Two moms pushing strollers watch as a woman named Beth has a full body scan done just a few feet away at an unlikely venue: the Center of Science and Industry, a downtown museum known as a hands-on discovery center  for kids.

There’s more to see behind the glass walls of a lab at the museum: a machine that assesses body mass and composition and an assembly of fitness equipment including a treadmill, stationary bike and a Nintendo Wii.

In what’s believed to be the country’s first working research lab inside a science museum, researchers at Ohio State University seek to teach the public about nutrition and exercise and expose both adults and youngsters to work that was previously done behind university walls.

The newly opened “Labs in Life” brings that Ohio State research into the open at COSI.

Beth’s identity is kept confidential as part of a study on the effects of recreational running on bone mass. She has agreed to allow museum visitors to see her step on a scale, sit down to have blood drawn and lie in a machine to have her skeleton, spine, arm and hip scanned.

A handful of museums around the country have areas where researchers discuss their work with museum visitors, and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is building a facility that would bring research into the public view, but the COSI lab remains unique.

“There is some momentum in involving the public more in this kind of research, but they are the first doing it in this way,” said Maria Zacharias, spokeswoman for the National Science Foundation.

It’s the type of venture, connecting research with people and health, that should be happening more, said Sean Smith, spokesman for the Association of Science-Technology Centers.

The project could be replicated at other science centers to expose more people to university research, said Jonathan Scott, an Ohio State doctoral student helping with the bone density research.

“A lot of it’s published in scholarly journals people might not have access to or if they do it’s written in such a way that it’s not necessarily in layman’s terms,” he said.

The project was about eight years in the making and took an initial investment of about $700,000, excluding medical equipment, which was secured at a discount by researchers, said Dr David Chesebrough, president and chief executive of COSI.

Nutrition and physical activity were chosen as topics in the hopes the research would help people understand their bodies and make positive lifestyle changes. Chesebrough says the lab’s community involvement could open researchers up to more grant money.

“We’re starting to see what we’d hoped we would see, which is a positive effect on the public pointing the way for how science centers and universities can work together for their mutual benefit, and more importantly the mutual benefit of the community,” he said.

Certain programs at the museum catering to youngsters who may not have been encouraged to go to college have incorporated the labs, allowing students to use the equipment.

“The idea is to get them interested in something, that they go ‘Oh, man. Maybe I do want to go to college to do something,’” said Dr. Jackie Buell, director of sports nutrition at Ohio State’s College of Education and Human Ecology and head of the bone density research project.

Researchers have started thinking of what types of studies will work in the public labs, and whether they can recruit subjects from people visiting the museum.

Joan Daly, 27, of Delaware in suburban Columbus, visited “Labs in Life” on a recent weekday with her 1-year-old daughter and a friend, another mom with a 1-year-old son.

“It’s my favorite exhibit now,” Daly said. “I told her, ‘We have to go in here when somebody’s doing something. I’m a stay-at-home mom. ... I can go here and I can learn something.” (AP)

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NSAIDs: The class of painkillers that includes ibuprofen and naproxen seems to work well against menstrual cramps, and may be more effective than acetaminophen, a new research review suggests.

The medications, collectively known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are widely used for various aches and pains, but it has been unclear how they stack up against acetaminophen - the active ingredient in Tylenol and certain other brand-name pain relievers and fever reducers.

Acetaminophen, which is known as paracetamol in several countries, is also a component of a number of products marketed specifically for menstrual symptoms.

In the new review, researchers analyzed 73 clinical trials from 18 countries that tested various NSAIDs and acetaminophen for menstrual cramps. Across the studies, women given NSAIDs were 4.5 times more likely to report “at least moderate” pain relief than those given a placebo, or inactive pills.

They were also nearly twice as likely as acetaminophen users to report such improvements - though that finding was based on only three studies, the researchers report in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

The journal is published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

“Our review shows that NSAIDs are a highly effective treatment for menstrual cramps,” said Jane Marjoribanks, a researcher with the Cochrane Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group in Auckland, New Zealand.

Exactly why they might be even more effective than acetaminophen is unclear, she told Reuters Health in an email.

That said, the effects of NSAIDs varied from study to study. The one trial that compared aspirin to a placebo showed no clear benefits from the drug; in contrast, a study on the NSAID indomethacin found that women using the drug reported good pain relief during 42 of 90 menstrual cycles, versus 9 of 90 cycles among those using a placebo.

The trials also looked at a range of NSAIDs, including ibuprofen (found in brands like Advil and Motrin), naproxen (Aleve and other brands) and diclofenac (Voltaren and other brands). And there was not enough evidence to show whether any one NSAID was more effective or safer than others, according to Marjoribanks and her colleagues.

In addition, while NSAIDs are over-the-counter drugs, they carry a risk of side effects and need to be used with caution.

Across the trials in this review, women using NSAIDs were 37 percent more likely to report side effects like indigestion, drowsiness, dizziness and headaches than women given placebo pills.

To help minimize side effects, Marjoribanks said, women should take the drugs only for a few days during each menstrual cycle - the days when pain peaks - and should not exceed the recommended dose on the packaging. (RTRS)