A breakthrough study has identified a class of natural gene variants that may protect against Alzheimer’s disease. For the study, researchers at University College London analyzed DNA from more than 10,000 people — half with Alzheimer’s and half without. The investigators found that these gene variants reduce the functioning of proteins called tyrosine phosphatases. These…  read on >

Burns on the face, arms and hands that require skin grafts. Acne boils and ugly rashes. Black hairy tongue and other oral lesions. These are some of the ways that vaping can do serious damage to someone’s skin, a new evidence review shows. For example, an estimated 2,035 people with electronic cigarette burn injuries were…  read on >

A new discovery could lead to better treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases, such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, researchers report. MS occurs when immune cells get into the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), causing nerve damage that results in neurological problems. However, the cause is unclear. Studies in…  read on >

Teaching parents how to talk to their babies could help boost their children’s language development, researchers say. The University of Washington study didn’t look at so-called baby talk, which typically consists of silly sounds and nonsense words. Instead, the researchers focused on what’s called parentese. This is proper speech with elongated vowels and exaggerated tones…  read on >

Smokers who recently quit tobacco cigarettes are much more likely to use e-cigarettes than those who quit more than a decade ago, a new study says. The findings suggest that smokers who want to quit are now using e-cigarettes to help them, according to the authors. In the past, quitters had to rely on other…  read on >

American dentists often prescribe more than the recommended supply of opioid painkillers to patients, a new study finds. Not only that, they are more likely to prescribe more powerful opioids, the researchers found. In this study, the researchers analyzed data on nearly 550,000 dental visits by adult patients between 2011 and 2015, before U.S. Centers…  read on >