It’s New Year’s Eve, and for many people that means some confetti, bubbly and even a midnight kiss. But if you hope that for that kiss to turn into something more, safe sex advocates emphasize the importance of curbing your cocktail intake, and remembering contraception. Research sponsored by the sexual health non-profit group Marie Stopes [...]
Raising children in an über-hygienic atmosphere may inhibit immune system development key to fighting infection and disease later in life, according to a new study from researchers at Northwestern University. Researchers followed a group of more than 3,000 Filipino children from their mother’s third trimester of pregnancy through 22 years of age, and analyzed the [...]
The growing number of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in hospitals may in part be driven by physicians’ tendency to over-prescribe antibiotics to avoid being sued by disgruntled patients, according to a study published this past fall in the American Journal of Therapeutics. Researchers from New York Medical College analyzed incidence of MRSA infection, [...]
Informally, it’s a measure medical professionals have been using for centuries—if an adult patient looks “old for his age,” that’s generally considered a sign of poor health. A new study published in the British Medical Journal put that folk wisdom to the test, in a study of more than 1,800 twins ages 70 and older. [...]
For brain surgery patients, a doctor’s bedside exam is still superior to a routine CT scan for identifying potential post-surgical complications, according to a study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery. Researchers from the Department of Neurological Surgery at Loyola University in Chicago examined the records of 251 patients who had a CT scan within [...]
For several decades it has been widely accepted in the field of education that certain people learn better using specific teaching techniques—that some of us gain knowledge more efficiently through verbal training, while others are more visual learners, for example. Yet, according to a review of previous research into this subject published this month in [...]
In hospital settings, disinfectants are regularly used to prevent the spread of bacteria and prevent infection, but a new study published in the January issue of the journal Microbiology, suggests that too much exposure to a disinfectant may actually cause harm by creating bacteria that can not only resist the cleaning product, but some antibiotics [...]
Despite the prevalence of anecdotal evidence suggesting the benefits of exercise in reducing period-related discomfort, a new study from researchers at Birmingham University in England indicates that how much you work out may not necessarily impact the severity of menstrual cramps. The study, first highlighted by the BBC and published in the international journal of [...]
Part of the reason people tend to gain weight around the holidays may have to do with the way that we think about food, and eating, outside of our workweek routines. According to research published in the Fall 2009 issue of the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, our tendency to separate eating habits into [...]
Researchers from Imperial College London may have come up with a novel way to reduce the risk of malaria—interrupting the fertilization process among mosquitoes who carry the disease. The Anopheles gambiae species of mosquito, which is largely responsible for the transmission of malaria throughout Africa, mates only once in a lifetime, meaning that if scientists [...]
