Health & Medicine

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. Health & Medicine

    How antipsychotic drugs can cause weight gain

    A study of mice has identified a biological mechanism by which medications called atypical antipsychotics cause people to gain weight.

    By Ben Harder
  10. Health & Medicine

    Fixes for Fatty Liver

    A slate of experimental treatments, including three established diabetes drugs, could become medicines for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, an obesity-related cause of cirrhosis.

    By Ben Harder
  11. Health & Medicine

    Of Bamboo and French Fries

    A bamboo extract can limit the formation of a carcinogen in baked and fried foods.

    By Janet Raloff
  12. Health & Medicine

    Virus Stopper: Herpes drug dampens HIV infection

    An antiviral drug commonly taken for genital herpes seems to suppress HIV in people harboring both pathogens.

    By Nathan Seppa