Chronic pain may dramatically raise your blood pressure

 Research Highlights

• Chronic pain appears to play a meaningful role in raising the risk of developing high blood pressure.
• How long the pain lasts and where it occurs both influence that risk, and part of the connection is explained by depression and inflammation.
• Researchers say the results underscore how important effective pain management can be for preventing and controlling high blood pressure, a major driver of cardiovascular disease and death.
• Chronic Pain Linked to Rising Blood Pressure Risk

Chronic pain in adults may raise the likelihood of developing high blood pressure, and factors such as where the pain is located, how widespread it is, and whether a person also has depression appear to play important roles. These findings come from new research published today (November 17) in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

An evaluation of health information from more than 200,000 adults in the U.S. showed that individuals who experienced chronic pain throughout their bodies had a higher chance of developing high blood pressure compared to those reporting no pain, short-term discomfort, or pain limited to one region.

"The more widespread their pain, the higher their risk of developing high blood pressure," said lead study author Jill Pell, M.D., C.B.E., the Henry Mechan Professor of Public Health at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. "Part of the explanation for this finding was that having chronic pain made people more likely to have depression, and then having depression made people more likely to develop high blood pressure. This suggests that early detection and treatment of depression, among people with pain, may help to reduce their risk of developing high blood pressure."

Understanding High Blood Pressure and Its Dangers

High blood pressure and hypertension occur when blood presses too strongly against vessel walls, increasing the chance of heart attack or stroke. High blood pressure, including stage one or stage two hypertension (blood pressure readings from 130/80 mm Hg to 140/90 mm Hg or higher), affects nearly half of adults in the U.S. It is also the leading cause of death nationally and worldwide, according to the 2025 joint American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology guideline endorsed by 11 other organizations.

Earlier studies show that chronic musculoskeletal pain -- pain in the hip, knee, back or neck/shoulder that lasts for at least three months -- is the most common form of long-term pain in the general population. The new study examined how the presence, type, and distribution of pain across the body relate to later high blood pressure.

Source: ScienceDaily

Toxic beauty: health risks of Latin America’s cosmetics trade

 Across Latin America’s cities, a lucrative informal trade in cosmetics and personal hygiene products is thriving.

But, often unbeknown to those who buy them, many of these items are laced with toxic chemicals and heavy metals. They are sold in vast quantities without labels, warnings, or regulation.

Studies reveal the presence of arsenic, mercury, lead and other metals in lipsticks, eyeshadows, nail polish, skin lighteners, and hair products sold cheaply in markets and informal shops.

In downtown Lima, hundreds of people flock daily to the bustling galleries around the historic centre El Cercado to buy cosmetics wholesale and retail, largely ignored by municipal inspectors.

“I come here every month or so to stock up (…) everything is very cheap here,” said Zenobia Urquiza, who runs a market stall in Matucana province.

“I take the opportunity to stock up on some makeup items that sell easily, for example, now that it’s Halloween I’m bringing black eyeshadows, fluorescent eyeshadows, black and bright coloured nail polishes,” she told

None of these products have a label, brand, or health certificate identifying their source.

“Do you want quality or price? If you want quality, go buy from Aruma [the largest makeup chain in Peru] or from a catalogue and it will cost you an arm and a leg,” said one vendor.

While regional data is scarce, the informal beauty market represents major losses for businesses. Peru’s Chamber of Commerce reported in 2024 that counterfeit shampoos, fragrances, creams, lipsticks, talcum powder, and nail polish cost the country’s cosmetics industry over US$260 million.

Some, however, profit enormously. “I make about 5,000 soles [about US$1,500] a day just on this stall, sometimes more, sometimes less (…), and in total I have ten stalls,” said the same vendor.

Clandestine laboratories have multiplied, producing cosmetics by hand, often in unsanitary conditions.

Source: SciDev.net

Malaria rapid diagnostic test ‘not fit for purpose’

 An international study published in the Malaria Journal claims that a widely used test for detecting malaria is delivering too many inaccurate false-negative results and is “not fit for purpose”.

The study authors are calling for the removal of the test—the Abbott-Bioline rapid diagnostic test—from the market in Southeast Asia where it is widely deployed and where around 4 million people a year are affected by malaria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Researchers from the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), part of Oxford University’s MORU Tropical Health Network, found that the test correctly identified only 18 per cent of Plasmodium falciparum and 44 per cent of Plasmodium vivax infections—considerably lower rates than other brands of rapid tests.

