaic humans, inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia for more than 100,000 years.

The causes of their extinction have puzzled scientists for years – with some believing it was due to competition with modern humans, while others blamed deteriorating climatic conditions.

A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Princeton Universities says US healthcare workers are paid too much yet there aren't enough of them. Fewer days in hospitals are offset by more outpatient services and not enough attention is paid to chronic health issues.

Compared to the average Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country in 2004, the United States has fewer health resources—physicians, nurses and hospital beds—and lower utilization of these resources. Health spending for chronic health issues, such as obesity, alcohol consumption and smoking, also contributes to high health spending in the United States.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease that breaks down tissues in the nervous system. ALS is a disease of the motor neurons leading to a progressive loss of the ability to move virtually any of the muscles in the body.

The ALS research team at Umeå University in Sweden details that a gene that is involved in communication between nerve cells is strongly associated with non-hereditary (sporadic) ALS.

To try to identify the pathogenic genes involved in ALS, the Umeå scientists, in collaboration with Dutch and Belgian researchers, compared DNA samples from 1,337 patients with non-hereditary ALS (sporadic ALS, SALS) with DNA samples from 1,356 healthy individuals.

The medication tamoxifen, best known as a treatment for breast cancer, dramatically reduces symptoms of the manic phase of bipolar disorder more quickly than many standard medications for the mental illness, a new study shows. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) who conducted the study also explained how: Tamoxifen blocks an enzyme called protein kinase C (PKC) that regulates activities in brain cells. The enzyme is thought to be over-active during the manic phase of bipolar disorder.

By pointing to PKC as a target for new medications, the study raises the possibility of developing faster-acting treatments for the manic phase of the illness.

An enriched peanut-butter mixture given at home is successfully promoting recovery in large numbers of starving children in Malawi, according to a group of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Malnutrition affects 70 percent of all Malawian children with an estimated 13 percent of children dying from it before the age of five.

Mark J. Manary, M.D., professor of pediatrics and an emergency pediatrician at St. Louis Children's Hospital, has spent several years researching the use of the enriched peanut-butter mixture, called Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) with small groups of severely and moderately malnourished young children in the sub-Saharan African country.