medical study news stories on Newser

Coffee May Make You Less Likely to Die

Kate Schwartz — Sun, 20 May 2012 06:51:05 CDT

Trying to kick the coffee habit? Don't bother. A new study of some 400,000 adults between ages 50 and 71 found that coffee may actually make you less likely to die. Over the course of 14 years, those who partook had a lower risk of death than those who...

Pill Helping Alcoholics Say No

Kate Schwartz — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:33:59 CST

A new pill designed to help alcoholics drink less apparently does the trick: Nalmefene, which is currently in the clinical-trial stage, is designed to be taken before a person heads into a situation in which they feel they'll have a hard time saying no to alcohol. In a six-month, 600-person...

Antibiotics Do Zilch for Sinus Infections

Kevin Spak — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:04:05 CST

The next time you get a sinus infection, maybe you should skip the antibiotics—because they don't actually do anything for you, a new study has found. Researchers discovered that patients who received the commonly-prescribed amoxicillin didn't see any significant benefit in terms of symptom reduction compared to those who...

Pot Prevents PTSD in Rats

Kevin Spak — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:32:05 CDT

Should we start issuing marijuana to soldiers? It might not be the worst idea, based on a new study from Haifa University in Israel, which found that pot could prevent post-traumatic stress disorder in rats—provided it was administered within 24 hours of the trauma occurring. “There is a critical...

Tough Choice for Bald Men: Hair or Sex?

Kate Schwartz — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:56:05 CDT

Tough news for the follicly challenged: Balding men taking finasteride, Merck's prescription drug that goes by the names Propecia and Proscar, may find they have trouble in bed—for a long while. Though the drug's label warns of "reversible" symptoms of sexual dysfunction, a small survey of 76 men under...

Spacing Babies Too Close May Raise Autism Risk

Mark Russell — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 02:20:00 CST

Cue another theory in the elusive search for the causes of autism: having children spaced too closely together. Researchers have discovered a risk that's apparently small, but significant—about 0.76% for children conceived less than a year after a sibling, versus 0.47% overall—based on a study of...

Middle-Aged Women: Have That 2nd Drink

Kate Schwartz — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:00:05 CST

Conventional wisdom (along with the American Heart Association) has long held that men can soak up the health benefits of alcohol by way of two drinks per day—while women have been told to not have more than one. Parity at last: Women who have a drink or two a...

Facebook Can Trigger Asthma: Docs

Kate Schwartz — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:01:56 CST

Facebook: a potential minefield for debtors , married couples , and ... people with asthma? Apparently, according to a group of Italian doctors who recount an odd case in the medical journal Lancet. It seems an 18-year-old asthmatic had been in good health until he stumbled upon his ex-girlfriend—and her bevy of...

Brain Teasers May Speed Up Dementia, Alzheimer's

RaptorFan — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:04:00 CDT

Sudoku, crosswords, and even listening to the radio may not be all they're cracked up to be when it comes to staving off mental decline. A study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago indicates that once diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's, increased brain activity may actually accelerate...