In the News

Scientific means to preserve muscle mass and function of astronauts in space do not appear to be able to counter the detrimental effects of microgravity encountered on a long space mission

A combination of exercise, meditation, and a better understanding of your own mind and accountability for your own actions are the keys to weight loss according to Mr. Sherman and his yoga instructor.

Keeping swimmers away from alcohol is a good idea. This is a lesson that should be taken to heart in Russia, where a stunning 2202 people have drowned since the beginning of June.

A 33 foot southern right whale leaped out of the water and landed on a sailboat near Cape Town, South Africa. While the boat's mast was damaged, nobody, including the whale, was injured.

The man was clearly intoxicated; he said he had come to town looking for some action, had used some cocaine, alcohol and marijuana, and had a wild party that included sex with people he didn't know. Pretty wild, I thought, especially for someone who was 72 years old.

Aside from mucking up airplane engines, there appears to be another important risk of exposure to volcanic ash, the risk of developing thyroid cancer.

Thyroid cancer has an increased incidence in volcanic nations and states, such as Hawaii, the Philippines, and Iceland, according to Duntas et al. This increase, however, has not been linked with a higher death rate. The mechanism for this increased risk of thyroid cancer is not entirely clear.

What can we do to reduce the risk of health problems caused by mold, besides the the obvious strategy of eliminating the source of water inside the home?

Elham Mahdi, from Yemen, died from internal bleeding after sexual intercourse 3 days after an arranged marriage to a man nearly twice her age. She was only 13 years old.

New York City taxi cab driver Hassan Afzal drove his 21 year-old passenger Danielle Ricco to her death in 2006 when he had a seizure while driving. Are people allowed to obtain a driver's license with a known seizure disorder?

Guest writer Dr. Joanna Dolgoff explains how today's youth generation may be at higher risk for heart attack over their lifetime than their parents, and what parents can do to identify obesity in their children.

The deadly human stampede that took place today in Pratabgarh, a south of New Delhi, resulted in the death of at least 63 people who had gathered at the Ram Janki temple for a ritual feast and charitable event.

Stampedes that result in death are more likely to occur at outside religious, sports, musical or political events in developing countries.

A 56 year-old Delaware pediatrician has been charged for the the sexual abuse of more than 100 children in his practice, according to the ABC World News.

Clinicians have observed for years that their patients with so-called somatic complaints, depression, and suicide attempts seemed to be more likely to have been abused as a child than those with other medical problems. These observations have been borne out in the medical literature.

Shoveling snow is indeed a great workout, which is great for those who up for it, but can be a serious stress on the heart for those who are couch potatoes the rest of year.

On February 5th, wealthy pharmaceutical executive Gigi Jordan, age 49, was found incoherent in the Peninsula Hotel next to the body of her autistic 8 year old boy. The pair were surrounded by bottles of pills and documents, according to the New York Post.

While parenting autistic children does not usually result in madness and death, the stress associated with caring for austistic children is well known.

The recent news that a member of our suburban community died by suicide after falling from a bridge spanning the Hudson River has left deep scars on our individual and collective psyche. Foremost on everyone's mind: why did he do it?

Sometimes what appears to be an intentional decision is not, in the strictest sense, intentional at all. Two examples of this include decisions that are impulsive, and decisions brought on by hallucinations.

Every year, more than 200 people in the US succumb to snowmobile injuries. One such unlucky person was 30 year-old Kristen Bednar, who sustained a fatal head injury after crashing into a tree while driving a snowmobile in Vermont.

If you have not been convinced of the health benefits of getting in shape, maybe the prospect of better sex will convince you to hit the gym. Women who eat better, are thinner, and who exercise more have better sex.

In a comprehensive New York Times article on the prevention of cancer, a large and rigorous study is described; finasteride, an alpha-blocker that is usually used to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy, prevents prostate cancer. I was intrigued. It turns out that the absolute risk reduction for prostate cancer among men treated with alpha blockers is 1.4%.

It turns out that domestic violence during pregnancy is shockingly prevalent.

Does working out during pregnancy matter? Not when it comes to guaranteeing an easier delivery but research shows that exercise does help prevent excessive weight gain during pregnancy.

Almost every one has a cell phone. Adults, teens, tweens, even fourth graders with great ambition and gullible parents talk, text and check messages many times each day. But wireless phone use isn't risk free. Research shows a connection between cell phone and cordless phone use and certain types of brain cancers. No research shows that the use of headsets can negate the risk, but perhaps they're not a bad precautionary measure.

I am a little ashamed to admit that when my third child was a little baby, he fell off of the bed and hit his head on the hard wooden floor three separate times. I never brought him to the doctor or sought a CT scan. That's because I know that the radiation from a CT scan can cause brain cancer, especially in a child, and that the vast majority of kids who bonk their head and then act fine, are fine. A recent study in the Lancet backs this up.

I found that the boxes contained everything anyone would ever need to construct an extremely heavy full-on-full bunk bed with a trundle below. As you might well imagine, there were a few minor glitches, missing pieces, and a non-trivial degree of improvization involved in putting up the bunkbeds. While the finished product made me slightly worried about the safety of our bunk bed, neither one of us were aware of the injuries associated with all bunk beds.

