Health news: A cup of tea can help banish nightmares, saliva helps heal wounds and the jab that could ease back pain

Health stories from around the world this week include how a cup of tea a day can help reduce bad dreams. Dutch researchers have also revealed how your saliva helps to make a cut heal quicker and there's also hope for sufferers of back pain after a human protein was found to stimulate cell growth.

Bad dreams? Try a cup of tea

Drinking green or black tea may lower the risk of nightmares.

New research from Japan shows that those who have one or more cups a day were 50 per cent less likely to have nightmares than occasional or non-drinkers.

A woman has a tea in bed with a man lying next to her

Sweet dreams: A cup of tea can lower the risk of nightmares, research from Japan shows. It can reduce anxiety and stress

Tea is believed to help by reducing levels of anxiousness and stress - it's thought the amino acid theanine, which is found in tea leaves, has a calming effect on the brain, according to researchers at Nihon University School of Medicine in Japan.

The study - which was based on 1,000 men and women - found that women had an 80 per cent higher risk of nightmares.

Additionally, people who went to bed before midnight, and those who woke up before 6.30am, were at higher risk, too, although it's not clear why.

Why you should lick your wounds

Saliva helps to speed up wound healing, say Dutch researchers.

They have identified histatin, a protein in saliva, which boosts the cells that close wounds inside the mouth.

Previously the protein was thought to kill only bacteria, but the researchers have now discovered that it has a more significant role.

They tested the effects of histatin in the laboratory by creating small wounds in tissue.

Within 12 hours of being exposed to saliva, the wounds had completely healed, while those not exposed to it remained open.

The discovery may be the biological explanation for why animals lick their wounds.

It's hoped the findings could benefit the thousands who suffer from non-healing wounds, such as foot and diabetic ulcers, as well as the treatment of trauma wounds and burns.

Jab that could ease misery of back pain

Could a single jab be a new treatment for back pain?

Patients with moderate to severe lower back pain are being given an injection of a human protein.

This protein - recombinant human growth hormone - is found naturally in the body and has a range of functions, including stimulating the growth of cells.

It's hoped a jab containing a genetically engineered version of the protein will relieve pain and slow or even reverse early stages of degenerative disc disease. 

As we age, the cushioning discs in the spine lose some flexibility.

The U.S. trial follows animal studies where the injected protein led to tissue growth within the damaged disc, significantly increasing their overall height within four weeks.