Many of the tests only showed a faint line to identify positive cases, even where the patient was showing signs of fever.

However, other studies from Africa have reported better performance of the same test.

“Malaria is a major cause of illness and an important cause of death where we work,” said study co-author Nicholas White, a professor of tropical medicine at Mahidol University, Bangkok and at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health.

“Saying, ‘You don’t have malaria’ to someone with falciparum malaria in a very remote area could be a death sentence,” he told.

Rapid diagnostic tests are the mainstay of malaria control, the study stressed, allowing malaria to be treated near home, quickly and efficiently, even in remote areas where laboratory testing is unavailable.

However, the sensitivity of the Abbott-Bioline test was called into question after researchers working with the SMRU in Southeast Asia reported multiple false negatives. The test is made by Abbott Diagnostics, part of the US multinational company Abbott Laboratories.

“Until recent years we were very satisfied with these rapid malaria tests, then we and others started to notice that they were not working so well,” said White. He stressed that he and his colleagues have diagnosed and treated “hundreds of thousands of patients” over a number of decades.The study was conducted between October 2024 and January 2025, on the Thailand-Myanmar border, where until recent conflict, falciparum malaria was close to elimination.

It compared the performance of the Abbott-Bioline test with another rapid diagnostic test and microscopy tests.

The Abbott-Bioline test, the researchers concluded, “failed to detect microscopically confirmed cases of malaria and is not fit for purpose”.

Source: SciDev.Net.

Snake pee might hold the secret to ending gout pain and kidney stones

 If you've never kept a reptile, you might be surprised to learn that many of them actually "pee" in crystal form. In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers examined the solid urine of more than 20 different reptile species and found that all contained tiny spheres made of uric acid. This discovery highlights how reptiles have developed a unique method for safely storing and removing waste in a crystalline form. The findings could also lead to new ways of treating human conditions linked to uric acid buildup, such as kidney stones and gout.

How Reptiles Save Water With Solid Waste

Every living creature needs to get rid of waste, and reptiles are no exception. In humans, the body eliminates excess nitrogen by flushing it out through urine as urea, uric acid, and ammonia. Reptiles and birds, however, take a different approach. They transform some of those same nitrogen-based compounds into solids known as "urates," which are expelled through a shared opening called the cloaca. Scientists think this solid form of waste evolved as an adaptation to conserve water, a valuable trait for animals that often live in dry environments.

What's Dangerous for Humans Is Normal for Snakes

Although forming crystals in urine helps reptiles survive, the same process can cause serious health problems in people. When uric acid levels become too high in humans, the crystals can collect in the joints, leading to gout, or form in the urinary tract as kidney stones. To understand how reptiles manage to excrete these crystals safely, Jennifer Swift and her research team analyzed urates from more than 20 species.

"This research was really inspired by a desire to understand the ways reptiles are able to excrete this material safely, in the hopes it might inspire new approaches to disease prevention and treatment," explains Swift, the corresponding author on the study.

Microscopic Spheres With Big Medical Potential

Using powerful microscopes, the researchers discovered that species such as ball pythons, Angolan pythons, and Madagascan tree boas produce urates made up of tiny textured spheres between 1 and 10 micrometers across. X-ray analysis revealed that these microspheres are built from even smaller nanocrystals made of uric acid and water. The team also found that uric acid helps transform ammonia, a toxic compound, into a safer solid form. They believe uric acid might play a similar protective role in humans. Although more research is needed, these findings suggest that the chemistry behind reptile waste could eventually help scientists develop better treatments for uric acid-related diseases.

Research Support and Collaboration

This study received support from the National Science Foundation, Georgetown University, the International Centre for Diffraction Data, and the Chiricahua Desert Museum.

Source: ScienceDaily

Ancient DNA reveals the deadly diseases behind Napoleon’s defeat

 Scientists from the Institut Pasteur have conducted a genetic analysis of the remains of soldiers who retreated from Russia in 1812. Their work uncovered traces of two disease-causing pathogens -- those behind paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever -- which match the symptoms described in eyewitness records from that time. The findings were first shared as a preprint on bioRxiv on July 16, 2025, and later published in the journal Current Biology on October 24.

