Catherine Guthrie

Catherine is a freelance health journalist living in Bloomington, Indiana, with her partner, Mary, and her dog, Emma.

Articles from Contributor

+Obesity | November 9, 2009

Why the sourpuss? Maybe it’s your low-carb diet

To any dieter who has ever sworn off bread and pasta, the next sentence may come as no surprise. A new study, published in the Nov.9th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows that after dieting for one year, people following strict, low-carb diets had more bad moods than dieters eating a high-carb (albeit low-fat) [...]

+November 9, 2009

Access denied: Many high-priority adults can’t get the HINI vaccine

By Catherine Guthrie

The vast majority of adults who tried to get the H1N1 vaccine for themselves or their children have been unable to do so, according to a new national poll from the Harvard School of Public Health. Since the H1N1 vaccine became available last month, 41% of parents and 21% of high-priority adults (including those who [...]

+Body & Mind | November 6, 2009

Smells like childhood: Early scents make big impression

By Catherine Guthrie

If it seems that you recall particular scents from childhood more vividly than other (more recent) smells, there may be a bona fide biological reason. New research suggests that these “first scents” occupy a privileged place in the brain. For the study, appearing online in Current Biology, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in [...]

+Cancer | November 6, 2009

Cancer screening smackdown continues: Pap smears and colonoscopies take a hit

By Catherine Guthrie

It’s been a long three weeks for the American Cancer Society. The public relations nightmare that started with an admission to the New York Times that they’d overstated the benefits of detecting many cancers is continuing with new evidence that two of the most reliable screenings—Pap smears for cervical cancer and colonoscopies for colon cancer—have some [...]

+Prevention | November 5, 2009

More pint-sized patients getting grown-up surgeries

By Catherine Guthrie

Childhood obesity rates are through the roof. In the past 30 years, the percentage of overweight kids has nearly tripled in every age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Obesity in children is defined as a body mass index, BMI, at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same [...]

+Nutrition | November 5, 2009

Green tea’s promise of cancer prevention grows

By Catherine Guthrie

Green tea may be considered a little woo-woo by some mainstream cancer experts but the popular beverage continues to creep toward credibility as a weapon against many forms of the disease. The best studies to date hint that green tea may help ward off cancers of the breast and prostate. And this week oral cancer [...]

+Obesity | November 4, 2009

Slow food: Good for the planet and the waistline

By Catherine Guthrie

The slow food movement may have started as a means to support sustainable food practices but a slew of recent studies show eating slowly and mindfully has plenty of physical perks as well. For instance, a study slated for upcoming publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism shows that those who snarf their [...]

+Women's Health | November 4, 2009

Breast cancer survivors: Time to pump it up

By Catherine Guthrie

Breast cancer surgeons have long wagged their fingers at patients warning them never to lift anything over 15 pounds, especially if lymph nodes were taken during surgery. Well, for any woman with a child (or groceries for that matter) the limitation is annoying at best, disempowering at worst. That advice was rooted in the fear [...]

+Happiness | November 3, 2009

Chronically ill may be happier if they give up hope

By Catherine Guthrie

People who suffer with a chronic disability or illness may be happier if they give up hope that things will ever improve, suggests a small but intriguing study published in this month’s issue of Health Psychology, the journal of the American Psychological Association. Why? Because people don’t adapt well to situations they think are short [...]

+Cancer | November 3, 2009

Emotional scars linger for childhood cancer survivors

By Catherine Guthrie

Approximately 270,000 of the 10 million cancer survivors alive in the U.S. were diagnosed and treated before they were old enough to buy themselves a drink, according to the National Cancer Institute. Thanks to scientific advances, as many as 80 percent of children treated for cancer go on to live full lives, but the shadow [...]