A new study suggests taking pine bark nutritional supplements can greatly improve the symptoms of hay fever. Researchers studied 60 subjects between the ages of 18 and 65 for the report. Each individual tested positive for birch pollen allergies a seasonal trigger of hay fever and began treatment three to eight weeks prior to the onset of birch allergy season in their area.

A Kansas State University researcher says that Chinese wolfberries can lower the oxidative stress that the eye undergoes as a result of type-2 diabetes. "I would not say that wolfberries are a medicine, but they can be used as a dietary supplement to traditional treatments to improve vision," said researcher Dingbo "Daniel" Lin. "

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that even modest weight gains could affect blood flow and increase the risk for cardiovascular problems. Researchers recruited 43 healthy volunteers with an average age of 29 years. They were tested for endothelial dysfunction by measuring the blood flow through their arm arteries.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests eating foods with added sugar may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Researchers at Emory University analyzed United States government nutritional data and blood lipid levels in more than 6,000 adult men and women between 1999 and 2006.

Healthcare experts say taking some precautions to protect the knees may help younger individuals avoid debilitating problems such as arthritis or knee replacement surgery when they’re older. "If you have knee pain that has lasted more than two weeks, you need to see a doctor because there might be something mechanically wrong with the knee," said orthopedic surgeon William Bryan, M.D.

A new study has narrowed down the key contributing factors for the potentially dangerous blood clots in the legs known as venous thromboembolism (VTE). Reuters reports that researchers in Copenhagen followed nearly 19,000 individuals aged 20 and older for 20 years to assess their heart disease risk factors.

A new study has found that millions of Americans in the early stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), which is a major risk factor for stroke. The findings, which appear in The American Heart Journal, highlight that nearly one in five study participants with early stages of CKD had evidence of AF, a rate similar to that reported among patients with end-stage CKD.

Healthcare experts with the American College of Rheumatology say individuals with arthritis who exercise have less pain, more energy, improved sleep and better day-to-day function, compared to those who don’t incorporate physical activity into their lifestyle. Aerobic exercise such as walking, aerobic dance, aquatic exercise, bicycling or exercising on stationary bikes, treadmills or elliptical trainers improves heart, lung and muscle function.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers that taking higher doses of the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Zocor^® may carry an increased risk of muscle injury. Muscle pain and weakness, called myopathy, is a known side effect of all cholesterol-lowering drugs classified as statins.

Taking the widely available nutritional supplement S-Adenosyl Methionine, or SAMe, may help treat depression, according to the findings of a new study.