Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Balancing Act: Excess steroids during pregnancy may pose risks for offspring

    Heavy amounts of steroids taken during pregnancy can have long-term deleterious effects on offspring, a study of monkeys shows.

    By Nathan Seppa
  2. Health & Medicine

    Risky Flames: Firefighter coronaries spike during blazes

    A disproportionate number of heart disease deaths among firefighters occur during blazes.

    By Brian Vastag
  3. Health & Medicine

    Hepatitis B found in wrestlers’ sweat

    Traces of hepatitis B have turned up in the perspiration of wrestlers, suggesting that the virus could spread to their opponents and teammates.

    By Nathan Seppa
  4. Health & Medicine

    Preemies respond to immunizations

    Babies born prematurely rev up an immune response to two routine childhood vaccines as well as babies who are born full-term.

    By Nathan Seppa
  5. Health & Medicine

    Planting the Seeds for Folate Enrichment

    Florida scientists have engineered tomatoes with 20 times the ordinary amount of folate, making them the most concentrated source of this important vitamin ever measured.

    By Janet Raloff
  6. Health & Medicine

    Brain Fix: Stem cells supply missing enzyme

    Brain stem cells implanted into sick mice restored a missing enzyme and extended life span by 70 percent.

    By Brian Vastag
  7. Health & Medicine

    Emerging bug pilfers DNA

    A virulent bacterium invading U.S. hospitals and the battlefields of the Middle East pilfers its genes from other bacteria.

    By Brian Vastag
  8. Health & Medicine

    Long-Term Threat

    Survivors of a childhood cancer face a sixfold risk of developing a new cancer later in life, compared with people in the general population.

    By Nathan Seppa
  9. Health & Medicine

    Nice Shot: Hepatitis E vaccine passes critical test

    An experimental vaccine for hepatitis E has proved nearly 96 percent protective in a test in Nepalese soldiers.

    By Nathan Seppa
  10. Health & Medicine

    Cocoa compound increases brain blood flow

    Cocoa that retains compounds usually removed to soften the product's flavor can significantly improve blood flow to the brain.

    By Christen Brownlee
  11. Health & Medicine

    A cornea that’s got some nerve

    Researchers have developed a technique to grow corneal tissue that includes nerve cells, an advance that may enable them to test consumer products in lab dishes rather than live animals.

    By Sid Perkins
  12. Health & Medicine

    Fungus produces cancer drug

    Several varieties of fungi that attack hazelnuts produce high quantities of the popular cancer drug paclitaxel.

    By Christen Brownlee