Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Bacteria Brew a B Vitamin Boost

    When looking for naturally rich sources of cobalamin, better known as vitamin B12, most people turn to meats. Because the essential nutrient generally isn’t present in plants, vegetarians run the risk of deficiency, which can cause neurological symptoms from tingling toes to disorientation and memory problems. Many of these people therefore turn to synthetic supplements […]

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis

    Women who consume little vitamin D develop multiple sclerosis at a rate about 50 percent higher than those who get lots of the nutrient.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Drug fails in autism study

    In the most extensive test so far of its capability to treat autism, the controversial drug secretin has failed to help children with the neurological disorder.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Telltale Charts

    Overturning a basic tenet of conventional wisdom in cardiology, new research suggests that more than half the people who develop heart disease first show one of the warning signs of smoking, having diabetes, or having high blood pressure or cholesterol.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    A Swiss Paradox?

    Gstaad, Switzerland, has gained renown for its challenging ski trails and celebrity sightings. Come summer, however, the area’s slopes host cows, not skiers. It now appears that milk from those cows produces cheeses rich in some heart-healthy nutrients. Where and on what Bossie grazes appears to make a big difference in heart-healthiness of cheeses made […]

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Arsenic helps tumors, blood vessels grow

    Rather than being a potential antitumor agent, arsenic may actually help a tumor's supporting network of blood vessels thrive.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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. […]

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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