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: …
Prevention
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 —
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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
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Many doctors don’t feel obliged to report incompetence
More than one in three American physicians say that they do not always feel a responsibility to report colleagues who are impaired or incompetent, according to a new report from researchers at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. The findings, published in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the
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What does head size have to do with Alzheimer’s?
According to a new study published in the July 13 issue of the journal Neurology, Alzheimer’s patients with larger heads may experience a slower progression of cognitive decline symptoms, possibly because they have more of what researchers call “brain reserve” — or the ability to adjust to changes within the brain. The theory is based
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Study: few correctly cover coughs, sneezes
Despite our best efforts to limit the spread of germs propelled into the air when we cough or sneeze, a new study from researchers in New Zealand suggests that many of us aren’t doing a great job. As the Associated Press reports, an observational study of people in public places in the New Zealand capital of Wellington suggests that
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Are doctors screening for cervical cancer too often?
Though current cervical cancer screening guidelines generally recommend that women ages 30 and older get screened — either using a traditional pap smear or a complement of a pap smear and human papillomavirus testing — every 2 to 3 years instead of annually, a new survey published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds
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Doctors should ask patients about texting-while-driving
Doctors should talk to patients about the risks of distracted driving, just as they discuss the dangers of smoking and unprotected sex, writes Dr. Amy N. Ship, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in the June 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. As more states pass laws banning talking on a cell phone or
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WHO: Pharma ties didn’t impact swine flu decisions
In response to an investigation published last week in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) which pointed to affiliations between World Health Organization (WHO) advisers and pharmaceutical companies manufacturing H1N1 flu vaccines, WHO inspector general Margaret Chan said that industry ties had no impact on the global health agency’s
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