Bacterial meningitis is a nasty thing to catch. The disease may hit only about 1,500 Americans per year, but those who fall victim may suffer brain damage, learning disabilities, limb loss or death.
Percentage decrease in HIV infections among a group of 20,000 men over age 15 from Orange Farm Township in South Africa who were offered free circumcision procedures as part of an AIDS prevention campaign that brought the proportion of circumcised men in the community from 16% to 50%. Previous clinical trials have demonstrated the protective [...]
This week on the podcast, we discuss three topics: How restaurant chains may mislead you when writing their menus; whether nutraceuticals work; and new data on the perils of sexting. To hear the podcast, click this play button:
Traditionally, the identities of egg and sperm donors have been tightly guarded secrets, numbers with no names attached, making it difficult for their biological offspring to ever make contact. Today, that changes as Washington becomes the first state to chip away at that anonymity, with a controversial new law that guarantees children conceived with gametes from [...]
When the 40 students in Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine’s inaugural class arrive at the school’s new campus in Hempstead, N.Y., on July 25, they will receive a rather humbling initiation into their chosen profession: they will be required to ride on dozens of ambulance tours over the next two years.
Sarah Palin managed to campaign as a vice presidential candidate in Naughty Monkey heels, but don’t expect presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann to do the same.
It’s not healthy to smoke during pregnancy but an estimated 12% to 24% of pregnant women continue to use tobacco, according to national data [PDF]. So if the existing evidence hasn’t convinced them to quit, perhaps this new study will: a researcher from the Loma Linda University School of Medicine reports that fetal exposure to [...]
Massachusetts requires health insurance for all, is second in the nation in the number of doctors per capita, and mandates equal coverage for mental and physical illnesses. Yet when researchers there posed as well-insured patients seeking treatment for depression, only 6% of calls to mental health facilities resulted in an appointment within two weeks, according [...]
As a deadly heat wave sweeps across the U.S. — soaring temperatures have contributed to at least 22 deaths this week — there’s one question on most people’s mind: How do I find relief?
Percentage of 2,678 survey respondents from France, Germany, Spain, and the United States who said that, of seven common illnesses like heart disease and cancer, they were most fearful of developing Alzheimer's disease. The survey was conducted in those four countries and in Poland by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Alzheimer [...]
