The power of a capsule of sugar to relieve depression or ease back pain is called the placebo response: as long as you believe you are taking medicine, you often get better. (Actually, placebo response even shows up in clinical …
Another Cause of Early Puberty in Girls: Absent Dads
Kids getting older younger — KGOY, as it’s known — is not just a cultural phenomenon. Girls are literally hitting puberty at a younger age, and alarming the health community, since early onset puberty is often associated with …
Moms: Guilty of Driving Their Daughters to Early Puberty?
As if mom were not to blame for enough already, new research is showing a link between early puberty in girls and a lack of maternal-infant bonding.
Whooping Cough Cases May Break Record in California
With nine deaths and 4,017 illnesses reported, California is on track to break a 55-year record in pertussis, or whooping cough, infections — a highly contagious upper respiratory illness that affects children in …
How Do You Wreck the Mind of a Child? One Word: War
As yet another round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks crank up, here’s something that the intractable parties on both sides might consider: Neither country is going to have much of a future if they persist in driving their kids crazy.
New Weird Source of Antimicrobial Drugs: Cockroach Brains?
As I wrote recently, many of our most useful medications come from bizarre sources, ranging from mold from Adriatic castles to Gila monster spit and horse urine. Soon, cockroach brains may be added to this profoundly unappetizing list.
Sex and the City of Indianapolis
According to a new study by the Journal of Abdominal Obsession, um, I mean, Men’s Health magazine, Indianapolis is the most sexually satisfied city in America. Followed by two cities in Ohio and another city in Indiana.
Is Drug Use Really on the Rise?
Each year when the federal government releases new statistics on drug use, the bad news always gets reported first. That’s partly because bad news is always a better story than good news. It’s also partly because government …
Egg Investigation Heads to Maine
The AP is reporting an inquiry into 3 egg farms in Maine that have ties to Jack DeCoster, owner of an Iowa farm involved in the largest ever egg recall. DeCoster’s company recalled 380 million eggs for salmonella contamination, …
Does Big Beer Fear Big Bud?
The California Beer and Beverage Distributors association, which describes itself on its website as “a nonprofit trade association representing over 100 beer distributors and brewer/vendor members,” has donated $10,000 to a group …
Parsing the Link Between Acne and Depression
Teenagers with severe acne are two to three times more likely to suffer from depression than their clear-skinned peers, according to a new study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
Experts Split on Safety of Diet Drug Meridia
Two months after a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended stronger restrictions on the use of a popular diabetes drug, the same panel voted to impose similar limitations on the use of the diet drug Meridia.
Science Says: Cost of Love Is Two Old Friends
In the economy of relationships, there’s a price to falling in love. According to a new, as yet unpublished study from Oxford University, it’s two friends.