Nathan Seppa

Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)

All Stories by Nathan Seppa

  1. Health & Medicine

    Do acid blockers let microbes reach the colon?

    Suppressing stomach acid while taking antibiotics may allow drug-resistant bacteria to colonize the intestines.

  2. Humans

    Smoke Out: Bartenders’ lungs appreciate ban

    Pub workers in Scotland breathed easier and showed better respiratory health shortly after a nationwide ban on smoking inside public spaces went into effect.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Many infections tied to medical settings

    More than one-fourth of skin or muscle infections that require hospitalization originate from microbes acquired in a clinic, hospital, or other medical-care setting.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Statins defend against fungus-caused sepsis

    Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins might reduce the risk of dying from sepsis triggered by a fungal infection.

  5. Hotel-room surfaces can harbor viruses

    Rhinovirus, which is responsible for roughly half of all common colds, survives on surfaces in hotel rooms for hours and can be transferred from there to people.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Novel approach fights leprosy

    An antibiotic typically used to fight sinus infections shows remarkable potency against leprosy.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Improving the View: Treatment reverses macular degeneration

    People with the eye disease known as macular degeneration now have a better-than-average prospect of recovering some vision, thanks to a new drug that takes a lesson from an anticancer strategy.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Mixed Bag: Islet-cell transplants offer good and bad news

    Most people who've received transplanted islet cells for type 1 diabetes still need daily insulin shots, but the transplanted cells curb blood sugar crashes.

  9. Health & Medicine

    UV Blocker: Lotion yields protective tan in fair-skinned mice

    A lotion that stimulates production of the skin pigment melanin induces a deep tan in specially bred laboratory mice.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Progestin linked to hearing loss in older women

    Elderly women who received progestin as part of hormone replacement therapy have poorer hearing than do women who didn't get progestin.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Weapon against MS: Transplant drug limits nerve damage

    An immune-suppressing drug called fingolimod slows multiple sclerosis relapses in patients.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Forewarning of preeclampsia

    Scientists have found an early warning sign of preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure. Pregnant women with too much of a protein called soluble endoglin in their blood have a heightened risk of preeclampsia, the researchers say. Endoglin normally sits on the surface of blood vessels, where it plays a role in […]