Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    A Prized Worm

    This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to researchers who pioneered the use of the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans as an animal model for exploring basic processes involved in the development and behavior of multicellular organisms. Learn more about the remarkable C. elegans from a Vanderbilt University news feature about this “elegant worm” […]

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Stressing out

    A gene variant reduces people's response to the stress hormone cortisol, and people with the variant are less likely to have risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Iron Cooking Pots Help Combat Malnutrition

    Iron deficiency, the most common nutritional disorder in the world, is a major problem in many developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) currently estimates that a mind-boggling 4 to 5 billion people may suffer from some form of iron deficiency–that’s 66 to 88% of the world’s population. Up to 2 billion of these people […]

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Into the Tank: Pressurized oxygen is best at countering carbon monoxide exposure

    Oxygen treatment for serious carbon monoxide poisoning prevents long-term brain damage best if delivered as pressurized gas.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Lingering legacy of Sept. 11, 2001, on firefighters’ health

    Of the New York firefighters involved in the rescue and recovery effort after last year's terrorist attacks, relatively few have developed chronic coughs and respiratory problems, but among those who did, the problems seem unusually severe.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Challenges in testing for West Nile virus

    The Food and Drug Administration is trying to figure out how blood banks can detect signs of West Nile infection in blood donors and, eventually, test donated blood for the virus itself.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Are varsity athletes prone to ALS?

    A survey of patients treated for neurological problems reveals that those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) are more likely to have been varsity athletes and remained slim all their lives.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Surgery beats splints for wrist syndrome

    Surgery proves better than nighttime splints for relieving the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Sideways Glance: Training helps people circumvent failing sight

    Researchers have developed a rehabilitation regime that may enable many elderly people with age-related macular degeneration to improve their vision.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Another Polio? Alarming West Nile fever risks emerge

    Medical workers have found poliolike symptoms in a few victims of West Nile fever, and federal officials noted that blood transfusions appear to have infected some people.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    New Drugs Beat Old Flu: Antiviral agents counter deadly 1918 influenza

    After partially recreating a deadly influenza virus that swept the globe from 1918 to 1919 and killed millions of people, researchers have shown that available flu drugs could probably prevent a new pandemic of the 1918 influenza strain or a similar flu.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Immune gene linked to prostate cancer

    An immune-cell gene plays a role in predisposing men to prostate cancer.

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