Girls getting suspended on breast cancer awareness day for wearing breast cancer awareness bracelets? It just seemed so unfair, which is why on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania filed suit on …
Medicine
It’s World Toilet Day: Celebrate with Squats
In America, we tend to think of squats as exercises, but for the 2.5 billion people worldwide who have no access to toilets, they’re practiced for an entirely different reason. About half the world’s population has no access to …
Bird Flu Pops Up Again in Hong Kong. Is a Pandemic on Its Way?
Hong Kong residents experienced an unwelcome blast from the past on Nov. 18. A 59-year-old woman in the city contracted H5N1 avian influenza — the first confirmed case in Hong Kong since 2003.
Combination CT Scans May Make Heart Tests Easier
Heart disease is a nasty enough problem. It would be nice if the tests you have to go through just to get your diagnosis didn’t cause so much unpleasantness of their own. Now they may not have to, thanks to a combination CT scan …
Got Allergies? Be Careful How You Hook Up
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that about 11 million Americans have some type of food allergy, but many more are affected by these conditions — especially the partners of highly allergic people.
Low Vitamin D and Stroke Risk: Unrelated in African Americans
In a finding that surprised its authors, a new study revealed that vitamin D deficiency does not contribute to rates of fatal stroke in African Americans, even while it doubles the risk of death from stroke in whites. This, …
Study: New Test May Predict Heart Failure in Symptomless, Older Adults
Patients over 65 account for most new cases of heart failure in the U.S., but, based on traditional risk factors, it’s hard for doctors to identify who is at highest risk for hospitalization or death. Now, researchers report that …
A Step Toward Personalized Care of Leukemia Patients
Researchers have discovered gene mutations in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that may help doctors determine which treatments will work best for which patients early on.
Why Americans Are Among the Most Sleepless People in the World
A new survey finds that Americans are among the world’s leaders in sleep deprivation, along with the French and Taiwanese.
Cigarette Warning Labels From Around the World
How do the FDA’s proposed new cigarette warning labels stack up against the graphic warnings already in use in other countries?
Wealth and Health From a $1 Cigarette Tax
If you’re looking for a true stinker of a campaign slogan, you couldn’t do much better than “Vote for me, I’ll raise your taxes!” (Don’t believe it? Ask Walter Mondale. It ain’t easy to lose 49 states.) But suppose you changed …
U.S. Cigarette Warning Labels Are About to Get Graphic
Cigarette packages currently come with a tidy black-bordered warning label, reminding users that smoking causes lung cancer, birth defects and heart disease. Dutiful, yes, and easily disregarded.
Why Obesity May Not Raise Breast Cancer Risk in Mexican Americans
For a disease as complex as breast cancer, pinpointing its risk factors, genetic or otherwise, is challenging enough. But an intriguing new study suggests that the task may be even harder when ethnicity is thrown into the mix.