Glucosamine supplements reduce knee pain in people with cartilage damage and possibly the degenerative joint disease osteoarthritis, concludes research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Glucosamine is produced naturally in the body and found primarily in joint cartilage, damage to which often precedes osteoarthritis. Glucosamine capsules are widely available from health food shops, supermarkets, and over the internet

The researchers conducted a small trial in which 24 patie

In recent years, scientists have discovered that the iridescence of various colorful creatures, from beetles to birds to butterflies, is often due to microscopic structures known as photonic crystals. Unlike pigments, which absorb or reflect certain frequencies of light as a result of their chemical composition, the way that photonic crystals reflect light is a function of their physical structure. That is, a material containing a periodic array of holes or bumps of a certain size may reflect blue

A new brain imaging method pioneered by a German research group from several institutions can now produce images that localize the areas of the brain involved when test subjects perform physical activities, and can show how portions of the brain interact with each other. The technique, dubbed synchronization tomography, involves mapping the fluctuating magnetic fields produced by tiny electrical currents in the brain, and determining which brain regions are synchronized with an activity – such as a t

A new study suggests that brief exposures to pure oxygen not only help chronic and other hard-to-heal wounds heal completely, such exposures also help wounds heal faster.

Ohio State University surgical scientists used topical oxygen therapy to treat 30 patients with a total of 56 wounds. The therapy required placing a bag containing pure oxygen over the wound for 90 minutes a day. More than two-thirds of the difficult wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone.

Wounds in this cl

Treatment appropriate for some patients who are not good surgical candidates

A minimally invasive, experimental treatment is proving successful in removing small kidney tumors from appropriate patients, report researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In a study in the February 2003 issue of Radiology, the MGH team describes how a technique called radiofrequency ablation (RFA) destroyed all renal cell carcinoma (RCC) tumors less than 3 cm in size and some larger tumors, d

A study led by a Duke University scientist suggests that the current emphasis on controlling upstream nitrogen pollution fails to adequately address the impacts on water quality of another potential contaminant, phosphorus. Thus, according to the scientists, current strategies used by environmental managers to control excessive nutrients in coastal wetlands may not achieve their intended goals.

The finding was published in a report in the Friday, Jan. 24, 2003, issue of the journal Science b