Health & Medicine

Health & Medicine

First-Line Treatment: Chronic-leukemia drug clears a big hurdle

In its first large-scale test on newly diagnosed leukemia patients, the drug imatinib—also called Gleevec and STI-571—stopped or reversed the disease in nearly all patients receiving it.

Health & Medicine

Visionary science for the intestine

A tiny disposable flash camera that a person swallows can detect problems in the small intestine.

Health & Medicine

Bone scan reveals estrogen effects

Using a scanning technology called microcomputerized tomography, scientists have a new way to look at the difference between bone exposed to estrogen and bone deprived of it.

Health & Medicine

Imaging Parkinson’s

A new brain-imaging technique can supply proof of Parkinson's disease in people whose symptoms fall short of the standard definition of the disease.

Health & Medicine

Zapping bone brings relief from tumor pain

By unleashing radio waves inside bone, researchers have stopped intractable pain in people with cancer that has spread to their skeletons.

Health & Medicine

Bilirubin: Both villain and hero?

Bilirubin, which causes jaundice in newborns, may protect against cellular damage.

Health & Medicine

In Silico Medicine

Medical researchers are increasingly turning to computer simulations to help them understand the complexity of living systems, design better drugs, and treat patients more effectively.

Health & Medicine

Home Cooking on the Wane

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Passover are among the few holidays on which home-cooked meals remain the norm. On most other days of the year, a large and growing share of U.S. diners happily leave the cooking of at least one meal to professionals. Eating in. Eating out. Home cooking used to signify meals with a healthy […]

Health & Medicine

Cluster Bombs: Metabolic syndrome tied to heart disease deaths

Men with a certain cluster of metabolic characteristics are about three times as likely to die of heart disease as men without the traits are.

Health & Medicine

Jarring Result: Extreme biking can hurt men’s fertility

Men who maintain grueling mountain-bicycling programs are apt to have lower sperm counts than nonbikers are.

Health & Medicine

Keeping the beat

Muscle cells taken from embryonic rats and put into an adult rat's heart can transmit the electric signals that govern the heartbeat.

Health & Medicine

Cycling and surgery have similar effect

Among people with chest pain because of clogged heart arteries, regular exercise on a stationary bike reduced symptoms better than surgery did.