Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Unsettling Association: Dental X rays linked to low-birth-weight babies

    Getting dental X rays while pregnant might increase a woman's risk of giving birth to a low-birth-weight baby.

    By Nathan Seppa
  2. Health & Medicine

    Tea Yields Prostate Benefits

    Tea drinking appears to seed the body with compounds that retard the growth of prostate cancer.

    By Janet Raloff
  3. Health & Medicine

    Exercise boosts sugar’s taste

    Studies in runners and in animals indicate that exercise increases an individual's sensitivity to sweetness.

    By Janet Raloff
  4. Health & Medicine

    Proteins mark ALS

    Scientists reported finding what appears to be the first diagnostic test for Lou Gehrig's disease, potentially shaving a year off of when targeted treatment for the disease can begin.

    By Janet Raloff
  5. Health & Medicine

    Experimental drug boosts HDL counts

    An experimental drug can dramatically increase blood concentrations of high-density lipoprotein, the beneficial cholesterol.

    By Nathan Seppa
  6. Health & Medicine

    CT scan no match for colonoscopy

    Colonoscopy is better at detecting potentially dangerous colon polyps than computed tomography scanning is.

    By Nathan Seppa
  7. Health & Medicine

    Coffee, Spices, Wine

    Several dietary agents, including coffee, wine, and cinnamon, appear to restore some of the body's responsiveness to insulin, potentially slowing diabetes' onset or ravages.

    By Janet Raloff
  8. Health & Medicine

    Firms vie to treat genetic disease

    Successful treatment of Fabry's disease—a rare, fatal genetic condition—prompts a law suit.

    By John Travis
  9. Health & Medicine

    Killing immune cells thwarts arthritis

    Researchers have successfully treated people with rheumatoid arthritis by temporarily wiping out most of their antibody-producing immune cells.

    By John Travis
  10. Health & Medicine

    Prostate enzyme triggers cancer drug

    A new drug reverses advanced prostate cancer in mice by enlisting the aid of prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme found in most prostate tumors.

    By Nathan Seppa
  11. Health & Medicine

    Zapping Wayward Cells: Therapy sheds light on transplant complication

    Ultraviolet light can curb graft-versus-host disease, a common complication of bone marrow transplants, a study of mice shows.

    By Nathan Seppa
  12. Health & Medicine

    Gene ups oral-cancer risk for drinkers who smoke

    People who have a particular variant of a single gene are at a disproportionate risk of oral cancer if they both smoke and drink.

    By Ben Harder