Health & Medicine

Health & Medicine

Running barefoot blunts foot’s force

A new study finds that going shoeless tempers impact but can’t say whether this difference reduces injuries.

Humans

Cigarettes might be infectious

Science & Society blog: The tobacco in cigarettes hosts a bacterial bonanza — literally hundreds of different germs, including those responsible for many human illnesses, a new study finds.

Health & Medicine

Searing the heart for the better

Electrode-tipped catheter destroys heart tissue to stifle atrial fibrillation, sometimes performing better than meds, study shows.

Health & Medicine

Millions of women at risk of malaria during pregnancy

Potential problems include undetected illness and anemia in mothers, stillbirth and low birth weight in newborns,

Life

MRSA bacterial strain mutates quickly as it spreads

Antibiotic-resistant microbe's detailed family tree reveals roots of the global infection.

Life

Protein may be new target for obesity, diabetes therapies

Molecule regulates flip of a metabolic switch, helps determine how the body uses glucose.

Earth

BPA is regulated . . . sort of

Food and Drug Administration officials “say they are powerless to regulate BPA” because of a quirk in their rules, according to a story that ran Sunday in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It comes from a reporter who has made an award-winning habit of documenting the politics that have helped make the hormone-mimicking bisphenol-A a chemical of choice for many manufacturers.

Health & Medicine

Benefits of omega-3 fatty acids tally up

A study of patients with sepsis and a second in people with heart disease suggest the fish oil compound may aid health.

Health & Medicine

BPA and babies: Feds acknowledge concerns

Federal health and research officials outlined new guidance today for parents on the use of plastics made from bisphenol-A, a hard, clear plastic. Their bottom line: Minimize BPA-based products that could make contact with foods or drinks that infants or toddlers might consume — especially hot foods and drinks. But the Food and Drug Administration stopped short of recommending that parents pitch baby bottles and sippy cups made from BPA. Nor did it call for parents to avoid processed infant formulas and baby foods — some of which it acknowledges are contaminated with traces of BPA.

Health & Medicine

Study supports connection between BPA and heart disease

U.S. population data reveal possible relationship between cardiovascular risk and plastics chemical.

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.