Small amounts of bacteria that cause “rabbit fever” were found on Washington’s National Mall last weekend as thousands of protesters marched against the Iraq War.

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People should cut their daily salt intake to 6 grams a day — one heaped teaspoon — to reduce their blood pressure levels and the risk of heart disease and stroke.

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The outbreak of Japanese encephalitis continues to claim lives and will leave many brain-damaged victims in its wake.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is one of the “most scary” diseases to contract, says Jo Lines, a vector biologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK. “Why? Because it doesn’t usually kill you but often leaves you brain-damaged,” he told New Scientist. “If there are a thousand dead that means there is a vast toll of encephalitis brain-damaged people.”

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Researchers hoping to determine the causes of many common diseases like autism and diabetes will follow 100,000 U.S. children from birth through adulthood in the largest ever study of its kind.

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Is it possible to have too low a level of cholesterol? A cholesterol profile that reduces the risk of heart disease may increase the risk for Parkinson’s disease — at least for men — researchers report.

Going back several years, studies have uncovered associations between low cholesterol and suicide, stroke, depression, even violence.

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An estimated 1.4 children under five years of age die unnecessarily each year from measles, whooping cough or tetanus, all of them preventable with vaccines, the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported on September 29, 2005. While the 1980s showed a surge in vaccination programs around the world, progress remained even or dropped in the 1990s, partly because of a decrease in foreign aid as well as worsening economies in several countries.

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The brains of habitual liars differ from those of honest people, a study suggests. A University of Southern California team studied 49 people and found those known to be pathological liars had up to 26% more white matter than others.

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My mother-in-law’s brain must be full of white matter.

Some cases of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in children may be a result of an immune reaction following an infection, scientists believe.

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The virus which causes Aids could be getting less powerful, researchers say.

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Learning a musical instrument could be good for the heart, a joint Italian and British study suggests.

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A scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina has found that magnetic resonance imaging machines also can serve as lie detectors.

Read (AP via WTOP)

According to a new study by the British Cheese Board, different cheeses can give you different types of dreams. None of the study volunteers reported nightmares from their bedtime snack.

Listen (NPR)

Eggs are cracking open some nutritional barriers. After decades of being out of favor because of their high cholesterol content, this popular food is earning high marks as a low-cost source of protein, and they pack key vitamins and minerals, including iron.

Read (Washington Post)

Cholesterol-lowering drugs could help to prevent diabetics and people at high risk of heart disease from suffering a heart attack or stroke even if their cholesterol level is not high.

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Women in coastal communities have twice as much mercury in their blood as those living inland, according to an analysis by an Environmental Protection Agency scientist.

Read (Washington Post)