Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Cigarettes and lead linked to attention disorder

    Nearly half a million cases of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder among U.S. children are related to exposures to lead or their mothers' smoking while pregnant.

    By Ben Harder
  2. Health & Medicine

    Bad Alzheimer’s proteins sow disorder in the brain

    Alzheimer's disease may start with a single abnormal protein that spoils other proteins nearby.

    By Christen Brownlee
  3. Health & Medicine

    Mixed Bag: Islet-cell transplants offer good and bad news

    Most people who've received transplanted islet cells for type 1 diabetes still need daily insulin shots, but the transplanted cells curb blood sugar crashes.

    By Nathan Seppa
  4. Health & Medicine

    The Bad Fight: Immune systems harmed 1918 flu patients

    The 1918 Spanish flu virus may have launched an intense immune attack that devastated patients' lungs.

    By Christen Brownlee
  5. Health & Medicine

    UV Blocker: Lotion yields protective tan in fair-skinned mice

    A lotion that stimulates production of the skin pigment melanin induces a deep tan in specially bred laboratory mice.

    By Nathan Seppa
  6. Health & Medicine

    Graveyard Shift: Prostate cancer linked to rotating work schedule

    Men who alternate between daytime and nighttime shifts on their jobs have triple the normal rate of prostate cancer, according to a Japanese nationwide study.

    By Ben Harder
  7. Health & Medicine

    Shingles shot’s value is uncertain

    The cost-effectiveness of a new vaccine against shingles remains uncertain, making it difficult to assess whether adults should routinely receive the shot.

    By Ben Harder
  8. Health & Medicine

    Progestin linked to hearing loss in older women

    Elderly women who received progestin as part of hormone replacement therapy have poorer hearing than do women who didn't get progestin.

    By Nathan Seppa
  9. Health & Medicine

    Calling Death’s Bluff

    New methods of assessing a person's risk of sudden death due to a heart arrhythmia may enable doctors to better identify which patients need to receive an implanted defibrillator.

    By Ben Harder
  10. Health & Medicine

    Babies Motor Better with Breast Milk

    Even a few months of breastfeeding appear to confer important motor-coordination benefits on an infant.

    By Janet Raloff
  11. Health & Medicine

    Weapon against MS: Transplant drug limits nerve damage

    An immune-suppressing drug called fingolimod slows multiple sclerosis relapses in patients.

    By Nathan Seppa
  12. Health & Medicine

    Forewarning of preeclampsia

    Scientists have found an early warning sign of preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure. Pregnant women with too much of a protein called soluble endoglin in their blood have a heightened risk of preeclampsia, the researchers say. Endoglin normally sits on the surface of blood vessels, where it plays a role in […]

    By Nathan Seppa