Australia is suffering a bed-bug epidemic with the tourism industry losing an estimated A$100 million (US$75 million) a year because of the blood-sucking insects, according to a new entomology study.
Read (Reuters via MSNBC)
Australia is suffering a bed-bug epidemic with the tourism industry losing an estimated A$100 million (US$75 million) a year because of the blood-sucking insects, according to a new entomology study.
Read (Reuters via MSNBC)
Healthier eating habits could make a big difference in the epidemic of high blood pressure in the U.S., according to a report from the American Heart Association.
Read (Reuters)
Highly analytical couples, such as scientists, may be more likely to produce children with autism, an expert has argued.
Read (BBC)
A single 30-minute walk on a treadmill can give a temporary emotional lift to patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
Read (Reuters)
In another step toward unraveling the origins of autism, a new study confirms that a region of chromosome number 3 seems to be involved in the development of the disorder.
Read (Reuters)
Tracking the movements of hundreds of thousands of banknotes across the US could provide scientists with a vital new tool to help combat the spread of deadly infectious diseases like bird flu.
Read (New Scientist)
Lower than normal blood pressure appears to raise the risk of death in patients with heart failure, according to a report in the American Heart Journal.
Read (American Heart Journal via Prevent Disease.com)
More states and cities are passing laws requiring higher ratios of women’s to men’s toilets in new construction projects.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
A newer type of football helmet that gives more coverage to the side of the head appears to lower players’ risk of concussion.
Read (Reuters)
Some of the friendly bacteria found in yogurt have been genetically modified to release a drug that blocks HIV infection.
Read (Nature)
Regular exercise reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by up to 40%, a University of Washington study suggests.
Read (BBC)
Changes to diets over the last 50 years may be playing an key role in the rise of mental illness, because the way food is now produced has altered the balance of key nutrients people consume.
Read (BBC)
Just three weeks of a high-fibre, low-fat diet with moderate exercise could slow the key bodily changes that lead to diabetes, a new study suggests.
Read (New Scientist)
The collapse of socialized medicine in China has opened a gap between care in the cities and the rural areas.
As a result, according to the government’s own estimates, in less than a generation a rural population that once enjoyed universal, if rudimentary, coverage is now 79 percent uninsured.
The near total absence of adequate health care in much of the countryside has sown deep resentment among the peasantry while helping to spread infectious diseases like hepatitis and tuberculosis and making the country – and the world – more vulnerable to epidemics like severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and possibly bird flu.
The failure of the government to provide decent health care for peasants has reinforced the idea of China as two separate nations: one urban and increasingly comfortable, the other rural and increasingly miserable.
Read (New York Times)
Dogs’ keen sense of smell might help in the early diagnosis of cancer. New research shows that trained ordinary household dogs can detect early-stage lung and breast cancers by merely sniffing the breath samples of patients. The dogs were correct 90% of the time.
Read (Reuters)