It’s not easy being the brother or sister of an autistic child. “Typical” siblings sometimes feel embarrassed by or responsible for their autistic sib, or may feel jealous of all the attention he gets. Now researchers have found …
Medicine
Study: Walking Is a Brain Exercise Too
I am often teased for my stubborn habit of traveling by foot. I often walk the 3 mi. home from work rather than take the subway. When I visit less pedestrian-friendly cities, kindhearted motorists regularly pull over and offer me …
Forget Pain Pills, Fall in Love Instead
Do you believe that love conquers all? If you do, you probably won’t be surprised by the following study. It turns out that being in love can actually dull pain perception. What’s more, it works in a different way that painkillers do.
Canada Declares BPA Toxic. Is the U.S. Next?
Yesterday Canada—with very little fanfare—declared the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) a toxic substance, both to the environment and to public health.
Is Birth Control Preventive Medicine?
That’s the question federal officials will by answering in the next year as they continue writing regulations to implement the Affordable Care Act.
The Hispanic Mortality Paradox: Why Do Latinos Outlive Other Americans?
For the first time, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has collected national life expectancy data for the Hispanic population, and backed up the surprising findings of past studies: the average life expectancy of a …
NYC to Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Stop Misleading Pregnant Women
You may have seen billboards or magazine ads for women’s clinics called crisis-pregnancy centers. Riding the F subway train in New York City, I regularly see a poster that features an anxious-looking teenage girl under the …
4 Reasons Binge Drinking Is a Public Health Problem
One out of 3 adults and 2 out of 3 high school students who drink alcohol binge drink, according to recent government surveys. Startlingly, the data suggest that 90% of the alcohol consumed by high-school kids and more than half …
Not Just Your Imagination: Kids Really Are More Allergic
These days, any parent worth her salt knows to inquire about food allergies before a playdate begins. Allergies are everywhere, to all sorts of nuts, or eggs, or dairy. Rustling up a snack has never been more complicated, as …
Could Late-Night Exposure to Light Be Making You Fat?
If you stay up late watching TV or bathed in the glow of a computer screen, you probably aren’t doing your waistline any favors. A new study finds that exposure to light at night may contribute to weight gain, independent of diet …
Study: Obese Workers Cost Employers $73 Billion Per Year
Obesity is expensive — for the person living with it, for the health-care system and now, according to a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, for employers. The U.S. economy suffers a $73.1 billion …
Who’s Too Posh to Push? High Cesarean Section Rates Aren’t Moms’ Fault
The number of women opting to deliver by caesarean section in the U.K. has doubled since 1980, a phenomenon that has been popularly attributed to women being “too posh to push.”
More Obesity Fallout: Nearly 50 Million Americans with Arthritis
More than one-fifth of American adults — that’s 49.9 million people — are clinically diagnosed with arthritis and, of those, 20 million say they are physically limited by the condition, according to new government figures. …