Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    You’re Feeling Sleepy . . . : Anesthetics activate brain’s sleep switch

    Anesthesia's sedative effect may depend on activating sleep circuits in the brain.

    By
  2. Health & Medicine

    Flower Power: Corn lily compound stops cancer in mice

    A new study in mice suggests that cyclopamine, a plant derivative that causes birth defects in animals, can inhibit medulloblastoma, a brain cancer in children.

    By
  3. Health & Medicine

    Lost and found

    Researchers have shown that a drug may shepherd a mutated protein—gone astray in people with cystic fibrosis—into its proper place.

    By
  4. Health & Medicine

    Processing corn boosts antioxidants

    Cooking sweet corn increases its disease-fighting antioxidant activity, despite decreasing its vitamin C content.

    By
  5. Health & Medicine

    Inflammatory Ideas

    Researchers are gathering evidence that inflammation precedes and predicts diabetes.

    By
  6. Health & Medicine

    Hear, Hear

    A 14-year study of twin babies shows definitively for the first time that there's a link between middle ear infections and heredity.

    By
  7. Health & Medicine

    Marrow Can Hide Breast Cancer Cells

    Breast cancer patients who have stray cancer cells in bone marrow are more likely to die of cancer or have a recurrence of cancer elsewhere in the body than are breast cancer patients not harboring such cells.

    By
  8. Health & Medicine

    Surgery Guide

    Designed for patients and their families, physicians, and students, this Web site provides detailed information about a variety of common surgical procedures, ranging from hernia repair to LASIK for vision correction. Illuminating diagrams and cutting-edge animation accompany each description of a type of surgery. Go to: http://yoursurgery.com/index.cfm

    By
  9. Health & Medicine

    Tracking signs of memory loss

    A new imaging agent may allow researchers to detect the plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease before symptoms are present, when therapies may be most effective.

    By
  10. Health & Medicine

    Cooking Up a Carcinogen

    The discovery that acrylamide—a known animal carcinogen—forms in many foods as they fry or bake has prompted the development of an international research network to investigate whether it poses a threat.

    By
  11. Health & Medicine

    Pancreatic enzymes may play role in shock

    Pancreatic enzymes used for digestion may cause shock when they leach out of the small intestine and form a substance that activates white blood cells.

    By
  12. Health & Medicine

    Budding Tastes: Higher blood pressure in newborns links to salt preference

    Babies who tolerate a salty flavor have higher blood pressure on average than their less tolerant counterparts do.

    By