Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Protein protects rat brains from strokes

    Neuroglobin, a protein related to hemoglobin, may protect the brain during strokes.

    By John Travis
  2. Health & Medicine

    Molecule may protect against kidney damage

    People with a gene for the protein called apoE-IV are less likely to have the dangerous complication of kidney failure after a heart-bypass operation than are people who make other versions of the protein.

    By Nathan Seppa
  3. Health & Medicine

    Plot thickens for blood pressure drugs

    A new study counters a recent report that diuretics taken for high blood pressure protect against heart problems better than newer, more expensive drugs.

    By Nathan Seppa
  4. Health & Medicine

    More than a Kick

    Nicotine ramps up activity throughout the body, making the drug a suspect in many tobacco-related ailments.

    By Kendall Morgan
  5. Health & Medicine

    Perk Up Food Flavors with. . .Black Plastic? (with pesto recipe)

    Pesto, a zesty sauce for pasta and spread for crusty breads, typically derives much of its flavor from basil. The fresher this herb, the richer the pesto’s flavor–which is why many people with a pesto passion keep a basil patch outside the kitchen door. USDA scientists compare the yield and quality of identical crop cultivars […]

    By Janet Raloff
  6. Health & Medicine

    Soy Land, Soy Land

    Field of soy in the American Midwest. Having grown up in the heart of the Corn Belt, I can remember childhood visits to kin requiring car rides for hours past fields planted with razor-sharp rows of maize. Even as a preschooler, it was reassuring because I could relate to corn. It was that delicious stuff […]

    By Janet Raloff
  7. Health & Medicine

    Academic Impacts of Vegetarian Childhoods

    Teens are always looking for creative excuses for late homework, low test scores, and waning attention in class. Any who stumbled onto a copy of the September American Journal of Clinical Nutrition may have uncovered the basis for a particularly novel rationalization: “My parents made me a vegetarian.” Plants do not make vitamin B-12, also […]

    By Janet Raloff
  8. Health & Medicine

    Unexpected Sources of Peanut Allergy

    Attention new moms: Some lotions and creams for soothing scaly or irritated skin run the risk of triggering immune reactions in your infant that could lead to a serious food allergy months later. Or so conclude the authors of a new study in England. U.S. products explicitly marketed for use on a baby’s skin, such […]

    By Janet Raloff
  9. Health & Medicine

    Pressurized Pregnancies: Schizophrenia linked to fetal diuretic exposure

    A Danish study has found that pregnant women who take diuretic medication for high blood pressure during the third trimester substantially raise the chances that their unborn children will develop schizophrenia by age 35.

    By Bruce Bower
  10. Health & Medicine

    Tough Nut Is Cracked: Antibody treatment stifles peanut reactions

    Researchers have successfully demonstrated the first preventive drug treatment against peanut allergy.

    By Nathan Seppa
  11. Health & Medicine

    Abortion-cancer link is rejected

    A workshop report concludes that abortions do not increase a woman's chance of developing breast cancer.

    By John Travis
  12. Health & Medicine

    Protective virus ties up HIV docking sites

    A harmless virus that seems to keep HIV infections from progressing to AIDS appears to do so by occupying key molecular receptors on immune cells.

    By Nathan Seppa