Black men have the highest rate of hypertension-related death of any group in the U.S. (three times the rate of white men), partly because high blood pressure goes untreated in so many African Americans.
As any wedding singer or bartender can tell you, there’s a lot of really sappy songs that mention women who wear red. Turns out, there may be a reason: men are more attracted to them.
From the sun’s ultraviolet rays to the weak cosmic exposure we get on plane flights to the screening tests that doctors recommend, our bodies are constantly bombarded with small but relatively consistent doses of potentially cancer-triggering radiation. And although doctors had thought that the cancer risks posed by such exposure declined with age, a new [...]
Most people aren’t wild about things that taste bitter, and there may be an evolutionary reason for that: bitter taste receptors on the tongue may have developed to help warn people away from eating toxic plants. So imagine the surprise when a group of researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine discovered bitter [...]
Should people who take legally prescribed painkillers on the job be fired for failing a drug test? A story in Monday’s New York Times examines the case of a woman who is part of a lawsuit against her employer for doing just that.
A study of the sexual behavior of New York City high school students found that at least 9% of sexually active teens reported having had at least one same-sex partner. Among teens who had engaged in sex with both sexes, 39% identified themselves as heterosexual or straight; they also reported higher rates than average of [...]
Fifty years ago, a diagnosis of childhood leukemia meant you needed to start planning your child’s funeral. Now it’s got an 85% cure rate, largely due to advances attributed to information gleaned from pediatric clinical trials. Yet those same pediatric cancer trials that are such a treasure trove of data are also causing parents of [...]
There are toxins, and then there are toxins. If you’ve had bypass surgery, the powerful margatoxin — courtesy of the scorpion — might one day save your life. But don’t go hunting for the little critters yet — not until science works a few more kinks out.
Mostly, the conversation that dare not speak its name, the most excruciating 25 minutes of either a parent or an offspring’s life, The Talk, is left to Mom. Make lunch, do laundry, figure out where the thing is that goes on that other thing, tell kids about sex. But a new study from New York [...]
Ethan Allen, Angel Line and Victory Land Heritage Collection have recalled a total of 40,650 cribs, all 3-in-1 convertible models that are also referred to as drop-side cribs. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) cited concerns about the cribs’ detachable sides, which can come loose due to wear and tear, creating a small gap [...]
