Health, Research | featured news

More than a decade of research hinting that magnesium supplements might boost your brain power is finally being put to the test in a small clinical trial. The research, led by biopharmaceutical company Magceutics of Hayward, California, began testing the ability of its product Magtein to boost magnesium ion (Mg2+) levels in the brain earlier this month. The trial will track whether the ions can decrease anxiety and improve sleep quality, as well as following changes in the memory and cognitive ability of participants. But critics caution that the trial in just 50 people is too small to draw definitive conclusions.

The most common and aggressive brain tumor grows by turning normal brain cells into stem cells, which can continuously replicate and regrow a tumor with only a handful of cells left behind, new research finds.

Mice with brittle skin, which tears off to escape predators, may offer clues to healing wounds without scars, according to US researchers.

For some kids, the price of controlling severe asthma is half an inch of adult height. Those who use the inhaled steroid drug budesonide (marketed under brands including Rhinocort and Pulmicort) see a permanent stunting of growth, new research shows.

New research sheds light on what clinicians don’t worry about enough: the fact that doctors and patients don’t always communicate well, even in dire situations, writes Dr. Tyeese Gaines of theGrio.com.

The long search for a male birth control pill is not over -- but researchers say they have a promising new lead. The researchers were testing a cancer drug in mice when they found it was able to temporarily stop sperm production.

Images of patients on ventilators on cigarette packets help smokers heed the health warnings about smoking better than written warnings, says US research.

Could exercise actually be bad for some healthy people? A well-known group of researchers, including one who helped write the scientific paper justifying national guidelines that promote exercise for all, say the answer may be a qualified yes.

The National Institutes of Health on Thursday suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees and accepted the first uniform criteria for assessing the necessity of such research. Those criteria require that the research be necessary for human health, and that there be no other way to accomplish it.

Tanning beds have already been linked to an increased risk of the deadliest type of skin cancer and now new research shows they can also raise the odds of developing the most common form of the disease.