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Whether you drink or not, alcohol has many effects on your health. One of those that's underappreciated has been revealed: It's the first comparison of bacteria found in the mouths of drinkers versus teetotalers. So if you're a frequent drinker, you may want to pour yourself a tall one before reading these results.
Policymakers argue about whether sin taxes – on tobacco, alcohol etc. – are regressive, affecting the poor more than the wealthy. But no one argues the health benefits; they are assumed. Wouldn't a bit of evidence about the benefit of sin taxes, to some entity other than the government, been helpful?
Perhaps at some point, dietary supplement fans are going to wonder why they spent so much money on a bunch of stuff which ended up being useless. Regarding omega-3 fatty acid supplements from fish, and whether they have any impact on fatal heart attacks, nonfatal heart attacks, strokes, the results are in. Effectiveness: zilch.
The Health and Human Services Secretary was readmitted for diverticulitis two days after he was discharged. While it was most likely due to his disease getting worse, it does highlight the concern about readmission, which is both common and costly.
Who's prescribing homeopathy? A research group sought to learn if there's a difference between medical practices that prescribe homeopathy, and those that don't. What it found was that practices with the worst prescribing quality were more than twice as likely to recommend homeopathy than those who were best.
Over the years nuts have increasingly been viewed as pretty beneficial, delivering a range of health benefits by the handful. However, according to a new study by Swedish researchers, such a reputation may be fairly misleading. That's because, as they learned, the nut-eater has to be inclined towards a healthy lifestyle in order to enjoy their benefits.
Twenty-three Salmonella infections reported across nine states have prompted a recall of eggs by the dozens (well millions, actually.) Worried about the eggs in your fridge? Read on to learn if you should check your carton a bit more closely before making this morning's omelet.
Basically, exaggerated male sex organs may intensify an organism’s focus so much that they pay a hefty cost when it comes to their own survival. In some cases, they facilitate their own extinction.
It's no surprise that drug traffickers are quite creative about distributing their products. Recently, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Homeland Security pounced on an operation that used Donald Duck and Winnie the Pooh objects to disguise illegal shipments.
This list, published annually by the Environmental Working Group, should be ignored for a multitude of reasons. It wrongly promotes the idea that organic foods don't have pesticides, while also making sweeping claims unsupported by scientific evidence. So media, why are you repeating EWG's nonsense without doing some fact-checking?
The Environmental Working Group has once again released their Dirty Dozen list — the fruits and veggies they say are covered in pesticides. One minor detail: organic produce contains pesticides, too, but that doesn't quite fit their narrative.
A science fair that recently took place wasn't giving out blue ribbons for homemade volcanoes. Rather, the projects were original research done by some of top-notch, high school talent, with the winners pocketing hefty cash awards. In the world of research, check out what this generation of future scientists finds both interesting and important.
The attention paid to concussions, and the long-term brain damage they cause, has been an essential advance in injury prevention. But an important by-product of that research reveals how microconcussions – hits to the brain that don't produce visible symptoms – also need to be minimized so as to limit future cognitive decline.
Americans are increasingly choosing alternate sites of care, specifically retail clinics, urgent care centers and telemedicine. Their choices reflect a balancing of care, convenience and price. But in the end, what's the true overall cost of this shift?
Anti-aging pills and creams get a lot of hype. But does anything actually extend lifespan? Scientists have known that "caloric restriction" extends lifespan in other animals for decades. But now they show that it may work in humans, too.
High blood pressure is not a static event, it's dynamic, the result of multiple causes changing at different rates. Treating high blood pressure, or any disease, as a static process makes our models more inaccurate.
The lure of page views and viral videos strikes again. A disturbing trend of snorting condoms finds good company with other misguided – and dangerous – fads.
Oftentimes eye drops do not end up where they are needed. Now, purchasers of eye expensive drops like those used to treat glaucoma – as well as the companies that make them – are now turning their collective gaze towards the U.S. Supreme Court, for a different kind of solution.
Aside from suffocation and strangulation which are responsible for 25 percent of all sleep-related deaths, other causes of SIDS remain somewhat of a mystery to scientists and parents. But in recent years, much research has explored neurological variants, like serotonin levels in the brain, and a gene variant that could provide some insight.
As the chick readies to hatch, the eggshell's inner surface weakens. How the hardness of eggshells is created by a matrix is fascinating biology. And it may give us insight into a more human problem: the hip fractures of old age.
Deprive yourself of an adequate amount of sleep each night and you'll have a harder time regulating your body weight. Reinforcing that concept, the results of a recent study showed that when would-be dieters get less sleep their ability to lose body fat becomes more difficult.
Dan Berger, Ph.D. is a patent agent, who knows how nuances can result in billions of dollars going to one company rather than another. Even minor errors in drug patents can have enormous consequences. Given the stakes involved, we asked him to discuss what goes on inside pharmaceutical companies, and how their decisions ultimately affect consumers like you.
In our latest #KuriousKiddos segment, Elliot and Sullivan want to know whether or not the legend of swallowing gum is true.. Will you become part Wrigley if you swallow the rubbery goodness?
The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control on obesity trends are mixed. Adults – especially women – continued to gain, but the same wasn't true for younger folks. Maybe, just maybe, there's hope on the horizon for diminishing the obesity epidemic.
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