Over half of Canadian youth and young adults who have consumed energy drinks have experienced negative health effects as a result, according to a study from the University of Waterloo.

Nearly one-quarter of children and teens who had their blood pressure screened at a primary care appointment showed a reading in the hypertensive range, but less than half of those readings could be confirmed after the blood pressure was repeated, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study released today in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension. The research shows the importance of taking a second blood pressure reading for those ages 3 to 17 years when the first reading is elevated.

It is well known that healthy eating increases our general sense of wellbeing. Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now discovered that a fibre-rich diet can have a positive influence on chronic inflammatory joint diseases, leading to stronger bones. 

Smoking risk drops significantly in college graduates when they live near areas that completely banned smoking in bars and restaurants, according to a new Drexel University study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

A protein involved in cognition and storing long-term memories looks and acts like a protein from viruses. The protein, called Arc, has properties similar to those that viruses use for infecting host cells, and originated from a chance evolutionary event that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago.

When babies crawl, their movement across floors, especially carpeted surfaces, kicks up high levels of dirt, skin cells, bacteria, pollen, and fungal spores, a new study has found. The infants inhale a dose of bio bits in their lungs that is four times (per kilogram of body mass) what an adult would breathe walking across the same floor.  

A paper appearing in Geophysical Research Letters uses machine learning to craft an improved model for understanding geothermal heat flux — heat emanating from the Earth’s interior — below the Greenland Ice Sheet. It’s a research approach new to glaciology that could lead to more accurate predictions for ice-mass loss and global sea-level rise.

One of the most puzzling questions in breast cancer research is why some tumors stay put, while rogue cells from others break free and spread to surrounding tissues, the first step toward creating a more lethal disease. Although researchers have found some signs in mutated genes or telltale proteins on the cell’s surface, those discoveries don’t tell the whole story.

Paulette McIlvena went to bed, at home, and woke up three weeks later, in hospital. She became severely ill due to complications from pancreatitis. While she was in a coma McIlvena underwent surgery and was put on dialysis as a temporary measure. Following those events in 2004, the pancreatitis cleared up, McIlvena’s kidneys started working again, and she thought her kidney troubles were behind her.

Recently, however, she was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease related to her experience 13 years ago and is now being treated by UCalgary’s Cumming School of Medicine physician-scientist Dr. Matthew James.

In urban streams, persistent pharmaceutical pollution can cause aquatic microbial communities to become resistant to drugs. So reports a new study published today in the journal Ecosphere.