Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Colon scans reveal heart risk

    Virtual colonoscopy may offer the side benefit of identifying heart attacks that are waiting to happen.

    By Ben Harder
  2. Health & Medicine

    Trade Center cough is diagnosed

    Obstructions that trap air deep within the lungs may explain certain breathing difficulties among some people who worked at the site of the World Trade Center following Sept. 11, 2001.

    By Ben Harder
  3. Health & Medicine

    Exploring the Heart

    Learn about the human heart at a fascinating online exhibit from the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. Discover the complexities of the heart’s development and structure. Follow the blood on its journey through the blood vessels. Check out how to keep your heart healthy and how to monitor your heart’s health. Look back at […]

    By Science News
  4. Health & Medicine

    Stemming Incontinence: Injected muscle cells restore urinary control

    Stem cells removed from healthy muscle, grown in a lab, and inserted back into women with urinary incontinence can rebuild a muscle needed to control urine flow.

    By Ben Harder
  5. Health & Medicine

    Smog Clogs Arteries: Pollution does lasting harm to blood vessels

    Air pollution does long-term damage to people's arteries, leading to increased risk of heart attack and stroke, a Los Angeles study confirms.

    By David Shiga
  6. Health & Medicine

    Shark Finning Faces Broader Sanctions

    Even as the gruesome practice of shark finning faces a broader ban, regulators find challenges in bringing scofflaws to justice.

    By Janet Raloff
  7. Health & Medicine

    TB vaccine gets a needed boost

    An experimental vaccine against tuberculosis imparts significant immunity, but only in people who have previously received the existing bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine for TB.

    By Nathan Seppa
  8. Health & Medicine

    Sleeve worn on heart fights failure

    A new mesh wrap can be placed around an expanded and weakened heart to restore the organ to an efficient, elliptical form.

    By Ben Harder
  9. Health & Medicine

    Up and down make different workouts

    An unusual study conducted on an Alpine mountainside suggests that climbing a steep slope improves the body's ability to process certain fats, while descending such a slope enhances metabolism of a key sugar.

    By Ben Harder
  10. Health & Medicine

    How Carbs Can Make Burgers Safer

    Though meats can develop carcinogens during grilling, adding potato starch before cooking can limit the carcinogens' formation and possibly uptake by the body.

    By Janet Raloff
  11. Health & Medicine

    Antioxidant Booster: Protein curbs lung damage caused by smoke

    A protein called Nrf2 defends against emphysema by activating dozens of genes that combat free radicals and toxic pollutants, a study in mice suggests.

    By Nathan Seppa
  12. Health & Medicine

    Stones-Be-Gone: Gene-targeting drug restores chemical balance protecting the gallbladder

    A drug tested in mice prevents gallstones by stimulating a gene that controls levels of different chemicals in the gallbladder.

    By David Shiga