Health & Medicine
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Health & MedicineInsulin inaction may hurt even nondiabetics
Flawed insulin activity may lead to blood changes that foster atherosclerosis, even in people who don't have diabetes.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineCells profilerate in magnetic fields
Magnetic fields such as those found within a few feet of outdoor electric-power lines could make cells that are vulnerable to cancer behave like tumors.
By Laura Sivitz -
Health & MedicineNerves in heart show damage in Parkinson’s
Some patients with Parkinson's disease also have destruction of nerve terminals in the heart that affects blood pressure.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineFighting cancer from the cabbage patch
Extracts of foods belonging to the cabbage family can block the action of estrogen, a hormone that fuels many cancers.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineStem-cell transplant works on lupus
Severe lupus can be reversed with a transplant of the patient's own bone marrow stem cells, after they're allowed to mature outside the body, and medication that neutralizes self-attacking immune cells.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineOld polio vaccine free of HIV, SIV
Three laboratories analyzing remaining samples of polio vaccine used in the late 1950s find that none contains any human or simian immunodeficiency virus, or chimpanzee DNA—making polio vaccine unlikely to be the cause of the initial HIV outbreak in central Africa.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineBlood-cell transplants slow kidney cancer
A new transplant technique that uses blood transfusions from a sibling combined with decreasing doses of immune-suppressing drugs enables some patients to fight off advanced kidney cancer.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineCan poliovirus fix spinal cord damage?
Scientists have devised a version of the poliovirus that can deliver genes to motor neurons without harming them, a step toward a gene therapy that reawakens idle neurons in people with spinal cord damage.
By Nathan Seppa -
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Health & MedicineCarotid surgery stands test of time
Surgery to remove blockages from the carotid artery in the neck has lasting effects against stroke over several years and even provides some benefit when it's delayed.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineMarrow converted into brain cells
Scientists can now efficiently transform bone marrow into nerve cells.
By John Travis -
Health & MedicineSperm just say NO to egg cells
Sperm fertilizing an egg produce a whiff of nitric oxide.
By John Travis