Pregnant women with significant signs of depression may react more strongly to the seasonal flu vaccine than women with milder cases of the common mood disorder, according to a new study slated to appear in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. The study was small but carefully designed. Researchers had 22 pregnant women fill out …
Newer Isn’t Always Better: Pap Smear Version
Over the last 15 years, the vast majority of American gynecologists have switched from using the traditional “pap” smear to screen for cervical cancer to another screening method called “liquid based cytology” (women may know the test by the popular brand name, ThinPrep). But a new study of nearly 90,000 women in Holland finds …
American Cancer Society calls for better monitoring of exposure to carcinogens
A new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) calls for honing strategies to monitor people’s exposure to cancer-causing chemicals in the environment, including enhancing toxicity testing, enforcing regulatory standards, and lowering the public’s exposure when possible. Authors of the report put minimizing exposure to …
Forget about acne: Heart disease may be the new teenage rite of passage
A 7-year study peering into the heart health of 20,000 Canadian teens uncovered that most already have at least one major risk factor for heart disease. The findings, presented this week at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, showed that rates of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity among the sampling of the country’s 14- …
Fitness fades with age, more so after 45
Watch out for that mid-life speed bump—turns out age 45 is a doozy. A report published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine upends conventional wisdom about fitness and aging.
Until now, most experts thought people’s fitness levels declined in a linear fashion as they aged. But the new report suggests the downward march …
Vaccine War: Autism, Flu and Science
Just in time for the national roll-out of the new H1N1 flu vaccine, Wired Magazine and the Atlantic have weighed in on the ongoing vaccine war: Wired has a profile of Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher and pediatrician who has consistently spoken out in favor of vaccination and pointed to the lack of evidence linking vaccines and autism; …
Drinking By Either Partner Cuts Odds of IVF Success
Couples having difficulty conceiving may want to skip one item that is ordinarily considered helpful to the process—alcohol—at least if they are using in-vitro fertilization (IVF). A new study of 2,574 couples undergoing 5,363 IVF cycles between 1994 and 2003 found that couples in which both partners drank four or more alcoholic …
Deep brain stimulation for severe Tourette syndrome
Deep brain stimulation may be a safe and effective treatment for people with severe Tourette syndrome, according to research appearing this week in the journal Neurology. Roughly 2 million Americans have Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by uncontrolled movements and vocalizations or tics, lasting more than a year. …
What’s in your bowl? New report fingers the least-nutritious cereals
The worst offenders (nutrition wise) of the cereal aisle, according to a report released today from Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity include:
- Reese’s Puffs
- Corn Pops
- Lucky Charms
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch
- Cap’n Crunch
- Trix
- Froot Loops
- Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles
- Cocoa Puffs
- Cookie Crisp
Baby Einstein Refund: Kids Too Much Like Real Baby Einstein
Disney’s recently announced decision to offer a refund to parents who purchased its popular “Baby Einstein” videos vindicates researchers who had been attacked by the company. Their study, published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics, showed that each daily hour of viewing of these kinds of “educational” videos by children …
Role of overlapping sexual partners in the spread of HIV in Africa called into question
A long-held view among HIV researchers is that overlapping multiple sexual partners (aka concurrency) fuels the spread of HIV in Africa. But the authors of a new paper published in the journal AIDS and Behavior are questioning the strength of the supporting evidence. “This theory, which we accept as fact, is really just the strong …
Vitamin D levels lacking in millions of U.S. children
Millions of American children may not be getting enough vitamin D, according to a new report out today. The sunshine vitamin is essential for helping kids build healthy bones and ward off rickets. Plus, new evidence shows it may ward off colds, childhood wheezing, and winter-related eczema. The study, published in the November issue of …
Rethinking the benefits of breast and prostate cancer screening
For two decades, the public-health message has been that cancer screening saves lives. In some cases, especially with cancers of the cervix and colon, screening does, in fact, work as it should: sniffing out disease at its earliest and most curable stages. But for breast and prostate cancers—two of the most widespread in the U.S.—the …