Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
Mapping the fruit fly brain
A new digital atlas could reveal how 100,000 neurons work together.
- Health & Medicine
Gulf War Syndrome real, Institute of Medicine concludes
U.S. veterans who claim to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome just received powerful new ammunition against arguments that their symptoms are trivial, if not altogether fictional. On April 9, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences issued a report that concludes military service in the Persian Gulf War has not only been a cause of post-traumatic stress disorder in some veterans but also is "associated with multisymptom illness” – as in Gulf War Syndrome.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Traffic’s soot elevates blood pressure
Legions of studies have shown that air pollution can harm the heart and blood vessels. Scientists now have linked airborne concentrations of tiny black-carbon particles — soot — with increasing blood pressure in older men. They also showed that the genes we inherit appear to play a big role in determining our vulnerability to soot’s pressurizing impacts.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Walnuts may slow prostate cancer
More news from the American Chemical Society meeting.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Vaccine works against type 1 diabetes in mouse experiments
Researchers uncover a self-regulating feature of the immune system.
- Health & Medicine
Lung function still impaired by dust from World Trade Center
Firefighters and emergency medical teams continue to have breathing problems years after the 2001 terrorist attack.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Eating seaweed may have conferred special digestive powers
Gut microbes in Japanese people may have borrowed genes for breaking down nori from marine bacteria.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
U.S. health system not adequately prepared for the aging sick
Is the U.S. healthcare system prepared to deal with aging patients who have at least two chronic medical conditions — ones that will each require at least a year of ongoing treatment? “Current indications suggest that it is not,” two physicians at the Department of Health and Human Services conclude.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Gene variants linked to Crohn disease have little effect, study finds
A genetic variant linked to Crohn disease does not raise the average person’s risk of developing the condition, a new study finds.
- Chemistry
Study reports hints of phthalate threat to boys’ IQs
You may have a hard time spelling phthalates, but there’s no avoiding them. They’re in the air you breathe, water you drink and foods you eat. And this ubiquity may carry a price, particularly for young boys, emerging data suggest. Including a drop in their IQ.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Languages use different parts of brain
Different areas are active depending how the grammar of a sentence conveys meaning.
- Life
Insulin-producing cells can regenerate in diabetic mice
Animal study finds that the pancreas can spontaneously regenerate beta cells.