Traces of Marijuana Found in Trayvon Martin’s Body: Does It Matter?
News that the Florida teen’s autopsy revealed trace amounts of THC shouldn’t be misinterpreted to equate marijuana use with violence.
Articles from Contributor
Early Stress Changes Genes Involved in Bonding, Relationships
A growing body of research suggests that early life experience changes the way genes respond to the world—and this can influence everything from the way people respond to stress to their risks for various diseases.
A new study–published in Nature Neuroscience and led by Chris Murgatroyd of the Max Planck Institute in …
MacLaren Strollers Recalled, Fingertip Amputations Possible
Fashionable British baby product manufacturer MacLaren is recalling around a million strollers sold since 1999, according to a report in the New York Daily News. The News says that the recall comes in the wake of injuries to 12 babies who lost the tips of their fingers when they became caught in the stroller’s hinges.
The Consumer …
Reading Swimsuit Issues “For the Articles”
Men really believe they read Playboy for the articles (although internet porn doesn’t even offer that excuse)—at least according to fascinating new research published as a working paper by Harvard Business School [hat tip: Economist]. The study sheds light on how people rationalize embarrassing or otherwise questionable behavior …
Pain Pandemic: Unneccessary Procedures and Suffering Common
About 70 million Americans suffer from some sort of chronic pain—including at least 23 million whose pain is so severe that it is disabling. Lost work hours and other pain-related costs add up to over $100 billion.
But while misuse of prescription pain medication makes headlines and has led to numerous initiatives aimed at fighting …
Newborns cry in native tongue
Though she is nestled safely in the womb, your baby is already listening to you by the last trimester of pregnancy. At birth, according to new research, infants have already picked up their parents’ “accents,” – and these can be distinguished by listening to the way their cries rise and fall in pitch.
The research examined 60 …
Internet Net Plus for Social Life, Doesn’t Increase Isolation
The internet and cell phones are bringing people together, not tearing us apart—at least, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Internet and American Life project. The research followed up a shocking 2006 study, which found that American social networks were rapidly contracting and that 25% of Americans reported that …
FDA Announces New Effort to Fight Drug Errors, Surgical Fires
Around 1.5 million preventable medication errors occur in the American health system each year at a cost of over $4 billion annually, according to a new report released yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The report’s release marks the start of a new effort to reduce those numbers.
The FDA’s “Safe Use” …
Dude, Where’s my Trauma? Marijuana Could Treat PTSD
Many millions have been made in Hollywood by lampooning the acute effects of marijuana on memory—but Israeli researchers suggest that they might one day be harnessed to prevent or treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And today’s election results bringing medical marijuana dispensaries to yet another state suggest that day …
Downward Dog Fights Eating Disorders
Yoga for teens could be more than a spiritual and physical boost—a new randomized controlled trial suggests that it may help those with anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders.
The study included 50 adolescents aged 11-16, the vast majority of whom were girls. They were seriously ill. Nearly half had previously been …
Healthy Sleep: New Research on Memory, Fat, Golf
With this week’s “fall back,”—giving us a blissful extra hour—sleep and its role in health is on a lot of minds. New research is showing how varied sleep’s influence is on virtually every aspect of life—from memory to obesity to improving your golf game.
One study, just published in the Proceedings of the National …
Lozenge/Patch Combo Best for Kicking Butts
Smokers are more than twice as likely to quit if they use the nicotine patch along with nicotine lozenges—compared to lozenges or patches alone, buproprion (Xyban), buproprion plus the lozenges or placebo. The trial was the largest study ever to compare these approaches head to head, and included 1,504 smokers.
All of the treatment …
Lie Back, No Need to Think: Insemination Aided by Position
The (possibly apocryphal) advice given to Victorian women who weren’t fond of sex to “lie back and think of England,” may actually be useful to increase the odds of conception, at least following intra-uterine insemination (IUI).
A new study found that 27% of women who were advised to lie still for 15 minutes after insemination …