Does your mind go blank every time the boss calls your name in a big meeting? Ever bombed a test you spent weeks studying for, or botched a simple play that cost your team the game? If so, University of Chicago psychologist Sian …
Why Americans Are Fat: We Literally See More Food as Less
One of the most peculiar findings in obesity research is that exercise — even if vigorous and regular — doesn’t reliably lead to weight loss. The reason, as I wrote last year, has to do less with physiology than psychology: …
Stalling On Food Safety
Breaches on food safety are so common these days, my eyes glaze over looking at the FDA’s recall list. In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 16,112 confirmed cases of foodborne illness, which amount to …
Why Being Poked and Prodded Is a Good Thing
Richard Knox had a great story on NPR today looking at how technologies are replacing the oldest form of doctoring – the physical exam. Knox’s reporting focuses on how modern medical training doesn’t emphasize the …
Family MattersParenting
In the Battle Over Breast or Bottle, Guilt May Play a Role
Ah, guilt. Such a useful emotion in so many varied ways. As women, we’re made to feel guilty if we don’t want to become mothers. When we do have children, we feel guilt if we don’t read to our children fresh out of the womb, if we don’t pick the perfect preschool, if we don’t puree our own organic baby food. Yet those and …
The Tau of Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention
Following a series of disappointments in Alzheimer’s drug research, scientists report they may have found a clue to predicting a more aggressive form of the disease.
6 Genetically Modified Foods That Changed the World
As the FDA gets ready to vote on an application to bring the first genetically modified (GM) food animal — a salmon — to market, Healthland pauses to consider the social contribution of genetically modified crops throughout …
Can Catching a Cold Make You Fat?
Catching a cold is almost a rite of passage for the chilly winter months when people and viruses are often in close quarters. And that’s especially true among children, who aren’t stingy about what they share among friends …
Americans Count Cooking Food as ‘Moderate Exercise’
The AFP reports on a study published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine: of the teeny fraction of Americans who participate in moderate or vigorous activity — as recommended to stay trim and healthy — …
Why White Girls Are Getting More Weight Loss Surgery
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the rate of weight loss surgery in the U.S., including lap band and gastric bypass, went up by 700% between 2005 and 2007. But we already knew that the …
Lindsay Lohan’s Relapse and Court-Mandated AA
Imagine that you had cancer and a judge mandated that you receive a treatment first introduced in the 1930s — one that had been described, by the world’s leading medical evidence–review group, as having “no experimental …
The Addiction Files: How Do We Define Recovery?
America’s most visible portraits of recovery from addiction are not pretty. There’s the spoiled, out-of-control celebrity entering rehab to get a career boost (see Lohan, Lindsay), or to atone for bad behavior (see Gibson, Mel), …
A New Study Shows How We Can Prevent Some Cases of PTSD
We barely know how to treat mental illnesses, so it’s difficult to figure out how to prevent them in the first place. But as I wrote at some length last year, research into stopping breakdowns before they occur has advanced …