Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Common additive thwarts malaria parasite

    Triclosan--a drug used as an antimicrobial agent in toothpaste, deodorant, and other products--kills rodent malaria parasites in mice and human malaria parasites in test-tube studies.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Path to heart health is one with a peel

    Citrus fruits may deserve a more prominent role in the diet. A research team in Canada has just shown that drinking several glasses of orange juice daily can pump up blood concentrations of the so-called good cholesterol. Boosting this high-density-lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol can slow the buildup of artery-clogging plaque (SN: 9/9/89, p. 171). In their […]

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Teeth grinding linked to sleep apnea

    Rhythmic grinding of teeth during sleep occurs at least once a week in as many as 8.2 percent of people.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Lyme vaccine works in a curious way

    Antibodies formed in response to the vaccine against Lyme disease kill the bacteria that cause it while they are still in the deer tick that spreads it.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    It pays to keep those islet cells

    A patient who has inflammation of the pancreas and needs to have the organ removed can avoid getting diabetes if islet cells are salvaged from the pancreas and reimplanted into the liver.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Statins Take On the Brain

    Cholesterol-lowering drugs may also treat or prevent Alzheimer's disease.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    HIV-related viruses still cross species line

    Various potentially dangerous strains of simian immunodeficiency virus exist in wild primates in Africa and are still being spread among people who hunt the animals for meat.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    One-Two Drug Punch Trips Up Leukemia

    A leukemia cell seals its own fate when researchers trap cancer-causing proteins in its nucleus.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    ‘Bug’ spray cuts risk of ear infection

    Spraying “good” bacteria into the nose reduced the incidence of ear infections in children especially prone to such infections.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Medicinal Mimicry

    While researchers tease out the mechanisms behind the ability of inert pills and sham procedures to trigger health benefits, the ethics of using such placebos in medical research trials is coming under increasing scrutiny.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Success clearing clogged arteries

    In the past 10 years, angioplasty and other procedures to unblock clogged arteries have steadily improved, probably due to increasing use of wire-mesh tubes called stents to help patients’ arteries stay open.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    A sticky problem solved

    Researchers have identified a protein integral to making blood clot, a finding they hope will lead to better drugs for preventing clots in people at risk of heart attack or stroke.

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