Do spicy foods cause ulcers?
Years ago it was accepted as fact that spicy foods were the culprits behind many peptic ulcers. Doctors’ advice was to avoid curries, salsas, hot peppers, and anything else that “burned,” the theory being that...
Tagged: cancer
Antioxidants and free radicals
Antioxidants are part of the complex world of biochemistry. In cells, oxygen is constantly involved in chemical reactions in which electrons are shifted around. To generate energy, our cells remove electrons from sugars, fatty...
Do cellphones cause cancer?
Cell phones are more widespread than ever, and the debate about whether they can cause brain cancer continues unabated. With the results of each new study, scientists and advocates on both sides of the...
Stuck your head inside a particle accelerator
What would happen if you stuck your body inside a particle accelerator? The scenario seems like the start of a bad Marvel comic, but it happens to shed light on our intuitions about radiation,...
Should you stick with Teflon?
The chemical polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), with nonstick properties, was discovered accidentally in 1938 by a DuPont chemist working with refrigerant gases. Shortly after, PTFE (dubbed Teflon) appeared as a coating on cookware and other products,...
Psychedelics for depression and PTSD?
The Aztecs and Timothy Leary touted the psychological benefits of mind-altering psychedelic drugs. Now, science is finding out they may have been right. Researchers are investigating the use of the mind-altering drugs psilocybin, for...
Scientists can now reverse DNA ageing in mice
Researchers have identified a cellular mechanism that allows them to reverse ageing in mouse DNA and protect it from future damage. They’ve shown that by giving a particular compound to older mice, they can...
Terminal cancer patients in complete remission after one gene therapy treatment
A groundbreaking gene therapy treatment which boosts a patient’s own immune cells has been shown to clear disease from one third of terminal patients. US pharmaceutical company Kite Pharma released results from the first...
Ginger: a folk remedy put to the test
Used in cooking and herbal medicine around the world, ginger is the rhizome (underground stem) of Zingiber officinale, which grows in warm climates. It contains many interesting compounds. The best known of these are...
Cancer spread is increased by a high fat diet
A study partly funded by UK charity Worldwide Cancer Research and headed by Professor Salvador Aznar Benitah, at the Institute for Research in Barcelona have identified for the first time a specific protein called CD36...
