Who knew you could cure disease by getting down in the mud? Scientists in Arizona report that minerals from clay could form the basis of a new generation of inexpensive, highly-effective…

Selenium is a trace element used in proteins, in the form of the twenty-first naturally occurring amino acid (selenocysteine). Selenium supplementation, for example in mineral tablets, might not be…

"Awake", a film starring Hayden Christenson and Jessica Alba, is a psychological thriller about a horrifying phenomenon called "anesthetic awareness" where a patient's failed anesthesia leaves him…

Tuberculosis kills two million people per year and so remains a very dangerous disease, though less so in America. Researchers worldwide have been working to produce efficient tuberculosis vaccines…

Cannabis, the genus of flowering plants commonly known as marijuana, may create medicines that can help cure nicotine addiction, say University of Nottingham pharmacologists who have been studying…

Following last week’s study suggesting that new generation antidepressants aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, a special report in this week’s BMJ asks do we really know the truth about…

Polyaromatic hydrocarbon benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), a toxic pollutant spread by oil spills, forest fires and car exhaust is also present in cigarette smoke and may represent a second way in which smoking…

Kava has been used in ceremonies and for recreational and social purposes in the South Pacific since ancient times, much like alcohol, tea or coffee is in other societies today. In the 1980s other…

Drug treatments for depression can take many weeks for the beneficial effects to emerge. The excruciating and disabling nature of depression highlights the urgency of developing treatments that act…

A paper by Professor Fabrizio Schifano at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Pharmacy, which has been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, indicates that 1,022 people died between…