Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Scarce-Banana Scare—But don’t kiss that banana good-bye yet

    Headlines have been blaring that the banana will be extinct within 10 years but crop specialists say that’s not likely. The furor has called attention, however, to a problem of worldwide banana supply and to the possibility that we’ll be peeling things a little different in 2013. The fuss started with the Jan. 18 New […]

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Blood sugar processing tied to brain problems

    Elderly people with slightly elevated blood sugar are more likely to have short-term memory problems than those with normal blood sugar.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Ulcer Clue? Molecule could be key to stomach ailment

    A protein called Ptprz binds with a bacterial toxin to produce ulcers in mice, possibly revealing a mechanism for the disorder.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Light could be therapy against blindness

    Beaming red light at rats soon after they've drunk methanol partially protects their eyes against that chemical's blinding effects.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Miscarriages foretell heart trouble

    Women who spontaneously lose one or more fetuses during early pregnancy are about 50 percent more likely than other women to later suffer ischemic heart disease.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Pregnancy Woe Uncovered: Protein may underlie preeclampsia

    New evidence links a placental protein to preeclampsia symptoms and may lead to new ways of detecting and treating the disease.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Portrait of a cancer drug at work

    Newly revealed protein structures show how a breast cancer drug functions.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Why beer may deter blood clots

    Downing a beer a day alters the structure of fibrinogen, a blood protein active in clotting.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    When Drinking Helps

    Sometimes a nip of alcohol can indeed prove therapeutic, though usually not until middle age.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Edible vaccine spawns antibodies to virus

    Genetically engineered potatoes can deliver an edible vaccine against Norwalk virus, a common diarrhea-causing pathogen.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Bacteria-Stocked Beverage Clears Pathogens from Nose

    Dangerous bacteria often take refuge deep inside peoples noses, where they can remain dormant until they find an opportunity to invade other parts of the body. Perhaps the most important of these stowaway nasal microbes is Staphylococcus aureus, which can spread to wounds and surgical incisions and cause life-threatening blood infections. As many as a […]

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Mixed Results: AIDS vaccine falters in whites, may help blacks

    In its first large test, an AIDS vaccine has failed to shield an at-risk population from acquiring AIDS.

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