Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
Probiotics: Better off dead?
Treating the gut to microbial therapy doesn't necessarily require using live bacteria.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Vitamin D may be heart protective
Vitamin D limits arterial plaque buildup in people with diabetes, early tests suggest.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Herbal supplementation can be an empty gesture
Chemical analyses show some botanical extracts contain little of the plant material they were supposed to possess.
By Janet Raloff - Humans
Nostril rivalry
Like the eyes and ears, each nostril vies for the brain’s attention, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Docs writing fewer scripts
The number of antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory infections has declined since the mid-1990s, a new study shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Better BBQ through chemistry
Food chemists reveal their secrets to juicier, tastier barbecue.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Using estrogen to combat persistent breast cancer
Estrogen therapy stymies breast cancer in some patients who have exhausted their other options, a new study finds.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Worm-inspired superglue
Researchers create a material that may one day be used to paste together bones in the body.
- Health & Medicine
Feds won’t cover PET scans during isotope crisis
One alternative procedure for scouting bone cancers is theoretically available, but currently may be an option only for people with deep pockets.
By Janet Raloff - Tech
How medicine is ‘barely managing’ the isotope crisis
Medicine is managing a prolonged and record shortfall in the principal diagnostic-imaging isotope by triaging the most urgent patients, substituting less effective procedures and working longer hours.
By Janet Raloff - Tech
Isotope crisis threatens medical care
Global production of the feedstock for the leading medical-imaging isotope is low and erratic, putting health care in jeopardy.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Brain doesn’t sort by visual cues alone
Blind and sighted people’s brains sort the living from the nonliving in the same way, suggesting this ability may be hard-wired.