A major genetic study Tuesday confirmed a link between low vitamin D and a higher risk of multiple sclerosis, a finding which experts say could lead to better treatment and prevention.
Previous observational studies have found an association between a person's level of vitamin D, which comes from sunlight and from certain foods, and MS, a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord, and has no known cause or cure.

Fish oil supplements, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids, do not protect against mental decline despite common belief, said a study Tuesday spanning 4,000 older people.
The five-year clinical trial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is "one of the largest and longest of its kind," according to a statement from the US National Institutes of Health, which funded the research.

Spain has detected its first domestic case of the painful mosquito-borne viral disease chikungunya in a 60-year-old man in the eastern province of Valencia, officials said Tuesday.
The man was "most likely" infected in Gandia, a seaside Mediterranean resort, and was treated in hospital last month, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a statement.

On a warm August evening in Madrid a steady stream of tanned customers parade out of a tanning salon -- even in sunny Spain, the need to catch some rays can turn into an addiction.
The Spanish capital receives an average of 2,749 hours of sunshine per year, according to the Spanish weather agency, double the amount received by London. That does not stop Macarena Garcia, a university student, from seeking out UV rays.

A Swedish doctor has accomplished what many had deemed impossible by transplanting wombs into women and delivering four healthy babies so far — with a fifth soon on the way. Here are questions and answers about the revolutionary procedure.
Q: HOW DOES THE SURGERY WORK?

Scientists have taken a major step towards creating a vaccine that works against multiple strains of influenza, according to two studies published Monday in top journals.
A "universal vaccine" is the holy grail of immunization efforts against the flu, a shape-shifting virus which kills up to half a million people each year, according the World Health Organization.

The number of people with dementia worldwide will nearly triple from 47 million today to 132 million in 2050, a report said Tuesday.
Dementia is an umbrella term for degenerative diseases of the brain characterized by a gradual decline in the ability to think and remember.

Lingering health problems afflicting many of the roughly 13,000 Ebola survivors have galvanized global and local health officials to find out how widespread the ailments are, and how to remedy them.
The World Health Organization calls it an emergency within an emergency. Many of the survivors have vision and hearing issues. Some others experience physical and emotional pains, fatigue and other problems. The medical community is negotiating uncharted waters as it tries to measure the scale of this problem that comes on the tail end of the biggest Ebola outbreak in history.

Second cancers are on the rise. Nearly 1 in 5 new cases in the U.S. now involves someone who has had the disease before.
When doctors talk about second cancers, they mean a different tissue type or a different site, not a recurrence or spread of the original tumor.

Germany recorded its highest number of births last year in more than a decade, an encouraging sign for a country facing a demographic crisis.
Official figures released Friday show Germany had 715,000 births in 2014. That's the most since 2002, when 719,000 babies were born in Germany.
