Latest Sahlgrenska Academy Stories

Fresh evidence that fatty food is bad for our health has come to light: mice fed a lard-based diet over a long period got worse at fighting bacteria in the blood, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy.The mice fed the lard-based diet derived 60 per cent of their total calories from fat. They were compared with mice fed a low-fat diet, where no more than ten per cent of their calories came from fat. As expected, the mice on the high-fat diet got fatter. A more surprising result was...

Young adults who are fit have a higher IQ and are more likely to go on to university, reveals a major new study carried out at the Sahlgrenska Academy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital.The results were published today in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study involved 1.2 million Swedish men doing military service who were born between 1950 and 1976. The research group analyzed the results of both physical and IQ tests when the men enrolled.The...

Dentists can help to identify patients who are in danger of dying of a heart attack or stroke, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy. Thanks to the study, six men who thought they were completely healthy were able to start preventive treatment in time."Dentists are really proud of their profession and feel no need to encroach upon doctors' territory," says senior dental officer and professor Mats Jontell at the Sahlgrenska Academy. "However, we wanted to find out if...

Women who store fat on their waist in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy. The study has just been published in the scientific journal Neurology."Anyone carrying a lot of fat around the middle is at greater risk of dying prematurely due to a heart attack or stroke," says Deborah Gustafson, senior lecturer at the Sahlgrenska Academy. "If they nevertheless manage to live beyond 70, they...

The generation of new nerve cells in the brain is regulated by a peptide known as C3a, which directly affects the stem cells' maturation into nerve cells and is also important for the migration of new nerve cells through the brain tissue, reveals new research from the Sahlgrenska Academy published in the journal Stem Cells.Although the research has been carried out using mice and cultured cells, it could lead to a new medicine for human beings, which could be given to patients who have had a...

Women with asthma are more anxious, find it harder to sleep and are more tired during the day than their male counterparts, but nevertheless tend to be better at following their treatment, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in close collaboration with Sahlgrenska University Hospital."Men and women with asthma differ biologically, socially, culturally and psychologically, which affects their quality of life," says Rosita Sundberg, a doctoral...

Two genes, each one of which is known to cause cancer on its own, together can lead to aggressive leukaemia. This is the conclusion from new research carried out on gene-modified mice at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The discovery has surprised scientists, and may lead to new treatments.The two genes are often present in mutated form in acute leukaemias, but the mutations rarely occur together. Scientists have previously believed that the two mutated genes...

Eight-year-old children who drink full-fat milk every day have a lower BMI than those who seldom drink milk. This is not the case for children who often drink medium-fat or low-fat milk. This is one conclusion of a thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy.The study showed that children who drink full-fat milk every day weigh on average just over 4 kg less."This is an interesting observation, but we don't know why it is so. It may be the case that children who drink full-fat milk tend...

It has long been known that acids can erode tooth enamel but a new Swedish study from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg shows that strong alkaline substances can damage teeth too - substances with high pH values can destroy parts of the organic content of the tooth, leaving the enamel more vulnerable.The study was carried out at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy and published in the Journal of Dentistry."The study...

New evidence is emerging for how important it is for pregnant women to eat good, nutritious food. Expecting mothers who eat vegetables every day seem to have children who are less likely to develop type 1 diabetes, a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy has revealed.The study was performed in collaboration with Linköping University, which is conducting a population study called ABIS (All Babies in Southeast Sweden). The results have been published in the journal Pediatric...