- By Marla Paul
A pregnant woman’s high blood sugar level is linked to a significantly greater long-term risk of obesity in her child—even more than a decade later, a new study reports. The higher the woman’s blood sugar, the greater the risk of her child being obese.
We will present medications that have been identified as possibly causing temporary or permanent memory impairment. If you find that you are taking some of these medications, it is best to consult your physician and ask about alternative medications that might be available.
- By Dana Ullman
There are many influences that increase or decrease your risk of heart disease, but, like so many issues in medicine and science, there is probably more controversy than agreement on what exactly individuals should do to help themselves live longer, healthier lives.
Upon receiving a cancer diagnosis, you may find yourself facing this frightening experience without any knowledge or understanding of how best to help yourself. The sheer volume of information that is now available about cancer and various treatment options can make the aftermath of diagnosis even more distressing for you and your family.
- By Jim Dryden
Scientists have discovered a lone mutation in a single gene that causes an inherited form of frontotemporal dementia makes it harder for neurons in the brain to communicate with one another, leading to neurodegeneration.
Allergies are reactions caused by the immune system as it responds to environmental substances that are usually harmless to most people.
- By Vincent Ho
So, you’re going on a date and you’re understandably a bit nervous. And then you feel it– a churning and cramping in your gut.
In the past, indeed until quite recently, people with IBS had appendix removals, intensive abdominal investigations, major gynecological operations, numerous x-rays, and prescriptions for a whole range of pills and potions to rid them of the strange collection of symptoms we now recognize as Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Last summer, a research group from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) quietly published the results of a new approach in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
- By Hazel Flight
There are times in a person’s life when specific events can have long-term implications on their future health. Pregnancy is one of those times – when major and dramatic changes occur within a woman’s body composition in a short period of time.
Diabetes is the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S., with about 30.3 million adults having the disease. One in 4 adults does not even know he or she has diabetes.
In an analysis of global research, we recently found that children with the most frequent type of arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), have abnormally low vitamin D blood levels.
The process of shedding the uterine lining with vaginal bleeding every month has an obvious reproductive focus, but it has also long been linked with changes to mood and behaviour. Unfortunately, this has often been an attempt to consign women to a “biologically” determined place of inferior mental functioning.
- By Mollie Rappe
Though most college students typically don’t intend to drink alcohol to the point that they “black out,” many don’t fully grasp what specific drinking behaviors present the greatest risk, a new series of studies finds.
Manipulating environmental exposures to optimize a healthy microbiome may hold the promise of preventing chronic inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
- By Dana Ullman
Deaths in children from asthma are growing at an alarming rate. One can't help but wonder if the powerful steroidal drugs that are used to control symptoms and that also suppress immune function play an important role in this death toll. Don't let this type of drug abuse hurt your family. Seek out alternatives and consider these strategies.
As the population grows older, more and more people are using a combination of drugs to treat multiple conditions. This can lead to interactions and side effects that we all need to be aware of.
Alcoholic drinks should all carry calorie counts according to a leading UK public health doctor writing in the BMJ today, because of their contribution to obesity. Fiona Sim, Chair of the UK Royal Society for Public Health, writes that while adults who drink may be getting as much as 10% of their daily calories from alcohol, most people are unaware drinking contributes to their energy intake.
- By Ajahn Brahm
Fear is the major ingredient of pain. It is what makes pain hurt. Take away the fear and only feeling is left. In the mid-1970s, in a poor and remote forest monastery in northeast Thailand, I had a bad toothache. There was no dentist to go to, no telephone, and no electricity. We didn't even have any aspirin...
Adam was fortunate to survive a major car accident three years ago. He was in hospital for several months but had no ongoing physical injuries. He looked like he made a full recovery. But he was argumentative, childish, vulgar and his family said he “was not the same person”. Adam had a severe traumatic brain injury.
- By Ann M Kring
Schizophrenia is one of the most widely misunderstood of human maladies. The truth of the illness is far different from popular caricatures of a sufferer muttering incoherently or lashing out violently.
- By Erin Young
Anyone who came of age in the 1990s might remember the “Friends” episode where Phoebe and Rachel venture out to get tattoos. Spoiler alert: Rachel gets a tattoo and Phoebe ends up with a black ink dot because she couldn’t take the pain.
US actress Selma Blair announced she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “I have probably had this incurable disease for 15 years at least,” she wrote. “And I am relieved to at least know.”