Search results

If someone has been obese for many years, would undergoing bariatric surgery still be helpful, allowing them to live longer? A recent study shows that while middle-aged patients benefitted, "bypass surgery is protective against mortality even for older patients."

Is a certain kind of artificial turf harmful? So far it is just claims by lawyers prepping for a lawsuit but it merits study because they have scared parents. What doesn't need study, the facts are in, is that Coke has managed to frustrate Food Nazis once again - by being successful with smaller serving sizes

A new law that e-cigarette trade groups and public health experts uniformly support -- making sure nicotine liquid can't easily be ingested by kids -- was signed ad made official by President Obama.

After many years in hospital beds and on operating tables, Dede Koswara recently lost his battle with the rare "tree man illness," a bizarre skin disorder. Though they are rare, Koswara's case -- and other strange maladies we've taken a look at -- seem more common in Indonesia than in other parts of the world. Why is that?

The CDC has issued a new, unnecessary warning to women of childbearing age. Essentially, it tells them that if they're not using birth control, do not drink. At all. Not only does this seem unduly alarmist and hyper-precautionary, but it's also not firmly rooted in sound science.

Blonde hair. Big boobs. And the perfect tan. Where in America will you find the highest concentration of the self-obsessed? A somewhat-playful analysis of the nation's "Top 10 Vain Cities," as based on proximity to plastic surgeons and tanning beds, says the honor goes not to Hollywood, but another California playground.

While toe-tourniquet syndrome is not considered a widespread health threat to infants, unsuspecting parents should be aware of the situation in which strands of the mother's hair become accidentally wrapped around a baby's finger, toe or other appendage. If left undetected it can lead to painful consequences.

"Natural is better." That pervasive and pernicious myth, despite being soundly refuted by things like arsenic and hemlock and rattlesnake venom, has become a mainstay in 21st Century conventional wisdom. Who needs Western medicine when the Chinese have been eating and boiling weeds for 3,000 years?

There can't be a more horrible offense than the sexual exploitation of children. Researchers in Sweden are investigating whether chemical castration could work as a preventive approach, rather than as treatment after the damage is done.

Two performance-enhancing drug scandals, one involving tennis players and the other the Russian Olympic sports complex, are seemingly unconnected. That is, until you consider how both relate to Maria Sharapova, the tennis star who's currently serving a suspension for using the banned substance, meldonium, which helps oxygen uptake and endurance.

Sequencing a genome is quick and inexpensive, but a DNA sequence alone is not useful if we can't interpret the information that it holds. New research has developed an analysis using yeast that has the ability to determine whether a genetic mutation causes a disease. This work may help narrow the gap between having information and being able to use it to diagnose and treat patients.

Drexel University scientists have dressed their nanoparticle with tumor-fighting success, by using polyethylene glycol as an anchor for an enzyme to break down a tumor's extracellular matrix. That allows chemotherapy drugs to reach the tumor's core.

Obtaining hormonal contraceptives just became considerably easier for California females, as compared to those in 47 other states in the nation. A new law allows women and girls, irrespective of age, to get birth control materials without first having to visit a primary care physician. Instead, they can simply go to their local pharmacist.

When Wall Street Journal reporter Serena Ng decides to clean house, she doesn't kid around. After she caught the folks running Jessica Alba's (dis)Honest Company lying through their veneers about what's in its "natural" products, she wasn't done. Now her spotlight is on another ethically-challenged operation.

In an article published in Pediatrics, researchers found that an acute episode of smoking by lactating mothers altered infants’ sleep/wake patterning. This, combined with the adverse physiological effects nicotine-saturated breast milk has on babies, one would think bottle feeding would be recommended among this cohort. It's not.

Canada, like the United States, provides some dietary guidance for its citizens. And like in the U.S., not everyone north of the boarder is happy with the result, despite the fact that they're also experiencing a similar obesity epidemic. Maybe the angst stems from the "latest" Canadian Food Guide, which came out in 2007 and could use an update.

Newsweek journalist loses his mind, Mother Jones coincidentally defends them immediately
A journalist demanding that another journalist not use a science site as a source? Someone not only doesn't want us to talk about science they happen not to accept, they demand that everyone else suppress us also? If it sounds weirdly social authoritarian, yeah, it is, but unsurprising in modern corporate media.

If you're taking vitamin C, odds are that you probably have some kind of adorable, picture-perfect place in your mind about where the supplement comes from, and how it is made. Time to substitute that picture for the real thing.

Most people take for granted the notion that eating butter leads to a bad heart. As a result, many have turned to vegetable oil as a healthy cooking alternative. Yet a new study stands among many others in showing that the opposite may be true: butter, in fact, could be better for our health than vegetable oils. So, all in all, the jury is still out.

Babies begin to learn language sounds before they’re even born. In the womb, a mother’s voice is one of the most prominent sounds that's heard. And, as research scientist Naja Ferjan Ramirez writes, at birth newborns can even distinguish between their mother’s language and another.

Environmental groups really dislike the weed killer 2,4-D. So much so, that they routinely play the "let's scare the public by calling it something else" game. What are the rules? Just make sure that whenever 2,4-D is mentioned, also refer to dioxin and Agent Orange so that everyone thinks they're the same. But they aren't. Not even close.

To cope with high pollen levels during vigorous exercise should an athlete pop a couple of antihistamines? There’s no definitive answer, but new research finds that 27 percent of genes activated after vigorous exercise become blunted in their responses during a three-hour recovery period, if exercisers had taken strong doses of antihistamines.

Can where you eat determine your calorie consumption? Would a fast-food restaurant, such as McDonald's or Burger King, lead to over-consumption compared to a "fast-casual" site, like Chipotle or Panera? New research suggests the opposite.

A potential breakthrough in developing a vaccine against Clostridum difficile infections has been achieved by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. “C. diff” is the causative agent of a nasty diarrheal illness that has plagued healthcare facilities the world over.

Unlike draping yourself in velvet, which is not socially acceptable, silk remains perfectly fashionable. In fact, it is all the rage at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University, where a research group led by David Kaplan is literally wrapping silk around everything it can get its hands on.