You’d be surprised. There’s a difference between preventing sunburn and preventing other types of skin damage. Some sunscreens can do both, but others can’t.
The Roots of Individuality
Why do different people’s minds work so differently? Human brain cells don’t follow a set DNA script. Instead, they contain a surprising number of mobile elements — or “jumping genes” — that let them reorganize their genetic code.
One More Reason to Cut Cholesterol …
Researchers from Kaiser Permanente find that elevated cholesterol levels — even levels just a little bit elevated, in fact — are predictive of dementia in old age.
A four-decade study of 9,844 men and women in northern California found a strong association between cholesterol when people were in their 40s and Alzheimer’s disease …
A Pharma Company Role in Medical Literature
If you’ve ever worried that pharmaceutical companies have too much sway when it comes to determining your treatment, today’s news won’t help quell your fears.
The New York Times reports that a large pharmaceutical developer hired ghostwriters to “play a major role in producing” 26 scientific papers that support hormone replacement …
Is My Child Overweight?
Recently I wrote an article for TIME about the struggle between parents and pediatricians when a child is too heavy. Many well-intentioned parents, it seems, don’t recognize signs that their own kid is overweight, especially when the child is still young (say, before adolescence). This parental ignorance may itself be because a …
Avoiding Bogus Flu Remedies
The World Health Organization says it’s maintaining its estimate that swine flu — the virus better known now as “novel H1N1” — will infect some 2 billion people before the pandemic is over. That’s almost a third of the world’s population, and a scary thought. So this seems as good a time as any to figure out what’s fact and what’s …
Got Fish Oil?
Mounting evidence supports the healthy-heart benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. You’ve probably heard of them before; they’re the fatty acids found in fish or fish-oil supplements.
This month, a group of scientists writing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiologyhas gone back to review decades’ worth of past studies on the …
Can Cheap Sunglasses Be Bad for Your Eyes?
As people eagerly head out into the sun to soak up the last weeks of summer, inevitably some will end up picking up a cheap pair of sunglasses — because you left your good ones at home, or in the back of an airplane seat or in a cab, or just because those ones the street vendor is hawking are so cute. Yet, according to …
Why Are More Kids Getting Hurt in Gym Class?
Between 1997 and 2007, the annual number of gym class injuries grew by 150%, according to a study published in this week’s edition of the journal Pediatrics. In 1997, there were an average 4.39 trips to the emergency room per every 10,000 kids; a decade later, that was up to 10.9 visits. “This is a really big increase,” says Lara …
Does Prevention Really Cut Health-Care Costs?
If you’ve been trying to follow the debate over U.S. health-care reform, you might be confused about whether Obama’s plan is really going to cut costs, how much it will save, and how on earth there can be so much debate over what seems like accounting. At the heart of this issue, however, is the question of prevention: Can prevention …
Antidepressant Use Soars
In 2005, 10% of Americans aged six or older — some 27 million people — received at least one prescription for antidepressants. That’s up from just under 6% in 1996.
Marriage 101
Getting married during challenging times — say, during a global economic downturn — can put stresses on your budding relationship that most couples aren’t forced to endure for years. Yet, according to researchers, there may be an upside to testing your bond early on.
Plague Deaths in China
There are reports today of two deaths from pneumonic plague in western China. Pneumonic plague is the deadliest and least common form of plague. Still, the odds that this dreaded disease will make it across oceans to ravage your hometown are just about zero.