We’re a stressed out society, and between the faltering economy and juggling the pressures of everyday life, it’s no wonder that 65 million of Americans suffer from hypertension.
High blood pressure is a combined product of stress, obesity, a high sodium diet, and some genetic factors that keep the pressure on blood vessels …
A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may provide some explanation for why the obesity rate among youngsters continues to climb.
According to the report, released by the government agency, most Americans don’t live in communities where they are encouraged — by parks, sidewalks and playgrounds — to become …
With experts predicting that the spring and summer allergy season will be one of the worst in recent years, researchers at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans presented some intriguing …
It took nearly six months but the General Medical Council (GMC) in the U.K. has pulled Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s license to practice medicine in the United Kingdom.
Wakefield is the researcher who nearly single-handedly fueled parental concerns about the link between vaccines and autism. In 1998, he published a paper in the medical …
In a bit of welcome news on infant mortality rates worldwide, researchers at University of Washington are reporting a lower death rate for children under five than previous UNICEF estimates had calculated.
According to a new assessment of data, including birth and death records, as well as census and survey results, the authors found …
Surviving cancer is definitely a good thing, and no group of patients has benefited more from recent advances in cancer care than the youngest patients. Among cases of the most common childhood cancers, five year survival rates have jumped from 25% in the 1970s to 80% today.
But because young survivors are more likely to live years, …
As any parent knows, children, especially infants and toddlers, like to put things in their mouths, and the smaller the object, it seems, the more attractive it becomes for tiny appetites.
Writing in the journal Pediatrics, researchers at Georgetown University and George Washington University report on a disturbing rise in youngsters …
In all the time I’ve covered health and medicine issues, nothing has been more polarizing than the debate over childhood immunizations. And while scientific evidence continues to mount against a causal connection between vaccines and developmental disorders such as autism, there was one concern voiced by some parents that seemed to …
Results of a phone survey of more than 340,000 Americans suggest that stress and worry decrease — and happiness surges — after middle age.
While the overall benefits of antidepressants for certain patients continue to be debated, new research being presented this week at a meeting of the American Physiological Society in Anaheim, California indicates that …
Physical therapy may offer some new mothers protection against postpartum depression, a small study from researchers at the University of Melbourne’s Physiotherapy Department suggests. The study included 161 women who had recently given birth and had no previous history of depression. Roughly half of participants were assigned to an …
Despite the lack of scientific evidence linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism, roughly one in four parents still believe that vaccines may put some healthy children at risk for developing an autism …
