A third vaccine against herpes has entered the race, and it's gotten some rave reviews for its protection of guinea pigs. But it didn't so well with monkeys. Which is more important? Testing in humans will decide, but the answer won't be known for about two years.
Drugs & Pharmaceuticals
Pharmaceutical companies usually provide innovation that helps improve the lives of patients. But AstraZeneca marketed Nexium, a drug that should have never been approved in the first place. The company did it solely for money — without any benefit to society – and it hauled in nearly $48 billion during the past decade.
In 1976, Barry Kidston, a chemistry grad student, would find out the hard way that you had better be careful with your reaction conditions when making psychoactive drugs. He got a little sloppy, and instead of making a pure derivative of Demerol, got an impurity in the batch, which gave him Parkinson's with one injection. Six years later, a group of six "frozen addicts" suffered the same fate. Crazy brain chemistry.
Don't put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear — good advice that's often ignored. Earwax serves a useful purpose and unless it's causing significant symptoms should be left alone, according to the American Academy of Otolarygologists.
After being bitten by a mosquito, who among us hasn’t been tormented by the resulting itch? Now, imagine that intensity and urge to scratch spread over your entire body, in a constant and unrelenting fashion – night and day. This condition has a name: chronic generalized pruritus.
Things aren’t always what they seem – especially in the medical realm. That's precisely what surgeons in Japan discovered when performing an emergency appendectomy. Brain tissue ... in ovaries?!
Rational Vaccines claims the next set of clinical trials for its Theravax vaccine candidate might be held in Mexico.
A recent article in The Washington Post warned us that the "Dreaded ‘stomach flu’ wreaks havoc on families — and it’s only going to get worse." Is this true, or were they just trying to sell more newspapers?
Vital signs matter. And they matter most when they're collected correctly and they provide accurate data. Dismiss them, or do them incorrectly, and the erroneous information will likely result in harmful medical decisions made on your behalf.
Recently an important paper — one which had the potential to revolutionize the treatment of type 1 diabetes — was retracted because its results could not be replicated. Far from being a negative incident, this is the way that science should be done.
RNA-based treatments for select genetic diseases have made major headlines in the last few months by receiving FDA approval and giving hope to families of suffering children.
The overdose epidemic sweeping the nation is hitting some demographics harder than others. Heroin overdose deaths began to skyrocket in 2010. New data shows that of all groups, older millennials, those aged 25-34, are the likeliest to die from a heroin overdose.