The beauty of light

HARSH light and good skin aren't supposed to mix, but two new studies this week show how the former may help to repair the ravages of sunbathing and plump up wrinkles. Another report claims that sunlight can even tackle infertility.

Researchers at Michigan University report how skin damaged by the sun may be repaired by covering it with a chemical that makes it more sensitive to light, then treating it with laser therapy.

They report in the Archives of Dermatology how tests on 25 adults with sun-damaged forearm skin using the mix of chemical and light showed significant improvement. The chemical, called 5-aminolevulinic acid, or 5-ALA, is rubbed on the skin, which is then exposed to pulsed dye laser therapy.

Further studies are needed, but the report claims that the therapy boosts the production of collagen, a protein that gives skin elasticity and texture, and promotes the thickening of the top layer of the skin. Jeffrey Orringer, the lead researcher, says that the treatment feels like a rubber band snapping on your skin.

Scientists in Germany, meanwhile, believe that they have discovered how strong light from LEDs may offer an alternative to Botox for wrinkles. Intense visible light has been used for 40 years in medicine to speed wound healing. Now the Ulm University investigators say that they have found that the light works by changing the molecular structure of a glue-like layer of water on elastin, the protein that provides elasticity in skin, blood vessels and hearts. The light strips off the water layer, gradually restoring the elastin's elasticity and thus reducing wrinkles, claims a report in the journal, Crystal Growth and Design.

Finally, research from Australia gives us a fine reason to get outside and grab all the autumn sun we can get: it may help to cut levels of infertility, says a Sydney reproduction expert, Dr Anne Clark. This week she told the Fertility Society of Australia that her study of 794 male infertility patients found that a third were deficient in vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin”. Once their levels were restored to normal, around half conceived naturally. European studies earlier this year reported a similar effect in women, she added.

Healed by eel

ELECTRIC eels could offer a new way to power medical implants, say American scientists who have found how to build a body battery based on a blueprint of the creature's shocking secret.

Researchers based at Yale University say that they have created a natural cell that copies and improves on the original: it can generate 28 per cent more electricity than the eel's electrocyte battery. And it is nearly a third more efficient at converting chemical energy (derived from the eel's food) into electricity.

David LaVan, one of the team, says that four of the cells would be sufficient to power a medical device. The natural, non-toxic battery would be less than 1cm thick, and may use glucose from a patient's blood as fuel.

Stronger swan

WANT to get super-fit? Taking to your toes and learning ballet will get you far more toned than swimming at the highest competitive levels, according to a study by Hertfordshire University.

The report compared members of the Royal Ballet with a squad of British national and international swimmers, including members of the Olympic squad.

The dancers scored higher than the swimmers in seven out of ten crucial areas of fitness, including strength, endurance, psychological state, flexibility and balance.

The ballet dancers were predictably better in the balance tests, but they also scored 25 per cent stronger when tested for grip strength, says Professor Tim Watson, who revealed the results at Hertfordshire University's Health and Human Sciences Research Institute Showcase this week.

Beer therapy

BEER drinkers could get many of the health benefits that wine sippers enjoy, thanks to genetic-engineering students at Rice University, Texas.

They are adding genes to brewer's yeast, so that during the brewing process the fungi should produce resveratrol, the chemical in wine that has been shown to reduce cancer and heart disease in lab tests.

The “BioBeer” is an entrant in the International Genetically Engineered Machine Prize in Massachusetts next month. A few problems need to be ironed before the beer is delicious as well as healthy - it contains some unappetising chemical additives. But that doesn't bother the student team: most aren't legally old enough to drink in America.

Mind-bending

SYNAESTHESIA - the weird effect where people “smell” colours or “taste” numbers - has long been thought a product of unusual hard-wiring in the brain. But University College London psychologists have found that it can be induced with hypnosis.

The findings, published in Psychological Science, suggest that synaesthetics do not necessarily have extra connections in the brain, but their brains may simply do more “cross talking”, and this can be induced by removing roadblocks in normal brains.

Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh hypnotised people to visualise colours when numbers were shown to them. Weeks after, volunteers continued to experience the phenomenon, seeing car registration plates in polychromatic shades.

Unhappy clappy?

“ROSES are red, violets are blue. I've got the clap, and you may have too.” A website that enables people to tell former sexual partners that they may have shared a social infection has proved a contagious success, says PLoS Medicine.

About 30,000 people have now used the inSPOT.org site, says the San Francisco Health Department study.

Syphilis and chlamydia are the infections most frequently mentioned. At the moment, the service is based only in America, with satellite sites in Ottowa, Toronto and Romania.

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