Nine out of 10 Americans have a chemical called bisphenol A in their urine, said Nicholas D. Kristof. BPA, which can be found in plastic food containers, soup can linings, ATM receipts, and many other consumer products, is a proven “endocrine disruptor”—a substance that mimics or alters human hormones. Studies have already linked BPA to breast cancer, diabetes, and hyperactivity, […]
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Babies exposed to air pollution in the womb are more likely to have autism than those whose mothers spend pregnancy in clean air, according to a new study. In the largest study of its kind, UCLA researchers compared levels of air pollutants, mostly related to vehicle traffic, during pregnancy gestation periods of 7,603 children with autism and 75,635 children without […]
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A child’s general good health is no guarantee that a case of the flu won’t have fatal consequences, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A surprising 43 percent of the 830 children who died from flu complications in the U.S. between October 2004 and September 2012 were otherwise healthy and did not have […]
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Why are Americans so fat—and getting fatter with every passing year? said Brian Stelter in The New York Times. Seventy percent of adults in the U.S. are either overweight or obese, and so are one third of children and teens. This week, HBO began airing a four-part documentary, The Weight of the Nation, that aims to serve as a “wake-up […]
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Linfen, China A suspected Chinese organ trafficker gouged out the eyes of a 6-year-old boy to steal the corneas for the black market. The boy was playing outside his house in Shanxi province last weekend when a woman kidnapped and drugged him. His parents found him hours later with bloody eye sockets, and the eyeballs were found nearby missing the […]
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Ketamine, better known as Special K known to be a psychoactive ‘party drug’ has pharmaceutical companies riding high. Mainly used clinically as an anesthetic in animals and humans, clinical tests have proven it to be effective in treatment for depression, bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior. The effects of Ketamine have a quick onset. Unlike conventional antidepressants, which generally take weeks […]
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Patients are getting larger and perhaps even dangerous doses of radiation from the growing number of advanced medical-imaging tests being ordered by doctors, a new study says. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed data from millions of patients who received medical treatment between 1996 and 2010. They found that the number of patients who underwent CT scans […]
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When you’re angry, your face, head, and arms grow hot When you’re depressed, a cold numbness grips your head and arms. Love triggers a warm glow throughout your upper body, especially around your heart. Human emotions, a new study has found, are directly linked to sensations in specific body parts, and the map is largely the same across different cultures. […]
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