Health & Medicine

Health & Medicine

Dormant Cancer: Lack of a protein sends tumor cells to bed

Excess amounts of a protein called Myc triggers cancer in mice, but ratcheting back this supply sends the malignant cells into dormancy.

Health & Medicine

Fat Fuels PCB Damage: Diet influences toxic effects leading to heart disease

Certain types of dietary fats can magnify PCB damage to artery cells in a way that sets the stage for cardiovascular disease.

Health & Medicine

Drug-resistant staph causes more pneumonia

A recently discovered variant of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to some antibiotics became a major cause of severe pneumonia among people who caught the flu last winter.

Health & Medicine

Kids’ vaccine guards adults too, for now

Serious infections caused by pneumococcus have decreased in both children and adults since the introduction of a childhood vaccine against seven strains of the bacterium, but other pneumococcus strains are now becoming more prevalent among adults with HIV.

Health & Medicine

Human antibody halts SARS in hamsters

Human-derived antibodies can not only prevent infections when given in advance of SARS exposure but also mitigate the symptoms of an infection already in progress.

Health & Medicine

Vitamin D: What’s Enough?

Most researchers studying vitamin D agree that many people would benefit from more of the vitamin, but they haven't yet decided just how much.

Health & Medicine

Carotid Overhaul: Stents and surgery go neck and neck

Mesh cylinders called stents work as well as or slightly better than surgery in opening blocked carotid arteries in high-risk patients.

Health & Medicine

Turmeric component kills cancer cells

Curcumin, the component of turmeric that makes the spice yellow, shows anticancer effects in lab-dish tests and in experiments on mice.

Health & Medicine

Honey, Let’s Shrink the Kids

A new Institute of Medicine report calls for fundamental changes throughout U.S. society to make pediatric-obesity prevention a major national priority, comparable to the campaign against youthful smoking.

Health & Medicine

Fighting cholesterol with saturated fat?

Marrying a saturated fat to the plant-derived ingredient in certain health-promoting margarines creates an especially potent cholesterol-lowering food additive.

Health & Medicine

Adopted protein might be MS culprit

A protein called syncytin might play a role in causing degradation of the fatty myelin sheath that insulates nerves, damage that leads to multiple sclerosis.

Health & Medicine

Vitamin Boost

Vitamin D is being linked to a host of health benefits that go well beyond stronger bones, extending to muscle preservation and some protection against cancer, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.