Investigating the Mystery of the 1812 Retreat

Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, known as the "Patriotic War of 1812," ended in one of history's most disastrous retreats. To better understand what role disease may have played in this collapse, researchers from the Institut Pasteur's Microbial Paleogenomics Unit partnered with the Laboratory of Biocultural Anthropology at Aix Marseille University. The team analyzed the DNA of 13 French soldiers exhumed in 2002 from a burial site in Vilnius, Lithuania, uncovered during archaeological excavations led by the Aix-Marseille University group. Using next-generation sequencing technology on ancient DNA, they searched for genetic traces of infectious organisms.

The researchers detected two distinct disease agents: Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica (serovar Paratyphi C), which causes paratyphoid fever, and Borrelia recurrentis, the bacterium responsible for relapsing fever. The latter is transmitted by lice and produces alternating periods of fever and recovery. Although different, both infections can cause severe fever, exhaustion, and digestive distress. Their combined impact could have intensified the soldiers' suffering at a time when cold, hunger, and poor sanitation were already taking a heavy toll.

Genetic Evidence From Napoleonic Soldiers

Out of the 13 soldiers examined, DNA from S. enterica Paratyphi C was found in four individuals, and B. recurrentis was detected in two. This marks the first direct genetic confirmation that these pathogens were present in Napoleon's army. Their exact contribution to the enormous death toll remains uncertain, but the findings complement earlier research that identified Rickettsia prowazekii (the cause of typhus) and Bartonella quintana (responsible for trench fever), both long suspected of spreading through the ranks during the retreat.

Because only a small number of samples could be analyzed compared to the thousands of remains in Vilnius, researchers cannot yet determine how widespread these infections were. The tested soldiers represent a tiny fraction -- 13 out of more than 3,000 bodies at the site and roughly 500,000 to 600,000 troops who took part in the campaign, of whom about 300,000 died during the retreat.

Understanding the Past to Protect the Future

"Accessing the genomic data of the pathogens that circulated in historical populations helps us to understand how infectious diseases evolved, spread and disappeared over time, and to identify the social or environmental contexts that played a part in these developments. This information provides us with valuable insights to better understand and tackle infectious diseases today," explains Nicolás Rascovan, Head of the Microbial Paleogenomics Unit at the Institut Pasteur and last author of the study.

Source: ScienceDaily

Hippos once roamed frozen Germany with mammoths

 Hippos, now found only in sub-Saharan Africa, managed to survive in central Europe far longer than anyone previously believed. A new analysis of ancient bones shows that hippos lived in the Upper Rhine Graben between about 47,000 and 31,000 years ago, during the depths of the last ice age. The findings come from an international research team led by the University of Potsdam and the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim in collaboration with the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie, and were recently published in Current Biology.

Extinction Timeline Rewritten

Until recently, scientists thought the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) disappeared from central Europe roughly 115,000 years ago, when the last interglacial period ended. However, the new study -- conducted by researchers from the University of Potsdam, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim, the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie Mannheim, ETH Zurich, and several international partners -- reveals that hippos actually persisted in the Upper Rhine Graben of southwestern Germany tens of thousands of years later, well into the middle of the last ice age.

The Upper Rhine Graben serves as a vital record of ancient climate conditions. Animal bones buried for millennia in layers of gravel and sand offer rare windows into the past. "It's amazing how well the bones have been preserved. At many skeletal remains it was possible to take samples suitable for analysis -- that is not a given after such a long time," said Dr. Ronny Friedrich, a specialist in age determination at the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie.

Genetic and Radiocarbon Clues

Researchers examined numerous hippopotamus fossils using both genetic and radiocarbon dating methods. Ancient DNA sequencing revealed that these Ice Age hippos were closely related to modern African populations and were part of the same species. Radiocarbon dating confirmed their presence during a warmer phase of the middle Weichselian glaciation, when conditions temporarily allowed the animals to survive in central Europe.

Further genome-wide analysis showed that the European hippo population had extremely low genetic diversity, suggesting it was both small and geographically isolated. Fossil evidence also revealed that these warm-adapted hippos lived alongside cold-climate animals such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses -- an unusual ecological mix that highlights the complexity of Ice Age environments.

Rethinking Europe's Ice Age Ecosystem

"The results demonstrate that hippos did not vanish from middle Europe at the end of the last interglacial, as previously assumed," summarizes first author Dr. Patrick Arnold. "Therefore, we should re-analyze other continental European hippo fossils traditionally attributed to the last interglacial period."

