Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
Conduit to the Brain: Particles enter the nervous system via the nose
Tiny airborne particles can apparently infiltrate the brain by shimmying up the nerve that governs smell.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Cluster Buster: Might a simple sugar derail Huntington’s?
A study in mice with a disease resembling Huntington's shows that a simple sugar impedes the protein aggregation that kills brain cells.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Viruses depend on shocking proteins
To replicate within a cell, a bird virus must force the cell to make certain proteins.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Drugs slow aging in worms
Drugs that defuse so-called free radicals lengthen a worm's life span by more than 50 percent.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Some psychoactive drugs ease harsh PMS
Drugs such as widely prescribed Prozac can relieve a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Drug spares eggs from early death
A newly discovered drug that prevents radiation from hastening egg cell death in mice might also prevent some human cancer patients from suffering sterility and premature menopause.
By Laura Sivitz - Health & Medicine
Diabetes: Coffee and Caffeine Appear Protective
Most studies over the past decade have painted tea as a therapeutic beverage and coffee as its dastardly counterpart–a brew that challenges weak hearts and joints. However, such black-and-white characterizations appear to have overstated coffee’s dark side. New data now indicate that drinking java–lots of it, and especially the caffeinated form–can curb type II diabetes. […]
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Clear Airways: Quelling a protein stops mucus overload
By interfering with a protein that earlier research implicated in mucus secretion, scientists have countered overstimulation of mucus secretion in the airways of mice.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Could refrigeration explain Crohn’s rise?
Crohn's disease, marked by inflammation of the small intestine, could be caused by refrigeration of meats, a process that selects for hardy bacteria that handle cold temperatures well, researchers hypothesize.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Age-related anemia hastens death
People who develop low concentrations of iron-containing hemoglobin in their blood as they get older are at elevated risk for serious medical problems and early death.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Thalidomide-like drug treats blood disorder
A novel drug appears to help people with myelodysplasia, a persistent condition that leaves them short of crucial blood components.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Novel drug fights leukemia
An experimental drug helps a small but significant fraction of people with acute myeloid leukemia and causes minimal side effects.
By Ben Harder