Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2011

Will Bill Clinton Turn You into a Vegan?

Former President Bill Clinton dropped another bombshell confession last week on CNN with the admission that he is... and I hope you are sitting down for this... a vegan. He has tried tofu, tempeh and seitan, and he has inhaled. And the results have been spectacular: Clinton, who had quadruple...

Jun 30, 2011

Study Finds Why We Crave Chips & Fries

It's hard to eat just one potato chip, and a new study may explain why. Fatty foods like chips and fries trigger the body to produce chemicals much like those found in marijuana, researchers report today (July 4) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). These...

Jun 30, 2011

Benign Brain Tumors Not Linked to Cell Phones

Using a cell phone for many years does not increase the risk of developing a benign type of brain tumor, a new Danish study finds. Those in the study who used cell phones for 11 years or more were no more likely to develop these tumors, known as vestibular schwannomas,...

Jun 30, 2011

DNA Molecules Harnessed as Test Tube Computers

Supercomputers, robots and the human brain represent the artifacts of a long evolutionary chain stretching back to a soupy mass of molecules floating in Earth's oceans billions of years ago. Now researchers have gone back to the primordial ooze by creating a new type of artificial intelligence based on DNA...

Jun 30, 2011

Want a Big Brain? Head North

Brains are larger in those who live farther from the equator — in order to help them see better, researchers now suspect. Scientists have long known that brain volume increases with latitude — that is, the closer one gets to the poles. That might be mistaken for implying that intelligence...

Jun 30, 2011

Mental Disorder Behind Many Nose Job Patients

Many of the people who get nose jobs have a mental illness in which they obsess over a mostly imaginary bodily flaw, a new Belgian study suggests. People with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) can't stop obsessing over their appearance, and they have an exaggerated perception of a flaw that is...

Jun 30, 2011

The Five Healthiest Backyard Weeds

Do you have the summer gardening blues? Has the heat wave turned your cucumbers vines into rope and left your tomatoes as brown as the cracked dirt they're growing in? Fear not. You likely have weeds in your garden or in your neighborhood that are striving in the heat and...

May 31, 2011

New Male Birth Control Concept Shows Promise

Equality for men may be on the horizon, contraceptive equality, that is. For just over a half century, women have been able to pop a pill to prevent pregnancy, but a pharmaceutical alternative has never emerged for men. Now, research to interfere with the body's ability to use vitamin A...

May 31, 2011

Experts Yo-Yo on Health Benefits of Yo-Yo Diet

Losing weight and gaining it right back again is better for your health than remaining obese, according to a new study in mice. The findings suggest so-called yo-yo dieting is not as bad for your health as once thought. Mice in the study that were put on a yo-yo diet...

May 31, 2011

Arsenic in Chicken Leads to Stopped Drug Sales: FDA

The company that manufactures an animal drug that has been used since the 1940s to fatten up chickens is voluntarily halting sales of the drug, following a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report. Alpharma, a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc., will voluntarily suspend U.S. sales of the animal drug 3-Nitro (Roxarsone)...

May 31, 2011

Underrepresented: Older Women and Media

A new study finds that even in magazines with significant proportions of older readers, youth rules. University of Georgia gerontologist Denise Lewis and colleagues analyzed the December 2007 issues of eight popular fashion magazines, advertisements, articles, fashion spreads and all. (December was chosen because pre-holiday issues tend to be the...

May 31, 2011

Top 5 Ways to Reduce Toxins in Homes

Canadian health and environmental experts have issued a list today of the best ways to reduce five common sources of toxins associated with child health risks. Expectant and new parents, in particular, need practical advice to help them safeguard their children from health risks — such as learning and behavioral...

May 31, 2011

How Likely Is Your Partner to Cheat?

A fear of sexual failure combined with a lack of concern about sexual consequences makes both men and women more likely to cheat on their partners, a new study finds. While it may seem counterintuitive that someone with performance anxiety would seek out something extra on the side, insecure cheaters...

May 31, 2011

Over-the-Counter Drug for Insomnia & Incontinence Can Kill

Common over-the counter and prescription medications known as anticholinergics can cause cognitive impairment and can lead to death, a new study says. The group includes over-the-counter products containing diphenhydramine, prescription sleep aids and incontinence treatments, many of which are frequently taken by older adults, the researchers said. Physicians should review...

May 31, 2011

FAQ: The FDA and Avastin

There's been a lot of back-and-forth regarding the use of Avastin for breast cancer. Here are answers to some questions you may have about the cancer drug: Why is Avastin getting so much attention right now? In 2008 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Avastin to treat...