A quick overview of the top research reports on the MedicalXpress website in 2020!

December 20, 2020 / -- 2020 is a good year for medical research, with scientists from the University of California finding a link between gut microbiomes and the body's vitamin D levels, and the diversity of gut microbiomes may be directly related to levels of active vitamin D (not its prebiotor form, an active form of metabolism) in the body.
Another group of researchers from the same agency found that surgery and N95 masks may block most of the aerosol particles released when breathing, talking, and coughing, noting that most homemade masks release large amounts of fiber from the mask into the air, highlighting the importance of cleaning the mask after each use.
researchers from St. Petersburg University believe that the severity of COVID-19 may be related to vascular haemophilia factor (vWF, von Willebrand factor), and in some populations replication of the virus can stimulate micro-damage to the walls of blood vessels.
researchers speculate that the damage could prompt the body to release vWF into the bloodstream to fix the hole.
Also, Chad Wolf, a technology consultant at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced early in the new coronavirus that sunlight could quickly destroy the new coronavirus, citing a study that suggested that ultraviolet light in sunlight could potentially affect the SARS-CoV-2 virus, allowing outdoor surfaces to be safely touched.
Photo Source: Scientists at the University of Arizona in NIH have found that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies provide the body with long-lasting immunity, suggesting that people who survive infection and those vaccinated will be protected from re-infection within a few months;
that researchers haven't had enough time to test for longer since the new coronavirus emerged.
In addition, as the outbreak spreads, some are beginning to wonder whether wearing a mask would be better than wearing a mask; researchers from the John Hope Center for Health and Safety say wearing a mask may be a better option for some people because it's more comfortable to wear.
also noted that wearing a mask protects the virus from entering the body through the eyes, and that masks, like face masks, can effectively reduce the body's exposure to the virus.
Scientists at the University of California have found that the ketogenic diet, or the gut microbiome that improves the human and mouse bodies, has attracted the attention of many researchers over the past year as public interest has grown, and researchers believe that this diet has a significant impact on the microbiome that lives in the human gut, thereby suppressing inflammation in the body and benefiting people with autoimmune diseases.
addition, scientists from Northwestern University in the United States have found evidence of damage to the placenta of COVID-19-positive pregnant women by studying another way the SARS-CoV2 virus harms humans.
study of 16 COVID-19 pregnant women, they found that all pregnant women had damaged placentals, which can lead to abnormal blood flow between the mother and the fetus.
Scientists from institutions such as the University of British Columbia have sought to clarify the problem with the use of ibuprofen in patients with COVID-19, pointing out that the negative correlation between the two may be a myth, with one doctor from France saying on Twitter that COVID-19 patients may not take ibuprofen because it may increase their risk of pneumonia, but at this point there is little evidence that ibuprofen makes COVID-19 patients worse.
Scientists from Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a new way to regenerate cartilage in the joints, where the absence of cartilage can lead to joint pain and arthritis, after researchers believed there was no way to completely grow cartilage once it disappeared, a new technique that only slightly damages joint tissue and uses stem cells for therapeutic purposes.
at the University of New South Wales found that patients who took metformin as a type 2 diabetes treatment experienced fewer age-related cognitive declines than those who did not.
a paper published in the journal Clinical Infection Diseases, signed by 239 health experts around the world, suggests that the 1.5-meter social distance may be too short, and several studies have shown that viruses emitted by the human body during breathing can spread tens of meters.
point out that people need to know the truth.
researchers at the University of Surrey have come up with a whole new way to explain human consciousness, pointing out that the electromagnetic energy generated by the brain allows the brain's material to create consciousness, while also giving the body the ability to think and think, a theory that could be used to develop an artificial intelligence system of a conscious type.
Scientists from the Cleveland Clinic found that melatonin may be available as a COVID-19 therapy, a hormone that regulates the body's wake-up cycle and is found in many OTC sleep products to help reduce disease symptoms in patients, and that individuals who are not infected but take melatonin appear to be less likely to be infected after exposure to an infected person.
Scientists at Tel Aviv University have found that the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system could be used to destroy cancer cells, and in this article they illustrate a transport system based on lipid nanoparticles or cancer cells that can target metastasis and destroy them through genetic modification.
researchers named the modified system CRISPR-LNPs, and noted that the system works by carrying RNA messengers to cut the DNA of cancer cells.
And researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology wanted to know why handwriting makes children smarter, and they studied volunteers who, through EEG monitoring, found that their brains were more active when they wrote, suggesting that their brains were more engaged and were able to learn more.
In a successful study published by the University of Hebrew and others, researchers found that oxidizing foods such as dark tea, chocolate and berries may increase an individual's risk of specific cancers, which explains why colorectal cancer is much more likely to develop cancer than neighboring small intestine cancers.
Scientists from the University of California point out that giving mice a special drug may reverse their age-related cognitive decline within days. ISRIB's drugs are currently shown in laboratories to restore memory function in the brain months after brain trauma, while also reversing cognitive impairment in patients with Down syndrome, preventing noise-related hearing loss, fighting certain types of prostate cancer, and even enhancing cognitive function in healthy animals.
another group of researchers found in a national health and nutrition survey that women's life expectancy may be related to the age at which their last child was born, noting that women who have late childbearing may have longer telomeres.
Scientists from Oregon State University found that older people who took zinc-containing multivitamins and mineral supplements and large amounts of vitamin C daily were less likely to be sick and had lighter symptoms than their control group peers.
University of Alabama researchers analyzed the health effects of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet on the health of older adults and found that the body's composition, fat distribution, and metabolic health improved over an eight-week very low-carbohydrate diet, including eating three eggs a day.
In addition, scientists from institutions such as the University of Buffalo found that people who regularly use marijuana may have overestimated their understanding of marijuana, particularly with regard to levels of tyhydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, and in one study found that many non-professionals who claimed to know a lot about the activity in cannabinol may have overestimated the levels of cannabinol in many different varieties.
A joint team of researchers from several European institutions found that Alzheimer's disease was directly related to imbalances in the gut microbiome, and more specifically, that the product of specific bacteria in the gut microbiome was associated with the number of amyloid plaques in the brain, which is thought to be the main cause of Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists from the University of British Columbia found that ketone monoester drinks, or supplements regularly consumed by people on a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet, could be used to help control blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.
:Best of Last Year: The Top Medical Xpress articles of 2020by Bob Yirka, Medical Xpress<!--/ewebeditor:page->