Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
Little vessels react to magnetic switch
Magnets can act like vascular switches, increasing or decreasing blood flow to a region of the body.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Don’t Belittle this Vitamin
As vitamins go, B6 doesn’t fly high on the radar screen of most consumers. However, owing to its many benefits–which include protecting DNA–this unsung nutritional hero shouldn’t be neglected, argue a pair of scientists. Last week, they reported data showing that when people consume diets low in this vitamin, their blood has higher rates of […]
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Infectious Notion
Lessons from gene therapy promote viruses as cancer fighters.
By Ruth Bennett - Health & Medicine
DNA vaccine immunizes fetal lambs
Canadian scientists have devised a way to vaccinate fetal lambs, which could spawn more research into in utero methods for preventing the spread of disease from mothers to their babies.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Protein Pump: Experimental therapy fights Parkinson’s
Bathing surviving dopamine-making neurons with a natural protein that induces nerve-fiber growth reverses some of the symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Body wraps caused rash of rashes
A CDC investigator has linked an outbreak of skin infections to unsanitary practices at a body wrap salon.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Transfusions and transplants spread West Nile virus
Donated blood and organs should be screened to prevent transmission of West Nile virus, federal officials say.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Africa faces new meningitis threat
A vaccine-resistant and previously rare strain of deadly bacteria caused an epidemic of meningitis last year in western Africa and seems to have disseminated around the world.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Vaccine didn’t cause heart deaths
Fatal heart attacks that recently struck two people after they were vaccinated against smallpox were probably unfortunate coincidences, not adverse consequences of vaccination.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Shots stop allergic reactions to venom
An immune therapy prevents allergic reactions to the sting of the jack jumper ant, a pest common to Australia.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Homing In on Ephedra’s Risks
On Feb. 16, pitcher Steve Bechler of the Baltimore Orioles collapsed while running sprints at the team’s spring-training camp in Florida. He died a few hours later. Subsequent investigation linked the 23-year-old player’s apparent heatstroke with a popular diet aid containing both caffeine and ephedra, a botanical product rich in other natural stimulants. Ephedra plant. […]
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Deadly Stowaways: Seeds of cancer in transplant recipients are traced back to donors
Precancerous cells that grow into Kaposi's sarcoma are sometimes introduced into a person in an organ transplant.
By Nathan Seppa