Miracle diet pill? A safe drug is elusive
The battle of the bulge has been a big, fat failure for U.S. drugmakers. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying. For nearly a century, scientists have struggled to make a diet pill that helps people lose weight without side effects that range from embarrassing digestive issues to dangerous heart problems. But this week, federal health advisers More...
Antibiotics No Help for Sinus Infections
Roughly 20% of the antibiotic prescriptions written in the United States for adults each year are for sinus infections. That’s an impressive statistic, given that doctors and public health officials have long More...
Michelle Wie hopes for game boost from gluten-free diet
US golfing star Michelle Wie said she is feeling healthier after embarking on a gluten-free diet, inspired partly by the success story of tennis world number one Novak Djokovic. “I heard that story that he More...
Air Pollution May Increase Stroke, Heart Attack Risk
A brief uptick in traffic-related air pollution may be enough to increase a person’s short-term risk of stroke, new research suggests. An analysis of 10 years of data from a major Boston stroke center has found More...
Overeating Linked to Memory Loss, Mental Decline
Older people who consume a diet very high in calories may be increasing their risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the memory loss and mental-function problems that sometimes precede Alzheimer’s disease. In More...
How Ovulating Women Affect Men’s Speech
The elaborate courtship displays found in the animal kingdom—a peacock spreading his feathers, the hissing of the Madagascar cockroach—aren’t always appropriate in an office or classroom. Male humans seem More...
Gene Might Boost Risk for Obesity
A new animal study suggests that a genetic mutation could put certain people at higher risk for becoming obese if they eat high-fat diets. At the moment, the practical uses of the research seem to be limited, but More...
French weight loss drug ‘killed at least 1,300′
Mediator, a drug licensed for use by diabetics that became widely prescribed in France as a slimming aid, “probably” caused at least 1,300 deaths before it was withdrawn, a study published on Thursday More...
Are Depressed Kids Bully Magnets?
Psychologists, not to mention parents, have long observed that kids who seem depressed tend to have trouble getting along with—and being accepted by—their peers. What the experts haven’t been able to agree More...
Psychologists Highlight Pitfalls of Online Dating
Thanks to the proliferation of online dating, would-be couples are now almost as likely to meet via email or a virtual “wink” as they are through friends and family. In 1992, when the Internet was still in its More...