Medicine

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 …

Green tea’s promise of cancer prevention grows

Green tea may be considered a little woo-woo by some mainstream cancer experts but the popular beverage continues to creep toward credibility as a weapon against many forms of the disease. The best studies to date hint that green tea may help ward off cancers of the breast and prostate. And this week oral cancer came one step closer to …

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” …

Breast cancer survivors: Time to pump it up

Breast cancer surgeons have long wagged their fingers at patients warning them never to lift anything over 15 pounds, especially if lymph nodes were taken during surgery. Well, for any woman with a child (or groceries for that matter) the limitation is annoying at best, disempowering at worst.

That advice was rooted in the fear that …

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 …

More Evidence Favoring Flu Vaccines in Pregnancy

Pregnant and considering whether or not to get a flu vaccine? Three new studies—as well as a growing body of research related to the effects of flu on the developing fetus—suggest that vaccination is the best option. In the studies, vaccinated women who were pregnant during flu season were much less likely to have premature or …

Rapid Antidepressants? Perception Changes Fast; Mood, Not So Much

Do antidepressants actually start to work immediately? Although people with depression don’t usually feel better right away, a fascinating new study suggests that these medications change the way people see the world within hours, not the two to six weeks that patients typically must wait before they sense that their mood has lifted. …

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