Prof. Dr. Wilfried Rosendahl, general director of the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim and project leader of "Eiszeitfenster Oberrheingraben" is convinced that ice age research still holds many exciting questions: "The current study provides important new insights which impressively prove that ice age was not the same everywhere, but local peculiarities taken together form a complex overall picture -- similar to a puzzle. It would now be interesting and important to further examine other heat-loving animal species, attributed so far to the last interglacial."

The research was carried out as part of the "Eiszeitfenster Oberrheingraben" project, supported by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung Heidelberg. This interdisciplinary effort aims to shed light on climate and environmental evolution in the Upper Rhine Graben and southwestern Germany over the past 400,000 years. The study focused on Ice Age bones from the Reis collection, housed at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, which continue to reveal remarkable insights into Europe's dynamic prehistoric world.

Source: ScienceDaily

Exercise and omega-3s could be the secret to healthier teeth

 New research published in Scientific Reports has found that regular exercise paired with omega-3 supplementation can significantly enhance immune function and reduce the severity of chronic apical periodontitis, a type of inflammation that affects the tip of the tooth root.

Understanding Apical Periodontitis

Apical periodontitis occurs when bacteria from untreated tooth decay spread through the root canal to the apex of the tooth (the root tip), triggering inflammation in the surrounding bone. This infection can gradually destroy bone tissue in the area if left untreated.The new study is the first to show that moderate exercise combined with omega-3 supplementation can substantially improve this inflammatory condition. Together, these two factors helped control bacterial growth, minimize bone loss, balance the production of inflammatory molecules called cytokines, and stimulate fibroblasts, the cells that repair and maintain tissues.

The Connection Between Oral and Overall Health

Untreated apical periodontitis can lead to tooth loss, but its effects extend beyond the mouth. The condition is closely linked to systemic diseases such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, arteriosclerosis, and kidney disease. Each can worsen the other, creating a harmful feedback loop between oral inflammation and general health.

"It's a condition that patients may not even know they have because of its chronic nature, but which can evolve and lead to bone destruction and tooth mobility. In addition, in specific situations, such as a drop in immunity, it can become acute, so the patient starts to feel pain, pus forms at the site, the face can become swollen," explains Rogério de Castilho, a professor at the Araçatuba School of Dentistry at São Paulo State University (FOA-UNESP) in Brazil. Castilho supervised the study and is supported by FAPESP.

Exercise and Supplements Show Measurable Impact

"In rats, physical exercise alone brought about a systemic improvement, regulating the local immune response. In addition, when combined with supplementation, it further reduced the destructive condition caused by endodontic pathology," explains Ana Paula Fernandes Ribeiro, the first author of the study, carried out during her doctorate at FOA-UNESP.

To explore these effects, researchers induced apical periodontitis in 30 rats and divided them into three groups. One group received no treatment, the second completed a 30-day swimming routine, and the third both swam and received omega-3 supplements, a fatty acid known for reducing inflammation in chronic diseases.

The swimming-only group showed improved outcomes compared to the untreated animals, but the group that both exercised and took omega-3 supplements demonstrated the greatest improvement in immune regulation and infection control.

Lower Inflammation, Stronger Bone

Detailed immune testing showed that rats receiving both interventions had the lowest levels of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin 17 (IL-17) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Those that exercised without supplementation also had reduced levels compared to untreated rats, but the combination proved most effective.

Researchers also observed fewer osteoclasts -- cells that break down bone -- in the exercise and supplement groups, indicating less bone loss. Micro CT scans confirmed these findings: animals that swam had less loss of alveolar bone (the bone that supports teeth) than the control group, and the omega-3 group showed the greatest bone preservation overall.

Implications for Human Health

According to the authors, these results add to growing evidence that exercise and omega-3 fatty acids benefit not only systemic immunity but also oral health.

"To know if the same would be true for humans, we'd need a clinical study with a significant number of patients. However, in addition to the many proven benefits of physical exercise and omega-3 consumption, this is yet another important piece of evidence," Jacinto says.

The work was supported by FAPESP through Scientific Initiation grants awarded to Michely de Lima Rodrigues (20/13089-3 and 22/04884-0), another co-author of the study.

Source: ScienceDaily