The discovery of "taste receptors" in the lungs rather than on the tongue could point the way to new medicines for asthma, it is suggested. Experiments in mice revealed that bombarding the receptors with bitter-tasting compounds helped open the airways, which could ease breathing. The University of Maryland study, published in Nature Medicine, may have implications for other lung diseases.
Heavy smokers with a 40-a-day habit face a much higher risk of two common forms of dementia, a large study shows. The risk of Alzheimer's is more than doubled in people smoking at least two packs of cigarettes a day in their mid-life. The risk of vascular dementia, linked to problems in blood vessels supplying the brain, also rose significantly. The US study, looking at over 21,000 people's records, is published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Today we are taking a key step on the road to a more prosperous, fairer and greener Britain. We've announced support for wind turbine manufacture at Britain's ports - opening the way to a major expansion of the country's offshore wind industry.
Kent County Council have announced that repair and refurbishment works at the Ross Way Folkestone Household Waste Recycling Centre are largely complete & the centre will re-open on 1st November.
For Liberal Democrats, one of the silver linings in last week's necessarily tough spending review was the introduction of a £2.5bn "pupil premium" to help close the unacceptable gap between the life chances of advantaged and disadvantaged children. This was one of the four main pledges on which the Lib Dems fought the general election, and as a former schools spokesman for the party I was particularly pleased and proud to see the delivery of this promise. This shows that the coalition is determined to pursue an agenda of creating real opportunity for all, even as it has to grapple with the problem of the budget deficit.
Hospital beds in England may fill up with the elderly and vulnerable because of cuts to local authority social care funding, a top NHS figure has warned. The claim came from the head of the NHS Confederation, Nigel Edwards, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph. Mr Edwards said people who needed medical treatment may be denied a hospital bed as a result of the cuts.
