Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Cells profilerate in magnetic fields

    Magnetic fields such as those found within a few feet of outdoor electric-power lines could make cells that are vulnerable to cancer behave like tumors.

    By Laura Sivitz
  2. Health & Medicine

    Prenatal Cares: Popular painkillers linked to miscarriage

    A new study finds that pregnant women taking nonprescription painkillers such as ibuprofen and aspirin have a higher risk of miscarriage.

    By Sorcha McDonagh
  3. Health & Medicine

    Guggul extract fails its cholesterol test

    Guggul extract, long used in parts of Asia and gaining popularity in Western countries as a weapon against high cholesterol, does not appear to work.

    By Ben Harder
  4. Health & Medicine

    Tuesday Can Be Fat, but Weekends Are More Fattening

    Unsuccessful weight watchers are well aware that the winter holiday season can bestow, besides gifts, a few extra pounds. But according to Barry M. Popkin of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, people seem to approach every weekend as a holiday: They eat and drink too much. For the average adult in the […]

    By Ben Harder
  5. Health & Medicine

    Viruses, but not bacteria, tied to mental decline

    Past infection by multiple common viruses may contribute to cognitive decline in some elderly people.

    By Ben Harder
  6. Health & Medicine

    Drug reduces risks for dialysis patients

    Kidney-dialysis patients getting the vitamin D drug paricalcitol survive longer than those getting a similar medication called calcitriol.

    By Nathan Seppa
  7. Health & Medicine

    Predicting Prostate Cancer’s Moves

    To guide treatment decisions in individual cases of prostate cancer, medical researchers are using gene-expression profiling and other novel techniques to develop better predictive markers of how a given tumor will behave.

    By Ben Harder
  8. Health & Medicine

    Brawny Brains: Creatine pills may aid memory and cognition

    The popular muscle-building supplement creatine can boost performance on mental tests.

    By Ben Harder
  9. Health & Medicine

    Switching Off Pain: Modeling relief on the action of marijuana

    A new drug, tested in rats, blocks pain caused when the nervous system goes awry without producing unwanted side effects.

    By Sorcha McDonagh
  10. Health & Medicine

    Blood Sugar Fix

    A new class of experimental drugs that mimic the actions of the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 shows benefits against type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes.

    By Nathan Seppa
  11. Health & Medicine

    Virus Shield: Ebola vaccine works fast in monkey test

    Tests on monkeys show that an experimental vaccine can build immunity against Ebola virus within a month, suggesting the vaccine might help contain outbreaks of the deadly pathogen.

    By Nathan Seppa
  12. Health & Medicine

    Blood-cell transplants slow kidney cancer

    A new transplant technique that uses blood transfusions from a sibling combined with decreasing doses of immune-suppressing drugs enables some patients to fight off advanced kidney cancer.

    By Nathan Seppa