Health & Medicine

Health & Medicine

Singing the blues

After finding that people with diabetes are slightly more likely to have had an episode of depression in the past 11 years than similar people who have not developed diabetes, some researchers have made the controversial suggestion that depression may cause diabetes.

Health & Medicine

Darn that diet, anyway

Seemingly healthful foods—such as broiled chicken and baked fish—can contain high concentrations of compounds that may damage the cardiovascular system, and eating these foods can raise the concentration of these so-called advanced glycation end products in a person's blood.

Health & Medicine

The medicine isn’t going down

Only about a third of people diagnosed with type II diabetes are taking their medications often enough to keep their blood sugar concentrations under tight control.

Health & Medicine

Curbing Cancer? Low-Fat Diet During Adolescence Cuts Hormones, Possibly Breast Cancer Risk

Cutting back on cheeseburgers and French fries could spare girls more than extra pounds. A low-fat diet also reduces young girls’ sex hormone concentrations, a new study finds. What’s more, researchers say, the adolescent drop in hormones that are known to spur breast cancer in adults might stave off the disease later in life. More […]

Health & Medicine

Too Much of a Good Thing: Excess vitamin A may hike bone-fracture rate

Dietary studies suggest that people who consume large amounts of vitamin A in foods or multivitamins are more likely to suffer hip fractures than are people who ingest modest amounts.

Health & Medicine

Do liver stem cells come from bone marrow?

Tests of liver tissue from people who've received liver or blood-marrow transplants show that stem cells in bone marrow can populate the liver as liver cells.

Health & Medicine

Getting the Bugs Out of Blood

Researchers are developing methods for inactivating all sorts of pathogens that could be found in blood, including West Nile virus, an emerging infection recently brought to the United States from Africa.

Health & Medicine

C-Minus—The Fallout of Parents’ Smoking

Children who live with smokers may need more oranges and other rich sources of vitamin C, a new study concludes. It finds that exposure to even a little secondhand smoke significantly depresses concentrations of this important vitamin. Oranges are usually the first food that most people think of when asked to name sources of vitamin […]

Health & Medicine

Blood-Clot Surprise: Finding might explain a danger of Viagra

An amendment to the blood-clotting pathway might link Viagra to heart attacks in some users.

Health & Medicine

Nifty Spittle: Compound in bat saliva may aid stroke patients

An anticlotting molecule in the saliva of vampire bats combats strokelike brain damage in mice.

Health & Medicine

Herbal Activity

The Alternative Medicine Foundation offers a searchable database that provides scientific and general information about the biochemical activity of a variety of herbs, from Achillea (Yarrow) to Ziziphus (Jujube). The entry for each herb includes warnings about dangers to human health and links to relevant abstracts in the scientific literature. Go to: http://www.herbmed.org

Health & Medicine

Stroke protection: A little fish helps

As little as one serving of fish per month offers protection against the most common form of stroke.