For all of their oversimplification on the pages of Playboy or on the streets at Mardi Gras, breasts are pretty complex body parts. And better understanding their unique composition of glands, lobes, lobules, fatty tissue, and ducts may help physicians better determine which women are at highest risk for breast cancer. In fact,
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Wear clean underwear, brush your teeth, say please and thank you—and sit up straight. Once again, it turns out that mom may have science on her side when it comes to doling out advice. In addition to the benefits to your muscles and spine, good posture can also help boost your confidence, according to psychologists at Ohio State and
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The emergence of the birth control pill in 1960 is largely credited with ushering in a new era of female sexual independence. In the decades since the pill has become a standard component of many women’s contraceptive routines—100 million women worldwide currently take the birth control pill, according to United Nations estimates. Yet,
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According to new research, it turns out that spending lots of time riding around with the top down doesn’t just put your hairdo at risk. A study presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation this week in San Diego finds that regularly riding in a convertible without any ear protection
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A law put into effect in July 2008 that banned fast food restaurants in a section of Los Angeles for one year may have been well intended, but missed the point, according to a study by the non-profit research organization, RAND Corporation, published online in the journal Health Affairs. Economist Roland Sturm and natural scientist …
Premature births are on the rise in the U.S., as my colleague Laura Blue reported recently, and despite all of the health care dollars being spent to usher preemies safely into the world—some $26 billion annually—too often they number among the 30,000 babies under a year old who die every year in this country. It’s a grim figure, …
A product designed to let women fake losing their virginity—an artificial hymen that can be inserted into the vagina before intercourse and releases “just the right amount” of a blood-like substance, according to the distributor—is being denounced by conservative Egyptian politicians and religious scholars, according to the Associated Press.
Tai Chi, the ancient Chinese art that combines slow, controlled stretching with meditation, has long been praised by advocates of alternative medicine for its broad range of health benefits, including improved muscle tone and balance, as well as pain reduction. The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and
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Looking back at historical data, more than a few scientists have noticed an interesting trend—during surges in industrialization, there appeared to be corresponding jumps in appendicitis cases. With the growth of industry in North America and Europe during the 1800s and early 1900s came the increased emission of pollutants such as
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Between 1990 and 2006, overall numbers of burn injuries among children dropped by 31%, according to a study published in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics. Yet while that decrease is cause for celebration—for parents and pediatricians alike—authors of the large scale study, which analyzed some two million burn injuries
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A hospital mix-up last January forced would-be mom Carolyn Savage and her husband Sean to make a heartrending decision. Ten days after the Savages went to a fertility clinic to have embryos transferred in hopes of conceiving, they got a devastating phone call. Savage had successfully gotten pregnant, but the baby wasn’t hers—the embryo
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It’s a familiar scenario: after an initial surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)—one of the four major ligaments that connect the shin bone to the thigh bone and hold the knee in place—there is a long period of physical therapy and follow-up with the doctor. Yet, and in some cases, patients find themselves going
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A study published in the October 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine finds that, among babies who survive after suffering a severe lack of oxygen at birth, those whose body temperatures are lowered as part of treatment had a greatly reduced risk for brain damage.
The study, which included 325 full-term babies under 6 hours
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