A weekly round-up of news affecting your health:
HEART HEALTH
If you're taking fish oil capsules to prevent heart problems, you might be wasting your time and your money.
A large international study has suggested that taking fish oil capsules packed with omega-3 fatty acids offers no benefits when it comes to heart health.
British researchers analysed data from 10 trials, involving almost 78,000 high-risk people, and found no significant association between omega-3 fatty acids and fatal or non-fatal coronary heart disease, nor with the incidence of heart attack or stroke.
"The results provide no support for current recommendations to use omega-3 fatty acid supplements for the prevention of fatal coronary heart disease - or any cardiovascular disease - in people who have or at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease," the study found.
The study, by the University of Oxford in the UK, has been published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.
E-CIGARETTES
A new study has found the chemicals used to flavour liquids used in e-cigarettes poison and kill off white blood cells.
Many smokers turn to electronic cigarettes in an effort to get kick combustible tobacco products, believing they are less harmful.
But a study on commonly-used flavouring chemicals and flavoured e-liquids that don't contain nicotine found they can cause significant inflammation to monocytes - a type of white blood cell important for the immune system.
Many caused significant cell death.
Some of the most popular flavouring compounds, including cinnamon, vanilla and buttery flavours, were among the most toxic.
And mixing e-cigarette flavours was found to be far worse than only using one.
The study, by the University of Rochester Medical Centre in the US, involved directly exposing monocytic blood cells to e-liquids. Researchers are planning a new study to simulate what happens during live vaping.
The research has been published in the journal Frontiers in Physiology.
IVF
Women who eat a Mediterranean diet before going through IVF appear to have a much higher chance of conceiving and delivering a baby.
Greek researchers have analysed the diets of 244 women in the six months before they went through IVF.
They found women who ate more fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, fish and olive oil - and less red meat - had a 65 to 68 per cent greater likelihood of getting pregnant and delivering a live baby.
University of Athens Associate Professor Nikos Yiannakouris says the study is evidence, but not proof, that a Mediterranean diet could help when it comes to IVF success rates. And wannabe dads could also benefit when it comes to reproduction.
"Previous work from our research group, among the male partners of our study, has suggested that adherence to the Mediterranean diet may also help improve semen quality," Professor Yiannakouris says.
BACTERIA WARS
A new study has found bacteria wage war on each other in much the same way humans do, stabbing and poisoning each other as part of sophisticated armies.
University of Oxford researchers have shed new light on the behaviours of competing strains of E.coli, which can cause food poisoning, as they battle it out for the best territory. It seems we haven't been giving them enough credit.
By engineering strains that are a fluorescent green, scientists were able to observe bacterial combat in real time, providing insights into the way infections spread.
They found some strains could detect incoming toxin attacks unleashed by their competitors and quickly warn the rest of the colony, allowing them to respond in a co-ordinated way, like an army.
"What appear to be simple organisms can function in a very sophisticated manner," Professor Kevin Foster says.
"We know from other studies that toxins are important for whether or not a particular strain will establish in a community. But understanding how bacteria release toxins and out-compete others is very important for understanding the spread of infection."
The study has been published in the journal Current Biology.
