Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2015

'Body by Darwin: How Evolution Shapes Our Health and Transforms Medicine' (US 2015): Book Excerpt

Jeremy Taylor is author of Body by Darwin: How Evolution Shapes Our Health and Transforms Medicine (University of Chicago Press, 2015), a former career science television documentary maker with the BBC, and author of Not A Chimp: The Hunt For The Genes That Make Us Human (OUP, 2009). He contributed...

Nov 30, 2015

Risk of Stillbirth Raised by Weight Gain Between Pregnancies

Weight gain between pregnancies may increase the risk of stillbirth or infant death, a new study from Sweden suggests. The researchers analyzed information from more than 450,000 women who had two pregnancies between 1992 and 2012. Women whose body mass index (BMI) increased by more than 4 points between pregnancies...

Nov 30, 2015

What Clues Does Your Dog's Spit Hold for Human Mental Health?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Dogs were the first animals people domesticated, long before the earliest human civilizations appeared. Today, tens of thousands of years later, dogs have an unusually close relationship with us....

Nov 30, 2015

Why Are There So Many Bob Dylan Lyrics in Medical Lit? The Answer, My Friend…

Hey, Mr. Scientist man: Bob Dylan references in biomedical literature have increased exponentially since 1990, a new study finds. In the study, the researchers conducted a search of the biomedical papers published through May 2015 and found 213 references unequivocally citing the singer/songwriter. The earliest citation dated back to 1970,...

Nov 30, 2015

Shingles Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke

A bout of shingles may increase your risk for other serious health conditions — namely, a stroke or a heart attack — a new study finds. People in the study who had shingles, a disease caused by the herpes zoster virus, faced a 2.4-fold increased risk of stroke, and a...

Nov 30, 2015

MERS Vaccine Protects Camels, Which Is Good for People

A vaccine that protects against the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has been shown to be effective in camels, a new study finds. The vaccine, which was developed by German scientists, reduces the amount of the virus found in the camels infected with the disease, according to...

Nov 30, 2015

Ingredients of Plague Risk in Western US Identified

Small outbreaks of the plague still occur in the western United States, and now new research shows these clusters don't happen at random. Instead, they tend to pop up in areas that have certain mix of climates, animals and elevation, a new study finds. Every year, an average of seven...

Oct 31, 2015

Man Dies After Tapeworm Inside Him Gets Cancer

A Colombian man's lung tumors turned out to have an extremely unusual cause: The rapidly growing masses weren't actually made of human cells, but were from a tapeworm living inside him, according to a report of the case. This is the first known report of a person becoming sick from...

Oct 31, 2015

A 'Natural' Herb Can be Poisonous, Woman Learns

Herbal remedies that are touted as natural may not always be safe, as a new report shows: A woman in the United Kingdom who was trained in using herbs experienced severe symptoms of poisoning after she accidentally overdosed on a medicine called deadly nightshade. When the 50-year-old woman was admitted...

Oct 31, 2015

The Great Salt Debate: How Much Sodium Is Too Much for Your Diet?

ORLANDO, Fla. — Americans eat, on average, more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium each day — much more than the 2,300-mg current recommended limit for many people. But whether this amount increases a person's risk of heart disease is now being hotly debated by researchers. There's no doubt that eating...

Oct 31, 2015

US Uterus Transplants: 6 Things to Know

Ten women in the United States will soon be chosen to undergo the nation's first uterus transplants, as part of a study at the Cleveland Clinic. Doctors at the hospital hope to perform the first uterus transplant in the next few months, according to the New York Times. The procedure...

Oct 31, 2015

Coffee Drinkers, Perk Up: 1 to 5 Cups Daily May Reduce Risk of Early Death

Coffee drinkers may have more reasons to enjoy another cup, as a large new study suggests that people who drink up to five cups of regular or decaffeinated coffee daily may be slightly less likely to die early from any cause or certain chronic conditions. Men and women in the...

Oct 31, 2015

Expectant Moms: Coffee Won't Harm Kids' IQ

Pregnant women, perk up! It's okay to indulge in your morning cup of coffee without worrying about it affecting your child's IQ, a new study finds. In the study, researchers found that children born to women who consumed caffeine while pregnant did not have lower IQs or more behavior problems...

Oct 31, 2015

Round for Round: Women's Drinking Rates Catching Up to Men's

Men still drink more than women in the United States, but the gap is closing, a new report finds. Over the decade-long period between 2002 and 2012, the percentage of U.S. women who reported drinking in the past month increased, and so did the the average number of days that...

Oct 31, 2015

Costco Chicken Salad Linked to E. Coli Outbreak in 7 States

An outbreak of E. coli bacteria tied to chicken salad sold at Costco has sickened 19 people in seven states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the E. coli-related illnesses have occurred in Western states — including Utah, Colorado, Washington and California — and there...