Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Common drugs offer some hot flash relief

    Antidepressants and some other prescription drugs reduce the number of hot flashes that many women experience during menopause.

    By Nathan Seppa
  2. Health & Medicine

    Blood, Iron, and Gray Hair

    Recent findings show that anemia is exceedingly common in elderly people and link the condition to severe health problems, including accelerated physical and mental decline and a shorter life span.

    By Ben Harder
  3. Health & Medicine

    For the Birds: New vaccines protect chickens from avian flu

    By piggybacking components of strains of avian-influenza virus onto an existing poultry vaccine, scientists have created experimental vaccines that can prevent bird flu in chickens.

    By Nathan Seppa
  4. Health & Medicine

    Open Water, Open Mouths: Scuba divers face infection risks

    A new study takes a stab at quantifying the risks that waterborne bacteria and viruses pose to scuba divers.

    By Ben Harder
  5. Health & Medicine

    Prescription stimulants are big on campus

    Nearly 1 in 10 students at a New England college admits to using prescription stimulants without authorization.

    By Nathan Seppa
  6. Health & Medicine

    Hookworms hitched rides with nomads

    Horseback-riding herders known as Scythians once traveled far and wide across Eurasia, and their remains contain the parasites to prove it.

    By Ben Harder
  7. Health & Medicine

    Many people don’t see well

    Vision screening of a broad sample of people in the United States ages 12 and older finds that 6.4 percent of them have substandard vision.

    By Nathan Seppa
  8. Health & Medicine

    Bacteria Can Keep Their Kin in Check

    Products containing beneficial bacteria might help people fight the ill effects of some gut microbes in diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome.

    By Ben Harder
  9. Health & Medicine

    Bug Zapper: Novel drug kills resistant bacteria

    A newly recognized compound can wipe out some of the most troublesome antibiotic-resistant bacteria, lab tests show.

    By Nathan Seppa
  10. Health & Medicine

    Nabbed: Culprit of grapefruit juice–drug interaction

    Researchers have pinned down the class of natural compounds in grapefruit juice that's responsible for its unwanted chemical interaction with many drugs.

    By Ben Harder
  11. Health & Medicine

    Now Hear This

    Genetics research, work with stem cells, and studies of the inner ear's delicate architecture suggest that it might be possible to restore cells pivotal to hearing.

    By Christen Brownlee
  12. Health & Medicine

    Sleight of Herb: Black cohosh mislabeled in medicinal products

    A sizable fraction of the herbal supplements marketed as preparations of black cohosh contains none of that North American plant.

    By Ben Harder