Around 5.4 million people currently receive treatment for asthma in the UK, of which 1.1 million are children.

To diagnose the condition doctors usually measure a person’s airflow lung capacity, however lung function tests can be inaccurate and do not reflect underlying changes associated with asthma. Other tests, such as blood, urine or sputum analysis can be distressing, particularly for younger patients.

The new test, developed in collaboration with Nottingham City Hospital, is completely painless and offers a one-stop diagnosis suitable for people of all ages.

The body’s smallest organ dictates your blood pressure. The size of a grain of rice, the carotid body, located between two major arteries that feed the brain with blood, has been found to control your blood pressure.

Patients’ evaluations of doctors’ interpersonal skills are used to assess quality of care. In both the UK and the US, certain minority ethnic groups report lower patient experience scores compared to the majority population. For example, the English General Practice Patient Survey found that South Asian groups report particularly low scores compared to the White British majority, with Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups providing the lowest scores.

Several potential explanations have been proposed for these lower ratings. These mainly relate to whether South Asian patients receive lower quality care, or whether they receive similar care, but rate this more negatively.

In 1991, Theo Colborn convened a group of international scientists to discuss concerns about the trans-generational effects of persistent chemicals on predator species in the Great Lakes.  Their report, and a subsequent book authored by Colborn and her colleagues entitled Our Stolen Future, Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival?,  proposed that many chemicals which display an ability to interact or interfere with the human endocrine system have the ability to elicit adverse health effects at doses far lower than the toxicities caused through other modes of action and required special regulation.

revious studies have largely assumed that the prevalence of mental disorders declines with old age. The results of a new large-scale study with innovative diagnostic methods conducted in six European countries reveal that, considering the previous year retrospectively, approximately one third of the respondents in the age group between 65 and 85 had suffered from a mental disorder, and roughly one quarter were mentally ill at the time of the interviews.

A study on human behavior has revealed that 90% of the population can be classified into four basic personality types: Optimistic, Pessimistic, Trusting and Envious. However, the latter of the four types, Envious, is the most common, with 30% compared to 20% for each of the other groups.

This is one of the main conclusions of a study recently published in the journal, Science Advances by researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, together with colleagues from the universities of Barcelona, Rovira i Virgili and Zaragoza. The study analyzed the responses of 541 volunteers to hundreds of social dilemmas, with options leading to collaboration or conflict with others, based on individual or collective interests.

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have made a second significant breakthrough in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia – using precision medicine to kill more than 90% of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) stem cells. The results are published today in the high impact journal Cancer Discovery.

CML is a rare form of blood cancer. An individual gets CML when normal blood stem cells are turned into leukaemic stem cells, or CML stem cells. These CML stem cells then produce large numbers of leukaemic cells which, if left untreated, is fatal.

With one billion stars mapped in a thousand days, European researchers have shown that they are not afraid to tackle the most daunting tasks. The work was carried out by 450 researchers from 25 European countries, including around a hundred scientists from France, mainly at the CNRS, Observatoire de Paris and Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur[1], with major participation by the French space agency CNES. Using the Gaia spacecraft, launched on 19 December 2013, scientists have catalogued the position of 1.15 billion stars, and in addition measured the velocity and distance of two million of them relative to the Sun. ESA[2] and the European consortium DPAC[3] are releasing the mission's first findings on September 14.

The following factors facilitate the formation of putatively toxic structures in the neuronal nuclei of Alzheimer’s patients.

Spherical structures in the nucleus of nerve cells, so-called nuclear spheres, are suspected to trigger Alzheimer’s disease. A team headed by Dr Thorsten Müller from the research group Cell Signaling in Neurodegeneration has for the very first time demonstrated the presence of the presumably toxic protein aggregates in the human brain. The researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum have published their article in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

Number of nuclear spheres higher in Alzheimer’s patients

Our linguistic and legal obsession with “insult” and “offense” is nothing new. In 1832, Sydney resident William McLoughlin was given 50 lashes for using the word “damned” against his master.

But what does McLoughlin’s case tell us about today?

Welsh Rabbit and lashes from pretty fellows

The word insult can be traced to the Latin insultāre “to leap upon” or “assail”. It possibly entered English via a Middle French word insulter, meaning “to insult, crow, vaunt, or triumph over; to wrong, reproach, affront”.