Prenatal exposure to pesticides may be delaying kids’ nervous-system development, leading to attention problems later in life, a new study finds.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley followed more than 300 California children and their mothers over several years. When the women were pregnant, the researchers took …
An egg producer in Iowa is recalling 228 million eggs, as the federal government reports a multi-state outbreak of salmonella.
Infection with the bacterium salmonella enteritidis can cause fever, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Sickness usually only lasts a few days, with no long-term consequences. But the infection can be fatal if the …
A protein known for its role in Rett syndrome — a rare genetic brain disorder — also works to regulate cocaine addiction, new research shows.
In a study published today in Nature Neuroscience, Florida researchers were able to mimic in rats a human’s transition to cocaine addiction: the transition, that is, from controlled intake …
There’s been a big hubbub this past week about antibiotics. After Lancet Infectious Diseases reported the spread of a new drug-resistant superbug spreading from south Asia, news agencies around the world reported “panic” and “fear and loathing” over the germs’ possible consequences. Some experts claimed the news was overblown –that the …
It’s summer, so with luck you didn’t spend all weekend indoors glued to the screen. In case you missed these headlines when they broke, here are the biggest health stories of the past two days:
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Pricey drugs to reduce blood pressure appear no better at preventing heart disease than cheap, generic diuretics, which have been around for decades.
This is the result of a 13-year study of roughly 33,000 Americans who use anti-hypertensive drugs. The hypertension patients were randomly assigned in the 1990s to receive either a …
Many explanations have been offered for JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater’s meltdown and dramatic emergency slide exit on Monday—from “air rage” to suggestions of a relapse into alcoholism. But none of the media coverage has noted what could be the most obvious and chilling reason for his bizarre behavior: at the beginning of …
The Internet’s a-buzz with news of Ron Sveden, the 75-year-old Cape Cod man who discovered that a growth in his lung was not, as feared, a tumor — but rather a pea plant. A seed had somehow lodged itself in his lung, presumably after some food found its way down the wrong tube, and the seed then sprouted.
But how is this …
Rural Americans are more likely to kill themselves than urban Americans, and men are more likely to kill themselves than women — though women are more likely to consider suicide.
These patterns and more are part of the rich culture of suicide, discussed today in a panel at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological …
MRSA infections may be on the decline, but today scientists announced the apparent emergence of a new superbug. It seems to be spreading to Britain via patients who traveled from India and Pakistan.
The new superbug bacteria — members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, the family that includes salmonella and E. coli — carry a gene …
AFP reports today that thousands of Beijing workers are, once again, performing twice-daily calisthenics routines to music from the state radio. The group exercise program — which, it seems, will be mandatory for all state-company employees starting next year — originally began in 1951. But it was then ditched three years ago in the …
It’s a common myth that the more sugar you eat, the more likely you are to get cavities. But it’s not always so, says Tufts University professor of nutrition and oral health Carole Palmer. Writing with colleagues in the July/August issue of Nutrition Today, she explains that it’s not in fact the amount of sugar you ingest that matters, …
Three biomarkers in spinal fluid may be enough to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease — or to give warning of developing Alzheimer’s pathology before symptoms appear.
In a study of more than 400 older adults, released yesterday by the medical journal Archives of Neurology, a telltale protein signature was present in 90% of patients already …
