Search results

We all know aerobic exercise -- running, swimming, walking briskly -- is good for the heart. Apparently it's also good for the brain, too. Researchers wanted to know what happens to the brains of older folks who exercised vigorously and often, if they stopped exercising. The report of their study was published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

When it comes to picking produce at the grocery store, don't judge a book by its cover! Spotted fruits and veggies aren't spoiled or harmful — they've simply been through a lot, and they need a little TLC.
 
 

The American Academy of Pediatrics wants to guide clinicians on “Countering Vaccine Hesitancy” among parents. This policy statement, published in the journal Pediatrics, rightly champions vaccination as "one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century." There is just one problem; pediatricians actually don't need more guidelines and protocols.

Roughly 1 in 3 women douche, but there is no good health reason to do so. Douching can change the makeup of the bacteria that normally live in the vagina, and it can even make women more susceptible to STDs. Now, researchers have added another concern: Douching appears to increase the risk of infection with HPV (human papillomavirus), which causes cervical cancer. 

Sometimes drugs behave very well. They do what they are supposed to do, and do it well, maybe even without side effects. We are fortunate to have one of these that works against a very common infection — herpes simplex virus.

Over the course of the past few weeks Mylan has replaced Turing and Valeant as the most scrutinized and critiqued pharmaceutical companies in the United States. Though politicians and pundits have claimed the problem is Big Pharma, the issue of price-gouging is far more pervasive among generic drugs.

We understand that a hungry child needs help and that school systems are socially efficient means of providing this assistance. But really: criticizing school principals for prioritizing academics over meals? What's next -- McDonald’s stressing reading over Happy Meals? 

Fortification of enriched grain foods with the B vitamin folate has been mandated in the U.S. and Canada since 1998. Since then, the prevalence of central nervous system defects in babies has decreased, as was the purpose of the fortification. A recent Canadian study indicates that such fortification has also reduced the prevalence of several heart malformation — an unexpected benefit.

Breastfed babies who consume a particular type of sugar in their milk are more likely to be protected from colonization by Group B Streptococcus — a bacteria, which is a major cause of meningitis and other serious ailments in newborns. These sugars — oligosaccharides — are thought to encourage the growth of non-pathogenic bacteria in the baby's GI tract which, in effect, "crowds out" the dangerous ones.

A new study confirms something that we believed was true, yet couldn't be sure of. Research published online in the journal Pediatrics concludes that when concussion victims are removed more quickly from physical activity after a collision and have additional time to recover before resuming play, the intervention significantly speeds recovery time and reduces concussive symptoms.

A vaccine for herpes? Is it possible? Maybe.

While you were out barefoot skiing this summer, we were holding down the fort in steamy Manhattan, defending evidence-based science and medicine and debunking hype. (But we're not complaining; that's what we do!) So, in case you missed it, here are the top 10 most popular articles we published this summer.

In an effort to halt what some pediatricians are calling a rising tide in vaccine hesitancy, the American Academy of Pediatrics have released a statement urging states to crack down on parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. The recommendations go as far as stating that pediatricians reserve the right to exclude anti-vaccine families from the practice who refuse to change their minds.

What is precision medicine?
Precision medicine stands to be the future of healthcare. A future painted as delivering personalized medicine and targeted therapies, doing away with the one-size-fits-all approach and exploiting the root cause of a disease to find curative/therapeutic options. It’s a beautiful, grand concept, that the current medical and scientific world’s infrastructure is simply not prepared for to be more than a concept.

Gallup's recent poll on race relations asked a loaded question and lacked a control group. This is a recipe for very bad social science.

Perhaps the most debilitating part of breast cancer treatment is chemotherapy. A new report by an international team of researchers suggests a means of more precisely determining which patients do or do not require chemotherapy.

When I was still in school, the rule-of-thumb for the human microbiome was that bacteria outnumbered human cells 10-to-1. Not so, say the authors of a new PLoS Biology paper, who re-crunched the numbers. According to their estimate, the ratio is much closer to 1-to-1.

What explains such a rapid rise in price for a drug that has been off-patent for years?

The same product as last year, but now $600. Credit: Mylan

The FDA just released a list of 25 eating establishments in California, Texas and Oklahoma that received – and may have already served – tuna steaks that tested positive for hepatitis A. The agency is urging those who ate either raw or undercooked tuna from these restaurants within the last two weeks to receive a post-exposure vaccine.

Although most images of sleeping babies are cute, all too frequently they portray an unsafe sleeping environment containing pillows, stuffed animals, blankets – with the babies placed stomach down. All of this sends the wrong message to new parents. But a new educational campaign from the New York City Department of Health is trying to correct this problem.
 

Bourdain, the bad boy chef turned journalist, is far more effective than any of the marches, or journalist headlines or thought pieces. It's hard not to come away from watching his CNN program without a new found respect for the work of scientists.

Childbirth is an unpredictable, sometimes traumatic event – in even the best of situations. Fortunately, most babies do quite well. Now, imagine having a condition where the act itself causes innumerable bones to break, making it life-threatening. 

Reducing sodium consumption to ward off hypertension, stroke and heart disease has been the goal of nutritionists for many years. They warned that much of the sodium intake comes not from the salt added at the table, but from processed foods. But a new study indicates that the sodium content of such foods has decreased over a recent 15-year period.

Federal health officials have identified a clear link between the increase in domesticated chickens and the rise in Salmonella incidents. And the statistics indicate that close contact with these adorable chicks and egg-laying birds is accelerating the spread of disease to humans in the home.