We get it — hospitals are crawling with germs. If it’s not your cell phone, the doctor’s coat or even the hands-free water faucet, then it’s the privacy curtain around the bed that’s tainted with unwanted bacteria.
Prevention
A Blood Test to Predict Death? It Could Be Possible
Could a simple blood test predict a person’s risk of dying from heart disease or cancer?
Can a Tiny Electronic Tattoo Measure Your Vital Signs?
Information is the currency of modern medicine. Better diagnostic tools — think everything from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to rapid genetic sequencing for new pathogens — enable better medical care.
Colon Cleansing: Not So Cleansing After All
How clean is your colon? If you’re tempted to find out by getting a colon cleanse, don’t bother. You’re quite likely to develop complications from the procedure and there’s no evidence that flushing out your colon has any …
Beat the Heat: 7 Hot-Weather Survival Tips for the Whole Family
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?
Vampire Bat Saliva Could Lead to Stroke Treatment
Vampire bats have a well-known trick for getting the most blood out of their victims: an enzyme called desmoteplase, or DSPA, in their saliva that thins victims’ blood and helps it flow more freely. The good news for the rest of …
Do Over-the-Counter Scar Treatments Really Work?
With summer looming, many people are anticipating the return of skimpier, skin-baring outfits by getting back into the gym. But aside from losing winter flab, there’s another concern that comes with the start of shorts season: …
The Dangers of Sitting at Work — and Standing
Standing desks are in. Once the province of a few dynamic individuals like Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Donald Rumsfeld (O.K., two out of three ain’t bad), the stand-up desk is spreading to the world of corporate …
The Lab Rat Gets Petted: How Massage Works
Not long ago, I was naked and lying face down on a table as a woman massaged me with oil. Soft music played in the background, and the lights were low. But it wasn’t as fun as it might sound: I was in a room at Cedars-Sinai …
5 New Rules for Good Health
Health news is always changing — and fast. Here are five new rules for good health that you need to know for the new year.
Could hand-washing boost your workplace productivity?
There’s a mountain of evidence to show that frequent and thorough hand-washing helps to stop the spread of disease: from diarrhea in the developing world to drug-resistant germs in the world’s first-rate hospitals. But could hand hygiene make you a more efficient worker as well?
That’s a question that German researchers set out to …
CDC: rare fungus a factor in 15 deaths since 2004
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, since 2004, an aggressive strain of the Cryptococcus gattii fungus has caused at least 60 infections, and among the 45 for which the outcome is known, 15 deaths, the Associated Press reports. The fungus is currently concentrated in the Pacific Northwest —
…
Getting your flu shot — with a patch?
Expanding on previous research into the possible use of tiny “micro-needles” to deliver vaccines using a patch, researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed dissolving “micro-needles” made from freeze-dried vaccine that could not only minimize pain associated with vaccinations, but improve immune
…
