Press Releases

The National Institutes of Health is partnering with other Federal agencies to host a national meeting to develop a National Action Plan for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. The COPD Town Hall Meeting will take place February 29 and March 1 on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md.

WHAT: Providing extra vitamin D to women during pregnancy raised their vitamin D levels without changing recurrent wheezing rates in their offspring by age 3 years, National Institutes of Health-supported research found. However, in these children, who are at high risk for developing asthma, blood tests showed lower levels of specific antibodies related to allergy development, if their mothers took extra vitamin D, according to results appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Scientists have confirmed the role of a set of gene mutations in the development of congenital heart disease and simultaneously discovered a link between them and some neurodevelopmental abnormalities in children. These abnormalities include cognitive, motor, social, and language impairments.  

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have identified a potential molecular target for reducing obesity-related inflammation. Researchers have known that overeating (that is, excess calorie consumption) by individuals with obesity often triggers inflammation, which has been linked to such diseases as asthma and Type 2 diabetes. In their study, published recently in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (Nov.