Being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, with its symptoms of memory loss and gradual slowing of brain functions, is challenging enough already. But for those who are affected, one of the condition’s most frustrating …
Medicine
Study: Antidepressants May Relieve Hot Flashes
Menopausal or postmenopausal women may benefit from taking an antidepressant — not because they’re depressed, but because the drug could help reduce the often insufferable hot flashes that characterize menopause, according to …
House Watch: Is Heroism a Sign of Brain Disease?
House M.D. is back after a mid-season hiatus, which means House Watch is back. This week’s return episode, “Larger Than Life,” hews closely to House M.D.’s procedural formula, which is a safe but smart move after all that …
Perspective: To Prevent AIDS in Russia, Drug Addicts Need Care
Russia has one of the fastest spreading HIV epidemics in the world, driven largely by the government’s refusal to institute measures to treat the country’s drug addicts — measures that have dramatically reduced HIV infections …
Sniffles and Sneezes: Canadian Herbal Remedy Wants to Be Approved for Kids
Colds are the bane of a parent’s existence in wintertime, which is pretty much the equivalent of perpetual runny-nose season. The drug manufacturer that can successfully develop a remedy for the sneezing, drippy noses, …
Storytelling May Help Lower Blood Pressure
Everyone likes a good story, but can a compelling narrative save lives?
FDA Cuts Acetaminophen Dose In Opioid Painkillers
Though most people don’t know it, the acetaminophen (better known by its brand name Tylenol) can often be the most deadly ingredient in prescription pain medications that contain opioids like codeine.
Can a New Blood Test Make Babies with Down Syndrome Disappear?
What if new tests for Down syndrome could one day mean no more affected babies are born? Is that cause to celebrate medical advances or reason to worry we are callously weeding out the less-than-perfect in our midst?
Customized Kids: Parents Abort Twin Boys in Quest for Daughter
Of course, every parent-in-waiting hopes for a healthy baby, but most — whether they admit it or not — have a preference for one sex over the other. But to what extremes would you go to make it happen?
Study: National Abortion Rates Plateau, While Protests Increase
A new study from the Guttmacher Institute reports that national abortion rates remained steady between 2005 and 2008 after more than a decade-long decline that saw numbers far lower than the country’s highest recorded rate in …
Cold May Spare Your Hair from Chemo: Who Knew?
Can you have chemo and keep your hair? According to the Washington Post, the answer is probably yes — that is, if you are willing to subject yourself to wearing icy caps set at a skull-chilling -30 Fahrenheit that can cost …
Michael Douglas’ Tumor Is Gone: Now What?
Michael Douglas told Matt Lauer on the Today Show on Jan. 11 that his “tumor is gone” after a six month regimen of chemotherapy and radiation to eliminate throat cancer — in his case, a tumor at the base of his tongue. But does …
Autism, Vaccines and Fraud: Q&A With Author Seth Mnookin
A UK report published last week offered details about how Dr. Andrew Wakefield falsified his 1998 report linking autism to certain childhood vaccines.