NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Taking fish oil may help prevent full-blown psychotic illness in at-risk adolescents and young adults, a study released today hints.

These at-risk individuals may have weak or transient psychotic symptoms, and already show schizophrenia-like brain changes, Dr. G. Paul Amminger of The University of Melbourne in Australia, a researcher on the study, told Reuters Health. But while psychiatrists now know how to identify these individuals, he added, they don’t know what to do with them. “At the moment there’s no state-of-the-art guideline (on) how to treat those people.” Read the rest of this entry

(Reuters) – A compound found in the common curry spice turmeric appears to delay the liver damage that eventually causes cirrhosis, scientists said on Wednesday.

In a study published in Gut, a British Medical Journal title, Austrian scientists found that feeding the compound curcumin to mice reduced the types of inflammation that can cause liver cell damage, blockage and scarring.

Previous research has suggested that curcumin, which gives turmeric its bright yellow color, has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which may be helpful in fighting disease. Read the rest of this entry