Health
HPV increasingly causes oral cancer in men
ATLANTA - The sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer in women is poised to become one of the leading causes of oral cancer in men, according to a new study. The HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco an...
Gene Therapy for Chronic Pain
A new kind of gene therapy could bring relief to patients suffering from chronic pain while bypassing many of the debilitating side effects associated with traditional painkillers.
Scientists find plant gene that affects stress resistance
A University of Saskatchewan team of scientists has isolated a gene that has never before been identified in helping plants to resist stress. The study—published this month in the top-ranked plant journal The Plant Cell—could pave the way for deve...
The helmet that could turn back the symptoms of Alzheimer's
An experimental helmet which scientists say could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease within weeks of being used is to be tried out on patients. The strange-looking headgear - which has to be worn for ten minutes every day - bathes the bra...
Doctors Report Transplant Breakthrough
In what's being called a major advance in organ transplants, doctors say they have developed a technique that could free many patients from having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives.
Fighting with your spouse can make you live longer: study
NEW YORK - Fighting with your spouse can actually be good for your health with people who bottle it all up found to die earlier, a new study shows.
The World’s First Weed ATM at Your Service! - In Los Angeles
Well for all you stoners out there it’s finally here! Your dream come true! The world’s first weed ATM! Well actually, AVM’s: Anytime-Vending-Machines.
Australian girl switched blood type after transplant: doctors
An Australian girl spontaneously changed blood groups and adopted her donor's immune system after a liver transplant, in what doctors treating her said Thursday was the first known case of its type.
Marijuana Smokers Face Rapid Lung Destruction
A study in a Wiley-Blackwell journal – Respirology – finds that the development of bullous lung disease occurs in marijuana smokers approximately 20 years earlier than tobacco smokers.
British government might pay obese people to lose pounds
Obese and overweight adults in England could be paid to lose weight under plans being considered by the Government. The new strategy to tackle poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles includes the suggestion that people should receive financial...
Caffeine doubles miscarriage risk: study
CHICAGO - Pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have twice the risk of having a miscarriage as those who avoid caffeine, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said the study provides strong evidence that high doses of caffeine ...
A Chemical That Improves Memory (and Cures Loneliness)
Social isolation makes people stressed out and forgetful, but soon a drug could cure this problem. Late last year, scientists isolated a brain enzyme that triggers the "loneliness" feelings during periods of solitude. Replenishing that enzyme in t...
Mobile phone radiation wrecks your sleep
Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study. The research, sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take l...
Portable Device Quickly Detects Early Alzheimer's
ATLANTA — The latest medications can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, but none are able to reverse its devastating effects. This limitation often makes early detection the key to Alzheimer’s patients maintaining a good quality of life for a...
U.S. to Study Bizarre Medical Condition
ATLANTA -- It sounds like a freakish ailment from a horror movie: Sores erupt on your skin, mysterious threads pop out of them, and you feel like tiny bugs are crawling all over you. Some experts believe it's a psychiatric phenomenon, yet hundreds...
Columbus Carried Syphilis From New World to Europe, Study Suggests
MONDAY -- A new analysis of the genetics of syphilis provides support for the theory that the disease hitched a ride with Christopher Columbus from the New World back to the Old World. But in a new wrinkle, the research suggests the disease may no...
Drug-resistant bacteria could be new AIDS
SAN FRANCISCO - A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday.
He was bad, so they put an ice pick in his brain...
At the age of 12, Howard Dully was given a lobotomy, one of thousands performed by the notorious Dr Walter Freeman in the 1940s and 1950s. Now Dully has written a forceful account of his survival and sheds light on the man who subjected him to one...
Hopes of custom-built organs as scientists create beating heart
SCIENTISTS have created a beating heart in the laboratory in a breakthrough that could allow doctors one day to make a range of organs for transplant almost from scratch. The procedure involved stripping all the existing cells from a dead heart so...
Embryo-friendly technique produces stem cells
WASHINGTON - A company that devised a way to make embryonic stem cells using a technique it said does not harm human embryos reported on Thursday it has grown five batches of cells using this method and urged President George W. Bush to endorse it.