All Stories by Nathan Seppa
- Health & Medicine
Stomach surgery helps obese adolescents
Laparoscopic banding surgery to limit appetite improves several health markers in obese adolescents.
- Health & Medicine
Tuberculosis bacterium subverts basic cell functions
The tuberculosis microbe makes compounds that alter basic systems inside key immune cells, facilitating the bacterium’s survival in the body, new research shows.
- Health & Medicine
NFL heart profile good, with a caveat
Football players have higher blood pressure on average, new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Sensitivity to alcohol connected with alcoholism risk
People for whom alcohol has little effect face a greater risk of developing alcoholism than those who get drunk easily.
- Health & Medicine
How Down syndrome works against cancer
A surplus of cancer-suppressing protein encoded by a gene on an extra copy of chromosome 21 may explain in part why people with Down syndrome seldom get cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Scorpion venom neutralized
An antivenom drug commonly used in Mexico counteracts poisonous scorpion stings, researchers in Arizona find.
- Health & Medicine
Toothpicks match needles for acupuncture
Sham acupuncture works as well as the real thing for back pain, a study shows.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping artery plaques under control
Toning down a gene called CHOP may offer a way to reduce the risk of arterial plaque ruptures, which can cause heart attacks and strokes, a study in mice shows.
- Health & Medicine
Swine flu genetics suggest a vaccine is possible
So far, strain's contagion appears on par with that of a seasonal flu outbreak. Vaccine would be at least months away.
- Health & Medicine
World Health Organization raises swine flu alert level
The World Health Organization announced April 29 that is has raised the alert level for swine flu from Phase 4 to Phase 5, which suggests that a pandemic is imminent.
- Health & Medicine
New weapon fights hepatitis C
Taking the experimental drug telaprevir with standard medications for hepatitis C clears the virus from patients’ blood better than the standard combination alone.
- Health & Medicine
Swine flu outbreak likely to continue, officials say
Even as public health data on the new outbreak change daily, biological information on the mysterious virus remains scant.
