Latest science news in Health & Medicine
Fist bumps spread fewer bacteria than handshakes
Fist bumping spreads far fewer bacteria than a handshake or a high five, a new study shows.
New pill regimens cure hardest-to-treat hepatitis C patients
Scientists have now identified a simple, pill-only treatment for hepatitis C that can cure 93 percent of patients in 12 weeks. This replaces a long and complicated treatment with many...
What's in It?: Coconut Water Changes Its Claims
The drink was once billed as a remedy for a number of health problems. But its marketers have changed their tune.
New drug target can break down cancer's barrier against treatment
Targeting a molecule in blood vessels can make cancer therapy significantly more effective, according to research. Researchers have found that a molecule, called focal adhesion kinase (FAK), signals the body...
Drugs used to treat lung disease work with body clock
Scientists have discovered why medication to treat asthma and pneumonia can become ineffective. The findings show that drugs widely used to treat lung diseases work with the body clock. The...
Surgical safety program greatly reduces surgical site infections for heart operations
A common postoperative complication after open heart operations -- infection at the surgical site -- has been reduced by 77 percent at a Canadian hospital through its participation in the...
Six new genetic risk factors for Parkinson's found
Using data from over 18,000 patients, scientists have identified more than two dozen genetic risk factors involved in Parkinson's disease, including six that had not been previously reported. "Unraveling the...
Lifestyle choices may affect long-term heart health of childhood cancer survivors
Following a healthy lifestyle may lower childhood cancer survivors’ risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, a study shows. The findings indicate that children with cancer and adults who had cancer...
Hepatitis C virus genotype 1 most prevalent worldwide
In one of the largest prevalence studies to date, researchers from the UK provide national, regional, and global genotype prevalence estimates for the hepatitis C virus. Findings indicate that genotype...
Aviation safety by the numbers
2014 has already broken the improving aviation safety pattern of recent years. The death toll so far this year already surpasses the number for each of the three previous years....
Breakthrough in coccidiosis research
Biological researchers at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) are a step closer to finding a new cost-effective vaccine for the intestinal disease, coccidiosis, which can have devastating effects on poultry...
DORA Science Coalition Greets New 2014 Journal Impact Factors (JIFs) With New "JIF-Less" Assessment Site
"JIF Day" is late this year and the DORA "anti-JIF" coalition of scientists and journal editors is greeting the delayed arrival this week of the 2014 Journal Impact Factor (JIFs)...
On the Hundredth Anniversary of the Start of World War I, Remembering the Part Animals Played
Ten million men died during the 1914-18 conflict—and so did eight million horses.
Mmm … Chocolate Cake! Why Some People Struggle to Resist Cravings
Brain activity can predict the likelihood that people will give in to their food cravings, new research shows.
IVF technique that tests embryos for genetic disorders has first success
UK doctors report first pregnancy from new procedure in couple who had high risk of passing on lethal disease to their child Continue reading...
Open access: effective measures to put UK research online under threat?
The universities of the UK should not squander the opportunity to put in place an effective mechanism for making their published research freely available Continue reading...
Fear of Ebola Breeds a Terror of Physicians
Health workers with Doctors Without Borders have been threatened with knives, stones and machetes by Guineans who believe they are the cause of the virus’s spread.
Virus drugmaker fights pediatricians' new advice
CHICAGO (AP) -- A costly drug given mostly to premature babies is at the center of a clash between the manufacturer and the nation's leading pediatrician's...
How To Distinguish Psoriasis From Eczema
In some patients, the chronic inflammatory skin diseases psoriasis and eczema are so similar that dermatologists have had to examine tissue samples but a team of researchers at the Helmholtz...
Pavlov Would Be Proud: Teach The Brain To Feel Less Pain
People can be conditioned to feel less pain when they hear a neutral sound, new research from the University of Luxembourg has found. This lends weight to the idea that...
Bobby Brown rejoins New Edition tour
Danielle HaynesLOS ANGELES, July 27 (UPI) -- Bobby Brown rejoins New Edition summer tour after having a heart stent procedure.
Scott Disick: No drinking until Kourtney Kardashian gives birth
Danielle HaynesLOS ANGELES, July 27 (UPI) -- Scott Disick agrees to give up drinking until Kourtney Kardashian gives birth to their third child.
Cachexia Is The Real Cause Of Death In One Third Of Patients With Cancer - Study
It isn't the tumor that kills up to a third of cancer patients, according to a new study, it's the indirect effects triggered by a process that is heavily studied...
Boot camp bug
Adenoviruses, which cause respiratory illnesses including some colds, plague boot camps.
Genetic switch discovered that can prevent peripheral vascular disease in mice
Millions of people in the United States have a circulatory problem of the legs called peripheral vascular disease. It can be painful and may even require surgery in serious cases....
Mobile tech reshaping the health sector
Your smartphone is not only your best friend, it's also become your personal trainer, coach, medical lab and maybe even your doctor.
Getting Ahead of HIV (Op-Ed)
When AIDS first emerged in the early 1980s, HIV infection was a death sentence. But a global effort has ensured this is no longer the case for a growing number...
Your Money: Insurance Coverage for Fertility Treatments Varies Widely
From 2006 to 2010, 7.4 million women used infertility services, like an evaluation by a specialist, drug therapy or in vitro fertilization.