Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2017

New Migraine Drugs May Stop Headaches Before They Start

People with frequent — sometimes daily — migraines may benefit from a new class of medications intended to prevent these severe headaches before they start, two new studies suggest. Both of the studies tested long-acting drugs that were administered as injections once a month, to once every three months. The...

Nov 30, 2017

Solar Eclipse Damage to Woman's Eye Revealed in Striking Images

Using a new type of imaging, doctors were able to peer into the eyes of a young woman and see — on the cellular level — the type of damage that occurs from looking directly at the sun during an eclipse. The woman, who is in her 20s, damaged her...

Nov 30, 2017

Health Stats: The Best and Worst States

Massachusetts is the overall healthiest state in the union, according to the 2017 America's Health Rankings Report by the United Health Foundation. Mississippi is the least healthy. But on individual metrics, the states vary widely. Here are the highest- and lowest-ranking states for each of the 35 different measures of...

Nov 30, 2017

Brewing Health Benefits: Hot Tea May Lower Glaucoma Risk

Hot tea may do more than warm your insides: Drinking at least one cup of caffeinated tea a day may lower a person's risk for glaucoma, a new study suggests. Researchers found that daily hot-tea drinkers were 74 percent less likely to be diagnosed with glaucoma, compared with those who...

Nov 30, 2017

When Do Children Develop Their Gender Identity?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Gender is generally thought of as a stable trait: we are born male or female and we stay that way as we grow from small children to adults. It...

Nov 30, 2017

Cellphone Guidelines Won't Harm, But They Probably Won't Help Either

There's no harm in following California's new cellphone guidelines detailing how to reduce exposure to a phone's radio-frequency (RF) energy, but know this: There's no science showing that following these guidelines will make you safer, experts said. That's because large, high-quality studies have failed to find any big, adverse health...

Nov 30, 2017

'Spermbot' May One Day Help Treat Cervical Cancer

A biohybrid sperm microrobot might one day deliver anti-cancer drugs to tumors in the female reproductive tract, according to a new paper from Germany. The sci-fi-sounding microbot, which was described in a December article in the journal ACS Nano, consists of sperm from a bull combined with a plastic, 3D-printed...

Nov 30, 2017

Your Body's Internal Scale May Sense (and Fight) Weight Gain

The body may have an internal scale that senses how much a person weighs, so the body can regulate fat mass in response, a new study in rodents suggests. If the findings hold up in humans, the research could pave the way to novel treatments for obesity, researchers said in...

Oct 31, 2017

Here's How Space Travel Changes the Brain

Spending prolonged time in space can lead to striking changes in an astronaut's brain structure, a new study finds. These changes may help explain some of the unusual symptoms that astronauts can experience when returning to Earth. In the study, researchers scanned the brains of 34 astronauts before and after...

Oct 31, 2017

Here's Why a Man's Arm Looks Like Popeye's

He might not be a sailor or have a girlfriend named Olive Oyl, but a man in Japan did share something in common with the cartoon character named Popeye — a bulging biceps in his left upper arm, a new report of the man's case reveals. The 79-year-old man's visible...

Oct 31, 2017

Breast vs. Bottle: Weighing Infant-Feeding Options

Deciding the best way to feed a new baby is a very personal choice for a woman. Whether she chooses to breast-feed or use formula, feeding time is an important opportunity for a mother and baby to form a close bond with one another. Health professionals consider breast-feeding to be...

Oct 31, 2017

Many Vietnam Vets May Have Cancer-Causing Parasites: What Are Liver Flukes?

Hundreds of Vietnam War veterans may be infected with parasites called liver flukes, which can sometimes lead to cancer, recent research suggests. A recent study from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) found that, out of 50 blood samples submitted from Vietnam veterans, more than 20 percent tested positive...

Oct 31, 2017

Don't Blink: Striking Image Shows Bullet in Man's Eye Socket

A striking new image shows a bullet lodged in a man's eye socket. The 45-year-old man went to the emergency room after he was shot with a 0.22 caliber pistol, according to a new report of the case, published today (Nov. 30) in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. The bullet went...

Sep 30, 2017

Tiny Acrobat: Louse Photographed Flipping and Twirling

Doctors in Mexico snapped a stunning photo of an acrobatic arthropod flipping and twirling. But the critter was far from a medical marvel — rather, the crab-shaped parasite was a lowly pubic louse. The doctors spotted the pubic louse (Phthirus pubis) when they were examining a 65-year-old man who said...

Sep 30, 2017

Diet Tweaks Could Ease Runner's Diarrhea

If you're a long-distance runner, it may be an all-too-familiar scenario: You're partway through your run when your stomach cramps and you need to find a bathroom — immediately. A small new study from Australia suggests that making some changes to your diet could help ease your tummy troubles when...