Harvard Health Content API

A vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) may help prevent mouth and throat cancers, a new study suggests. Infection with HPV infection causes most cervical cancers. The HVP vaccine is known to help prevent cervical cancer. HPV infection is also a risk factor for oral cancers. Researchers randomly divided 7,466 women ages 18 to 25 into 2 groups. One group got the HPV vaccine, Cervarix. The other group got the hepatitis A vaccine. The study lasted 4 years; 5,840 women completed the study. Researchers took samples of cells from the women’s throats at the beginning and end of the study. Only one woman who was vaccinated had infected cells at the end of the study. Fifteen of the women who were not vaccinated were infected with HPV. The study was published in the journal PLOS. HealthDay wrote about it June 19.

Zero-calorie sweeteners can help some people with weight loss. However, their effect on metabolism is less clear. A new article takes a look at the evidence. Several studies have found higher rates of metabolic syndrome in people who consume artificially sweetened drinks. Metabolic syndrome is a group of harmful health factors that tend to occur together. The factors include high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high triglycerides (a blood fat), a large waist and low HDL (“good cholesterol”). Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of heart disease. In other studies, people who started out with similar weights tended to gain more weight if they drank zero-calorie sweetened sodas than if they drank water. The study authors say that the artificial sweeteners may confuse the body’s response to sweets. When diet soda drinkers consume real sugar, the body may not react properly.