Research has shown that swimming aids asthma symptoms in children. The activity has been proven to be an effective non-pharmacological intervention for children and adolescents, according to a study in Respirology published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Consumers should be warned about the dangers of eating untreated bitter lupin beans after two people who consumed products containing the beans became ill with anticholinergic syndrome, according to an article in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The US Food and Drug Administration is evaluating interim safety findings from an ongoing study of Xolair (omalizumab) that suggests an increased number of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular adverse events in a group of patients using Xolair compared to a group of patients not given the drug (control group).

As the winter cold and flu season tightens its grip, the National Asthma Council Australia is concerned that Australians may be incorrectly pointing the finger at milk as the mucus-causing culprit.

A University of Adelaide study has recommended that infertile couples seek advice about their lifestyle before embarking on IVF treatment or other assisted reproductive technology.

Scientists at Mayo Clinic have invented a quick new way to diagnose a puzzling digestive condition that has rocketed from a virtually "unheard of" disease to one that, in less than a decade, has become increasingly common.

Giving probiotics to women in the final weeks of pregnancy leads to a healthy gut flora in their babies and may reduce the risk of eczema in young children.

A study involving 678 individuals who apply pesticides, culled from a US Agricultural Health Study of over 50,000 farmers, recently found that exposure to certain pesticides doubles one's risk of developing an abnormal blood condition called MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance) compared with individuals in the general population.

Research by Peter Barnes (Imperial College, London) and colleagues may explain the effectiveness of common treatments for allergic inflammation and may point the way to targets for new treatments for allergic diseases, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.

Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology have pinpointed the cellular defect that increases the likelihood, among eczema sufferers, of developing eczema vaccinatum, a severe and potentially fatal reaction to the smallpox vaccine.