Medication

A study of 15,000 adults suffering from acute lower back pain found that not only is the effectiveness of the medicines uncertain, but that the scientific evidence base used to inform good healthcare decisions is shockingly "fragile and incomplete."

In an ideal world, managing diabetes wouldn’t involve insulin injections but just popping a pill. Now a team of scientists has demonstrated an oral tablet that’s self-propelled by chemical “micromotors” to deliver insulin in the colon of rats.

There are many drugs which are very helpful in the right dosage, but quite harmful in larger amounts. A new microneedle patch is designed to help in that regard, by showing exactly how much medication is currently present in a patient's bloodstream.

When taking a pill such as a pain reliever, it goes without saying that you want it to work as fast as possible. According to a new study, taking that pill while lying on your right side will help it to do so.

Candy sprinkles may make desserts more interesting, but a scientist has developed what could be a much more valuable use for them. His CandyCode system might one day be utilized to confirm that supposedly authentic pills aren't actually counterfeits.

Researchers have been studying saliva from ticks in hope of developing next-generation medications, and a new paper has demonstrated how proteins within it can be modified to take am at the underlying cause of inflammatory diseases in humans.

While it's a good idea to avoid the overuse of antibiotics whenever possible, little else works on severe cases of acne. There may be new hope, however, as recent research suggests that probiotic bacteria could provide an effective treatment.

People who are using blood-thinning medications regularly have to check if their dosage needs adjusting. And while doing so currently involves lab tests or expensive home systems, a simple smartphone-based setup may soon be able to perform the task.

A study analyzing records from several hundred thousand people has identified a link between low rates of diabetes and osteoporosis patients treated with a common drug. The researchers propose the drug may prevent the development of insulin resistance.

Nobody likes gulping down a big pill, to the point that some people may not bother taking their medication because it's just too hard to swallow. A new system from MIT could help in that regard, by packing the same drug dose into a smaller pill.

Although we may all get a dry mouth from time to time, for some people it can be an ongoing debilitating condition. There could be new hope for such folks, however, thanks to a recent accidental discovery.

When a patient is receiving medication, it can be difficult to determine how much of the drug is actually making its way into their bloodstream. A new subdermal "tattoo" could help, thanks to its color-changing gold nanoparticles.