Though sperm are generally considered pretty wriggly little guys, before they are launched into action, so to speak, they aren’t racing around. While researchers have long known that what gets them swimming is a change in internal pH level—the more alkaline their pH, the more aggressively they swim—until now, the mechanism by which sperm rapidly [...]
According to a report from a Fort Worth, Texas newspaper, a previously healthy 26-year-old woman may now be permanently handicapped because long-term exposure to zinc in denture cream eroded her health. At age 26, Elizabeth Gilley, was rushed to the hospital after her unexpected symptoms—numbness in her feet and legs, labored breathing—worsened over six months, [...]
Some 40% of cancers could be prevented with simple lifestyle changes and higher levels of protection from cancer-causing infections, according to experts at the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). Cancer-causing infections are responsible for 22% of deaths in the developing world, and 6% of deaths in the developed world, according to estimates from the World [...]
Using a newly developed brain scan technique, researchers in the U.K. and Belgium revealed that some patients in vegetative states or states of minimal consciousness show signs of awareness, and in one exceptional case, could even answer yes/no questions posed by doctors during a visualization exercise. The findings, published online this week in the New [...]
Writer Ariel Gore was dismayed by what she viewed as overly narrow conclusions about women’s happiness from studies in the growing field of Positive Psychology—were women truly happiest when scrubbing floors and baking cookies, as some studies seemed to suggest? Were findings about nuns’ positive attitudes helping them live longer applicable to a broader population [...]
Twelve years ago, the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet published a study indicating a link between the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism. The finding validated the fears of a growing subculture suspicious of vaccines, and played a role in the significant decrease in vaccination rates—in the U.K., for example, MMR vaccinations [...]
Fueling the debate over the existence of internet addiction, and new study from researchers at the University of Leeds finds that people who compulsively browse, chat and play online have higher rates of moderate to severe depression than people who aren’t compulsively driven to use the internet. Additionally, people with addictive tendencies toward internet use [...]
Abnormal serotonin receptors, which may cause serotonin levels to dip dangerously and undermine a brain network responsible for regulating the body’s autonomic functions, could be a cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), according to new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. An estimated two out of every 2,000 children born [...]
For patients at very high risk for developing a psychiatric disorder such as schizophrenia, taking fish oil supplements may be a way to prevent the onset of psychosis, according to a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Due to the controversial nature of using anti-psychotic drugs as a preventive treatment for at-risk [...]
Herbal remedies like ginkgo biloba and St. John’s wort have grown in popularity in recent years as natural treatments for everything from fatigue and depression to headache and anxiety. Yet, according to a review article published in the February 9 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, for patients taking certain heart [...]
