Predicting Heart Attack Risk: A Calcium Test May Help
About 28 million Americans are considered at “intermediate risk” of having a heart attack. A new study suggests adding a CT scan can improve doctors’ ability to gauge these patients’ actual risk
Park's latest book is The Stem Cell Hope: How Stem Cell Medicine Can Change Our Lives.
Alice Park
Alice Park is a staff writer at TIME. Since 1993, she has reported on the breaking frontiers of health and medicine in articles covering issues such as AIDS, anxiety and Alzheimer's disease. Park has received two CASE media fellowships — the first in 2000 to Harvard Medical School, where she designed a program focused on the latest understanding of AIDS, and the second in 2003 to UCLA's Medical School, where she researched the growing number of clinical applications of genomic research. In addition, Park's work has been recognized with awards of excellence from the National Arthritis Foundation as well as the National Headache Foundation.
Articles from Contributor
‘Legitimate Rape’? Todd Akin and Other Politicians Who Confused Science
Missouri Rep. Todd Akin bungled science when he claimed that women who are raped are naturally protected from pregnancy. But he’s not the first politician to have a shaky relationship with scientific fact
Early Childhood Anesthesia Linked to Problems with Language, Memory
Increasingly, research finds that exposure to anesthesia in early childhood may have long-term effects on kids’ brain development.
‘Obesity Paradox’: Why Being Thin with Diabetes Is a Dangerous Combo
Overweight people who are diagnosed with the blood sugar disorder outlive their thinner counterparts, a study shows
HIV Patients Should Start Drug Treatment Right Away, New Guidelines Say
Thousands of scientists, doctors, policymakers and people living with HIV are meeting this week for the annual International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., the first time the conference is being held on U.S. soil in 22 years.
HIV Continues to Spread Among Gay Men, Studies Show
Even in countries that have made great gains in reducing the burden of AIDS, the epidemic is still growing among gay men
Why Having a Large Baby May Raise Your Risk of Breast Cancer
New research shows that women who have larger babies have more than twice the risk of breast cancer, compared with mothers who give birth to smaller infants.
Lack of Exercise as Deadly as Smoking, Study Finds
When it comes to being couch potatoes, Americans aren’t alone. Physical inactivity has become a global pandemic, say researchers in a series of related papers published in the journal Lancet.
Qsymia: What You Need to Know About the New Diet Pill
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Qsymia, the second new diet drug in a month, and the most effective of the weight-loss pills that the agency has considered in recent years.
Qsymia, made by Vivus …
Truvada: 5 Things to Know About the First Drug to Prevent HIV
Doctors now have another weapon against HIV/AIDS in their arsenal, and it’s a potent one.
NYC’s Trans Fat Ban Worked: Fast-Food Diners Are Eating Healthier
In 2006, New York City passed a first-in-the-nation ban on trans fats in restaurant food. Here’s how it worked
Scientists Identify Rare Gene Mutation that Protects Against Alzheimer’s
A rare gene variant appears to protect against the degenerative brain disease, holding hope as a target for future drug development
H1N1 Vaccines Linked to Guillain-Barre Syndrome but Not Birth Defects
Two new studies confirm that the benefits of getting a flu shot outweigh the very small risks
