Just ahead of barbecue season, here's something to stress about: grilling and charring red meat, chicken, and fish at high temps could lead to high blood pressure, according to a recent study from the American Heart Association. But don't cancel your upcoming BBQ invites just yet — it's all in the way you cook your burger, and how often.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control on obesity trends are mixed. Adults – especially women – continued to gain, but the same wasn't true for younger folks. Maybe, just maybe, there's hope on the horizon for diminishing the obesity epidemic.
 

The triclosan commonly found in toothpaste may be able to do a whole lot more than we knew. New research shows that it targets a key enzyme in malaria. And that find could lead to new drugs to combat a disease that kills 500,000 people each year. 

An eye-opening TV report that aired recently featured a service dog that guards its owner from a severe drop in blood pressure, while preventing the resulting falls that can cause concussions. After learning about this wonderfully-skilled dog, it's hard not to reevaluate one's views on the cynical culture surrounding support dogs and their owners.
 

Some parasites "turn down" the host's immune response, and evidence suggests that helminth infection can help patients suffering from allergies, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes. Now, there is evidence that helminths could help treat obesity.

Added sugars are the focus of the latest nutrition culture wars, with articles helping us find "hidden" sugars. You know, the ones listed on the ingredients labels. The problem isn't really added sugar — it's over-consumption.

In 2005 an article indicated that medical care was responsible for 50% of bankruptcies. It became a myth that a new study clearly refutes.

At this time there are about a dozen illicit fentanyl analogs on the street. Has an OD victim taken one of those? Or was it just fentanyl? From China or a medical supplier? Chemistry can answer all of these.

Hollywood tends to depict all seizures with great drama as generalized convulsions. In the real world of an intensive care unit, they can go unnoticed without overt signs. And if the seizures are protracted, they can cause damage. New technology marries music and the mind, to prompt early detection by the untrained.

In service of their ideological agenda, the "abstinence-only" nicotine religion is perfectly happy to withhold potentially life-saving e-cigarettes from smokers. If a few million smokers have to die along the way, those are casualties they're willing to accept in pursuit of their nicotine-free utopia.