But can we really be sure that it is marriage that protects health, or is it that people who are unhealthy are the ones that get divorced? In a fascinating study by Glantz et al, researchers identified 515 people who had been diagnosed with a serious illness (malignant brain tumor, solid tumor, or multiple scelerosis) and followed what happened to their marriages.

New research shows, not surprisingly, that IBD (Irritable Bowel Diseases) causes a drop in libido for women coping with these afflictions. Many remain childless by choice but a new study shows that pregnancies among women with IBD tend to run smoothly and that common IBD medications are not generally harmful to developing fetuses.

In a scene straight out of CSI: Las Vegas, police identified the mutilated remains of swim-suit model Jasmine Fiore by the serial numbers of her breast implants. We all know that teeth and orthopedic implants are a dead giveaway when it comes to forensics clues but breast implants? Yet another reason to get 'em.

The lawyer for the estate of wrong-way driver Diane Schuler is claiming that the topical gum analgesic Anbesol is responsible for a positive blood alcohol level equivalent to recent ingestion of 10 alcoholic drinks. According to the New York Post, he said "Look it up on the Web!" Well, we're the web, and we say: It is not just unlikely, it is absolutely and unequivocally impossible for Anbesol to cause a level of alcohol intoxication of that degree detectable on a blood test.

Putting yourself in a refrigerated truck with a possibly depressed truck driver would appear to be a high risk activity, and the trauma records from the southwest US reinforce that concern: Lumpkin et al reviewed the records of two level 1 trauma centers in the southwest from 1999 to 2003 and recorded 38 crashes involving 663 passengers (an average of 17 passengers per vehicle) with a 49% injury rate and a 9% mortality rate.

If there weren't already enough reasons to prevent obesity, now there is another one: obese people are more likely require intensive care and to die when infected with the flu virus than people of normal weight. Of ten patients with H1N1 flu who were hospitalized in the surgical intensive care unit for acute respiratory distress syndrome in Michigan, nine were obese, and seven were severely obese, according to the MMWR. Three patients died.

Sometimes big things come in small packages. In this case, this is one summertime package you’ll wish you’d never received. That tiny gift? It’s Borrelia Burgdorferi a spirochete that is transmitted through a tick bite that may result in Lyme Disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the United States.

Public golf courses in Spokane, Washington may soon be smoke free. Is second hand smoke really the biggest cancer risk on the golf course? What about sun exposure and pesticides?

The FDA has advised consumers to avoid Zicam zinc nasal cold remedies. The action was taken because people have lost their sense of smell from the treatment. Funny thing is, this worrisome side effect has been known for years.

From the outside looking in, it looks like physicians have it all. It’s a secure well-paying job that automatically confers respect. Most importantly (one would hope) physicians have the opportunity to help others. Surely, most physicians never consider suicide no matter how bad things get, right? Wrong.

I saw a man who died by suicide on Memorial Day weekend, and three others who harmed themselves intentionally. Suicide is a huge public health problem, and occurs more frequently in spring and early summer. This peak has been found all over the world. If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, get help immediately at 1-800-Suicide or at Suicide.org.

Some summer risks are obvious, but it’s the hidden hazards that may catch you and your kids unaware.  Medpie.com has the evidence-based list of summer hidden health hazards for children. 

Imagine running around with 20 pounds of American Football gear in oppressively hot summer weather. If you were hot and tired, would you stop to seek shelter and water, or would you tough it out?

A hospital in Central Manchester, UK, has apologized to families of newborns babies who were found to have superbug MRSA in error, according to a BBC report. While the practice of testing neonatal units for MRSA is well established, it's not clear whether it really works to prevent new exposure.

If you smiled in an old high school photograph chances are you are still married. A review of old photographs from a group of people over the age of 65, suggested that non-smilers were almost 3 times more likely to be divorced compared to smilers.

Everyone likes a nice slice of pizza. But only a few live near the untouchable Sicilian slice at Sal’s Pizza in Mamaroneck, New York, or the perfect regular slice at Santarpios, in Boston’s East End. But what is it about the combination of cheese, tomato sauce and bread that makes good pizza so irresistible?

How can you get your kids to go to the gym and workout if you can’t get them to bring their plates to the kitchen, rake the leaves, or shovel the snow?

The statement "use it or lose it" has been bandied about to refer to the preservation of sexual potency, but does it apply to prostate cancer?

The Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50% increase in scheduled vasectomies, according to a report on CNN.com. Vasectomy is an effective means of birth control; according to a report in the journal Contraception, only about 1 pregnancy results for every 1000 vasectomies, with most occurring in the immediate post-vasectomy period, before washout of the remaining sperm.

Dr Rani Whitfield, founder of Hip Hop Healthy Coalition sings hip hop music to kids from a variety of cultural backgrounds to educate them about medical conditions. Dr Whitfield wants his music to not only act as a vehicle to teach kids about medicine but to also help prevent future diseases.

According to a 2003 study by Fendrick et al, the common cold costs the United States economy $40 billion dollars a year, partly due to spending nearly $3 billion on over the counter medicines, over $1 billion on unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions to “treat” this common cold virus, and $400 million on prescriptions for symptomatic relief.