Health & Medicine
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Health & MedicineDrug fails in autism study
In the most extensive test so far of its capability to treat autism, the controversial drug secretin has failed to help children with the neurological disorder.
By John Travis -
Health & MedicineTelltale Charts
Overturning a basic tenet of conventional wisdom in cardiology, new research suggests that more than half the people who develop heart disease first show one of the warning signs of smoking, having diabetes, or having high blood pressure or cholesterol.
By Ben Harder -
Health & MedicineA Swiss Paradox?
Gstaad, Switzerland, has gained renown for its challenging ski trails and celebrity sightings. Come summer, however, the area’s slopes host cows, not skiers. It now appears that milk from those cows produces cheeses rich in some heart-healthy nutrients. Where and on what Bossie grazes appears to make a big difference in heart-healthiness of cheeses made […]
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineArsenic helps tumors, blood vessels grow
Rather than being a potential antitumor agent, arsenic may actually help a tumor's supporting network of blood vessels thrive.
By Ben Harder -
Health & MedicineConduit to the Brain: Particles enter the nervous system via the nose
Tiny airborne particles can apparently infiltrate the brain by shimmying up the nerve that governs smell.
By Ben Harder -
Health & MedicineCluster Buster: Might a simple sugar derail Huntington’s?
A study in mice with a disease resembling Huntington's shows that a simple sugar impedes the protein aggregation that kills brain cells.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineViruses depend on shocking proteins
To replicate within a cell, a bird virus must force the cell to make certain proteins.
By John Travis -
Health & MedicineDrugs slow aging in worms
Drugs that defuse so-called free radicals lengthen a worm's life span by more than 50 percent.
By John Travis -
Health & MedicineSome psychoactive drugs ease harsh PMS
Drugs such as widely prescribed Prozac can relieve a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineDrug spares eggs from early death
A newly discovered drug that prevents radiation from hastening egg cell death in mice might also prevent some human cancer patients from suffering sterility and premature menopause.
By Laura Sivitz -
Health & MedicineDiabetes: Coffee and Caffeine Appear Protective
Most studies over the past decade have painted tea as a therapeutic beverage and coffee as its dastardly counterpart–a brew that challenges weak hearts and joints. However, such black-and-white characterizations appear to have overstated coffee’s dark side. New data now indicate that drinking java–lots of it, and especially the caffeinated form–can curb type II diabetes. […]
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineClear Airways: Quelling a protein stops mucus overload
By interfering with a protein that earlier research implicated in mucus secretion, scientists have countered overstimulation of mucus secretion in the airways of mice.
By Nathan Seppa