Digestion News and Research

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Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breaking down of food into smaller components, to a form that can be absorbed, for instance, into a blood stream. Digestion is a form of catabolism; a break-down of macro food molecules to smaller ones.

What does the appendix do? finally an answer!

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center say that the function of the frequently discarded appendix, an organ often credited with little importance and often dismissed as having no significant function, does it seems have a role to play after all.

8 Oct 2007

Specific immune deficiency pinpointed as likely cause of ulcerative colitis

In a series of mouse experiments, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have pinpointed a specific immune deficiency as the likely fundamental cause of ulcerative colitis, a chronic, sometimes severe inflammatory disease of the colon or large intestine that afflicts half a million Americans.

4 Oct 2007

FDA approves new adjustable gastric band for morbid obesity

Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for marketing the REALIZE Adjustable Gastric Band, a surgical implant for weight reduction and improvement in obesity-related health conditions, such as type-2 diabetes, in individuals suffering from morbid obesity.

29 Sep 2007

Effects of good and bad carbohydrates

The latest common wisdom on carbohydrates claims that eating so-called "bad" carbohydrates will make you fat, but University of Virginia professor Glenn Gaesser says, "that's just nonsense."

29 Sep 2007

Low birth weight children may be at a greater risk of stress-related health problems as adults

Findings from this study show that low birth weight (below the 10th percentile) can lead later in life to low concentrations of cortisol, a hormone that regulates stress response by adjusting blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

27 Sep 2007

Common abdominal pain may be due to a potentially treatable newly recognized inflammatory reaction

As many as one in four people in westernized countries experience pain or discomfort in their upper abdomen, and physicians have almost nothing to offer except anti-acid medicines, which usually don't work.

20 Sep 2007

Benefits and risks of breastfeeding

Extensive medical research shows that mothers' milk satisfies babies' nutritional needs far better than any manufactured infant formula.

17 Sep 2007

Nanotechnology helps identify molecular signature common to Lou Gehrig's disease

A nanotechnology developed by a University at Buffalo professor has enabled researchers to identify a molecular signature common to both familial and sporadic cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

5 Sep 2007

Bacteria - you can live without 'em, but it won't do you any good!

The finding challenges the conventional wisdom that even harmless bacteria – and the immune response they provoke – suck up the energy of the host organism and hasten its death.

8 Aug 2007

New evidence of very recent human adaptation

A Cornell study of genome sequences in African-Americans, European-Americans and Chinese suggests that natural selection has caused as much as 10 percent of the human genome to change in some populations in the last 15,000 to 100,000 years, when people began migrating from Africa.

12 Jul 2007

Two complementary commanders in charge of the brain

A probe of the upper echelons of the human brain's chain-of-command has found strong evidence that there are not one but two complementary commanders in charge of the brain, according to neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

20 Jun 2007

Scientists link cell's protein recycling systems

Many age-related neurological diseases are associated with defective proteins accumulating in nerve cells, suggesting that the cell's normal disposal mechanisms are not operating correctly.

17 Jun 2007

Better understanding of how the body fights off mucosal pathogens

In a finding that could have important implications for HIV vaccine research, new research at Weill Cornell Medical College illuminates the ways in which the body prevents its mucosal surfaces from being overwhelmed by bacteria.

17 Jun 2007

New genetic risk factor for coeliac disease

An international research consortium investigating the genetic causes of intestinal inflammatory conditions has identified a new genetic risk factor for coeliac disease.

14 Jun 2007

Eurand files NDA for Zentase for the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency

Eurand has announced that Eurand Pharmaceuticals Ltd. initiated the rolling submission of its new drug application (NDA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Zentase for the treatment of Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI). Zentase (formerly EUR-1008), the company's lead product candidate, has been granted fast-track designation by the FDA.

14 Jun 2007