Health & Medicine

Health & Medicine

Gene variant might guard against Alzheimer’s, other dementia

Same form has been linked to longevity and ‘good’ cholesterol levels.

Life

Why light makes migraines worse

A new study traces brain wiring to discover why light increases migraine pain.

Health & Medicine

Skip spine stabilization and get to the hospital

Gunshot victims may be more likely to survive if they get to the hospital quickly instead of getting spine stabilization first.

Health & Medicine

Vast majority of teens are sleep-deprived

Most adolescents need at least eight hours of zzzzz’s a night, studies show, and ideally should garner at least nine. A new study tells us just how many kids meet their slumber quota: a whopping 7.6 percent.

Health & Medicine

New test could discern serious condition early after bone marrow transplant

Protein level in blood reveals graft-versus-host disease, may indicate severity of this complication

Health & Medicine

Celebrex combats skin cancer in vulnerable group

Anti-inflammatory drug limits number of tumors in patients with hereditary condition

Humans

Pet tarantulas can pose a hairy threat

A new medical case report reaffirms why even largely non-venomous tarantulas can make questionable pets. Some respond to stress by expelling a cloud of barbed hairs that can lodge in especially vulnerable tissues. Like your eyeball.

Health & Medicine

Texting and driving don’t mix, just as suspected

Sending or receiving messages proves even worse than cell phone calls for young adults on simulators.

Life

Lupus not identical in twins

Differences in DNA methylation may account for why one sibling gets the autoimmune disease while the other stays healthy.

Health & Medicine

2009 Science News of the Year: Nutrition

Natural vanilla extract comes from pods (shown), but most vanillin is synthesized in the lab. Credit: De-Kay/istockphoto That yeast smells good Yeast has long been pressed into service for making beer and bread. Now the fungus has been tapped for a loftier flavor: vanillin, vanilla’s dominant compound (SN: 5/23/09, p. 9). Natural vanilla comes from […]

Health & Medicine

2009 Science News of the Year: Body & Brain

Numbers of passengers arriving from Mexico in March and April 2008 show which cities would have been most vulnerable to H1N1 transmission. Credit : The New England Journal of Medicine ©2009 H1N1 strikes and spreads Like the years 1957 and 1968, 2009 will be known as a pandemic flu year. The springtime eruption of a […]

Health & Medicine

Darker liquor, never sicker

People report feeling worse the next morning after drinking bourbon than after drinking vodka.