Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2015

Insomnia Can Worsen Chronic Pain Conditions

People who have problems sleeping may also be more sensitive to pain, thus potentially worsening the effects of chronic pain conditions, new research from Norway shows. In the study, researchers measured pain sensitivity in more than 10,000 adults who were participants in the Tromsø Study, anongoing public health study in...

Apr 30, 2015

Your Personal Microbes Can Single You Out

The bustling communities of microbes in and on your body are unique to you — so much so that they might be used to identify you from a crowd of hundreds of other people, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed information from more than 200 people who had samples taken...

Apr 30, 2015

Thin Air Might Increase Depression in Mountain States

The eight intermountain states of the American West, sometimes called the Suicide Belt, have high elevations and the associated thin air. Now, researchers say the low oxygen in these areas is linked with signs of depression, and could potentially even contribute to suicides in some regions. In 2012, Colorado, Wyoming,...

Apr 30, 2015

Weekend Drug Use Tends to Become Daily

People who take illegal drugs only on the weekend often wind up becoming daily users, new research suggests. More than half of recreational drug users in the study, who initially reported using illegal drugs only on the weekends, were found to later be using drugs during the week too, according...

Apr 30, 2015

Doctors' Group Offers Screening Advice for 5 Cancers

Advice about cancer screening can be confusing, with different medical groups recommending different tests at different times. But now, a new paper from one leading U.S. physicians' group is distilling all the advice and offering guidance to adults about getting screened for five common cancers. A panel of doctors from...

Apr 30, 2015

Testosterone Rules for Women Athletes Are Unfair, Researchers Argue

This story was updated June 2 at 1:10 p.m. EDT. Elite women athletes are currently barred from competing in top-tier competitions, such as the Olympic Games and World Championships, if their testosterone levels are too high. But for women with naturally high levels, this regulation may be premature, as the...

Apr 30, 2015

How Does Salmonella Get into Sushi?

Raw tuna is the suspected source of a new outbreak of Salmonella, but how does tuna become contaminated with the bacteria in the first place? Experts say that the Salmonella probably wasn't living on the fish itself, but rather the tuna became contaminated at some point when the food was...

Apr 30, 2015

1 in 20 People Has Hallucinated

About 1 in 20 people in the general population has experienced at least one hallucination in their lifetime that wasn't connected to drugs, alcohol or dreaming, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed information from more than 31,000 people in 18 countries who were interviewed as part of a mental...

Apr 30, 2015

15 Million Cancer Cases Diagnosed in 2013

The number of new cases of cancer in the world is rising, according to a new report that looked at cancer in 118 countries. Globally, the number of new cancer cases increased from 8.5 million in 1990 to 14.9 million in 2013, the study found. (The world population rose from...

Apr 30, 2015

Contact Lenses May Alter Bacteria in the Eye

Wearing contact lenses may change the community of bacteria living in your eyes, according to a small new study. In the study, the surface of the eye in the people who wore contact lenses had triple the proportion of certain bacteria species, on average, compared with the people in the...

Mar 31, 2015

Oldest Neanderthal DNA Found in Italian Skeleton

The calcite-encrusted skeleton of an ancient human, still embedded in rock deep inside a cave in Italy, has yielded the oldest Neanderthal DNA ever found. These molecules, which could be up to 170,000 years old, could one day help yield the most complete picture yet of Neanderthal life, researchers say....

Mar 31, 2015

Marijuana Extract May Help Reduce Epilepsy Seizures

A medicine made from marijuana may provide some relief to people with severe epilepsy who don't get better after trying other treatments, according to a new study. In the study, researchers examined 137 people, ranging in age from toddlers to adults, who all had severe epilepsy, a condition that causes...

Mar 31, 2015

Are Health Apps Harmful or Helpful? Experts Debate

Increasing your anxiety, raising your risk for a misdiagnosis, maybe even turning yourself into a hypochondriac — yep, there's an app for that. Health apps are ubiquitous, but do they do more harm than good? Some doctors are beginning to ask whether these self-monitoring applications are useless — or even...

Mar 31, 2015

Rita Wilson's Cancer Diagnosis: When to Get a Second Opinion

Actress Rita Wilson attributes the early diagnosis of her breast cancer to the fact that she got a second opinion, a step that experts say is particularly important when the consequences of a medical test or treatment are serious. Wilson revealed this week that she underwent a double mastectomy as...

Mar 31, 2015

Sofia Vergara Lawsuit: Who Owns Frozen Embryos?

The fight between actress Sofia Vergara and her ex-fiancé Nick Loeb over the fate of the couple's frozen embryos may hinge on one question: whether the contract the couple signed gives one party or both parties a say in what happens to the embryos, experts say. On Thursday, news outlets...