Traditional medicine has been used since the dawn of history for treating human illness. Herbal medicine constituted the main type of traditional medicine. This type of treatment prevailed during different times of history in different countries, may be until the beginning of the 19th century. By that time a scientific revolution, in nearly all fields started. Much progress was made in the fiel...

Much attention has focused on the effects of leptin as a central satiety agent. There is now a significant amount of evidence that leptin is active in the periphery. This review focuses on the ability of leptin to modify insulin sensitivity, tissue metabolism, stress responses, and reproductive function. Leptin's effect on several of these systems is mediated via the hypothalamic-pituitary axis...

AD (Alzheimer's disease) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a gradual loss of neurons and the accumulation of neurotoxic Aβ (amyloid β-peptide) and hyperphosphorylated tau. The discovery of mutations in three genes, PSEN1 (presenilin 1), PSEN2 (presenilin 2) and APP (amyloid precursor protein), in patients with FAD (familial AD) has made an important contribution towards an underst...

In Autumn 2004, HSE will launch a quarterly on-line newsletter ‘Science and Research Outlook,’ providing information on the breadth of HSE’s science and engineering activities. Science and Research Outlook will replace the existing HSE quarterly science newsletters, Mainstream Research News and Offshore Research Focus. Users of the newsletter’s interactive website will be able to search and pri...

Causal inference—so much more than statistics Neil Pearce* and Debbie A Lawlor Department of Medical Statistics and Centre for Global NCDs, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK and School of Social and Community Medicin...