The United States government recently announced a major education and research campaign against Alzheimer’s disease. The brain-wasting disease has no cure. The plan includes more efforts to develop drugs to prevent it. In the United States, more than five million people have Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. As the population gets older, the […]
Are people less happy or more happy the older they get? If you answered more happy, then you were right, based on a study published two years ago. It found that people generally become happier and experience less worry after age fifty. In fact, it found that by the age of eighty-five, people are happier […]
A study has raised questions about a widely held belief involving cholesterol. The belief is that high levels of so-called good cholesterol in the blood can reduce the risk of a heart attack. The medical name for “good” cholesterol is high-density lipoprotein, or HDL. Doctors commonly believe it reduces the risk of heart attack by removing fatty deposits […]
Each year an estimated one hundred six million people get infected with gonorrhea. This sexually transmitted disease is getting harder and harder to treat. The World Health Organization says gonorrhea is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. The WHO warns that there are few treatment options available, and that the world is running out of ways to cure it. Manjula […]
There’s new medical evidence for the expression “better late than never.” Researchers have found that smokers reduce their risk of dying from tobacco even if they stop smoking after the age of 60. Smoking is a known risk for many diseases, including many forms of cancer as well as heart disease. But most studies on […]
A miscarriage is the natural loss of a baby before the twentieth week of pregnancy. Experts say many pregnancies end before a woman even knows she was pregnant. Up to twenty percent of known pregnancies end in a miscarriage. Miscarriages are generally caused by genetic problems with the baby that prevent it from developing. But whatever the cause, […]
Premature or preterm births are defined as live births before a woman completes thirty-seven weeks of pregnancy. A new study found that about fifteen million babies were born prematurely around the world in twenty-ten. The study was the first of its kind, and shows that the problem exists in poor countries as well as in […]
Researchers estimate that more than two billion people a year get diseases spread by animals. More than two million of them die. Delia Grace is a veterinary epidemiologist — an expert in the spread of diseases involving animals. She is also a food safety expert. She works at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya’s […]
We recently told you about a study which found that more than 10 percent of all babiesworldwide are born too early. A common problem in preterm babies is respiratory disease. The lungs are the last organs to develop. But a medicine called surfactant can save babies struggling to breathe. The story of this lifesaving medicine begins […]
Programs that teach young people how to avoid abusive relationships are generally for high school or college age. But new programs are being created for younger students because they too experience abusive dating relationships. Earlier this year the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a study done in the United States. Fifteen percent of seventh graders in the […]