Today's other health stories
Arthritis linked to baby infections
Babies with serious infections during their first year of life appear more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis at an early age, Swedish researchers have found.
Previous studies have suggested infections somehow trigger the autoimmune condition later in life but the Swedish findings raise the possibility infections may somehow change the way an immature immune system develops, the researchers said.
"Nobody had thought of this relationship with early-in-life infections and how they can affect the immune system," said Cecilia Carlens of the Karolinska University Hospital and Institute in Stockholm, who led the study, published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Rheumatoid arthritis affects 20 million people worldwide and is the most common chronic rheumatic disorder in children.
Epilepsy drug in Alzheimer's study
A common epilepsy drug can reverse the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, scientists have discovered. The drug, valproic acid (VPA), blocks production of a neurotoxic protein linked to Alzheimer's called beta amyloid. Deposits or "plaques" made from beta amyloid build up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients damaging their nerve cells and fibres, or "axons".
Prof Weihong Song led the research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
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