All The News That’s Fit: Drugs on TV, gas and NutraSweet
APRIL 18, 2023Watch this ad, buy this drugDrug ads on TV are almost always annoying, but can be frightening, too, if you listen to the mandatory disclaimers about some of...
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All The News That’s Fit: Procrastination, yellow fever and Yoda the mouse
APRIL 11, 2023Read this now; don’t waitNo one thinks procrastinating is a good thing. Well, almost no one. But a new study shows how it really might be harmful to...
All the News That’s Fit: Fall prevention, forever chemicals and fundus photos
APRIL 4, 2023The fall season, year-roundSen. Mitch McConnell is 81 years old. His recent fall, resulting in a concussion and a hospital stay, was newsworthy, but hardly news. Each year,...
All the News That’s Fit: Vaping’s effects, sawing logs and insomnia facts
MARCH 28, 2023Vaping and oral healthThere’s a growing body of evidence that vaping (e-cigarettes) is associated with poorer health, including contributing to asthma, lung scarring and exposure to carcinogenic chemicals.But...
All the News That’s Fit: Exercise bursts, lingering effects of COVID and reducing stress
MARCH 21, 2023Life is a marathonBut extending it might just involve short bursts of activity.A recent study found that brief bouts of robust exercise, such as super-fast walking for one...
All the News That’s Fit: Twinning, unjumbling jargon and alien abduction
MARCH 14, 2023A different kind of twindemicTwin births have been in decline in the U.S. for the last decade, falling roughly 3 percent per year, after previous decades of growth....
All The News That’s Fit: Medicaid update, frozen foods and earwax
MARCH 7, 2023Get me that. Stat!This winter’s “tripledemic” of respiratory viruses impacted an estimated 40 percent of U.S. households, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, with someone in these...
All The News That’s Fit: Home flu tests, ‘grandfamilies’ and splinter removal
FEBRUARY 28, 2023At-home flu testsBy now, many (perhaps most) Americans have used and become comfortable with the idea of at-home tests for COVID-19. So why not at-home flu tests? The...
All The News That’s Fit: Glaucoma and sleep, losing strength and a surgery pioneer
FEBRUARY 21, 2023Body of knowledgeBeginning around age 40, it’s estimated you lose 1 percent of your strength every year, with the rate accelerating the older you get. A recent study...
All The News That’s Fit: Dr. Happy, senior dental plans and tasty flowers
FEBRUARY 14, 2023Happy docIn most surveys, most doctors say they are generally pleased with their lives and professions. But it turns out there are degrees of contentment. In a 2020...
All The News That’s Fit: Alcohol’s cancer link, the risk of a kiss and German measles
FEBRUARY 7, 2023Alcohol and cancerNow that Dry January is over, most participants who were “sober-curious” have resumed their familiar consumption patterns, no doubt feeling good about giving their bodies a...
All The News That’s Fit: Mental health days, ‘lasagna of death’ and skin glue
JANUARY 31, 2023Drug prices capped, but not billsMore than 63 million Americans are covered by Medicare.Here’s the good news: By 2025, they’ll pay no more than $2,000 per year for...
All The News That’s Fit: Dangerous straighteners, heavy drinking and nosebleeds
JANUARY 24, 2023The M in M.D. doesn’t mean manA recent study found that female physicians were more than twice as likely as their male colleagues to have patients omit their...
All The News That’s Fit: Presidential poisoning, lukewarm coffee and cloned calves
JANUARY 17, 2023Body of knowledgeThe density (amount of mass contained in a volume of material) of human tooth enamel is 181 pounds per cubic foot. That compares with 128.6 for...
All The News That’s Fit: Revealing retinas, G-force survival and (not) Froot Loops
JANUARY 10, 2023Windows to the heartUsing artificial intelligence tools, researchers studied retinal scans of 88,000 participants in a study and concluded the approach may be a viable way to detect...
All The News That’s Fit: Working with weights, angst about in-laws and flying plasma
JANUARY 3, 2023Good things come to those who weightOK, it’s a new year so this probably means you’re back at the gym, reintroducing yourself to staff. Good for you. Hop...
All The News That’s Fit: Threat of NCDs, hospital Fitbits and surgical anesthesia
DECEMBER 27, 2022Hospitals plus Google? It’s a FitbitIn 2021, Google paid $2.1 billion to acquire Fitbit, who makes the wearables that track things like daily step totals and heart rate....
All The News That’s Fit: TB’s rebound, protein-packed Americans and after-dinner swims
DECEMBER 20, 2022TB effects TBDThis is one of those silver lining sort of things: The COVID pandemic appears to have at least temporarily reduced the incidence of tuberculosis (TB), a...
All The News That’s Fit: Daddy brain, missing maternity care and public health emergencies
DECEMBER 13, 2022Fatherhood changes men’s brainsVarious studies have shown that the brains of women who become biological mothers change: Structures within the organ regulating “theory of mind” (how we think...
All The News That’s Fit: Praiseworthy heart health, cranky donors and a deep-fried duel
DECEMBER 6, 2022Amen to good heart healthA new study suggests that participating in religious activities, from church services to private prayer, and holding deep spiritual beliefs are linked to better...
All The News That’s Fit: Hepatitis C, salt substitutes and COVID stats
NOVEMBER 29, 2022C as in checkupHepatitis C can be a devastating disease, leading to liver failure, cancer and death if untreated. For more than a decade, there has been an...
All The News That’s Fit: Life expectancy, sick leave and feelings on food
NOVEMBER 22, 2022Lowered expectationsCompared with people in other middle- and high-income countries, Americans die young — and sometimes needlessly — because of inadequate access to health care. A report from...
All The News That’s Fit: Salivary glands, Lyme disease and alcohol use disorder
NOVEMBER 15, 2022Vitamin D gets an FIn recent years, vitamin D has been touted as a potential therapeutic for everything from heart disease and cancer to diabetes and depression. The...
All The News That’s Fit: Vitamin research, human composting and robohips
NOVEMBER 8, 2022Thinking about vitaminsLots of dietary supplements have been touted as helping prevent cognitive decline in older adults, though almost none have any compelling empirical evidence to back up...
All The News That’s Fit: Obesity, eggs in waiting and sugar myths
NOVEMBER 1, 2022Obesity on the riseObesity is an expanding national health crisis. Nineteen states and two territories have at least 35 percent of residents with adult obesity, more than doubling...
All the News That’s Fit: Baby talk, vaccine disruption and vestigial features
OCTOBER 25, 2022We all speak baby talkAfter analyzing 1,600 samples of speech and song from 21 societies on six continents, researchers have concluded that baby talk and lullabies are universally...
All the News That’s Fit: Lung capacity, heat’s health effects and beaver scents
OCTOBER 18, 2022Violent crime and heart diseaseIt’s more correlation than causation, but a new study found that deaths from heart disease dropped in association with a decline in gun violence....
All the News That’s Fit: Word clumps, fans of bees and split squats
OCTOBER 11, 2022COVID consequencesThe pandemic made lots of things worse, including resistance to antimicrobial medicines, which rose an estimated 15 percent in the pandemic’s first year, according to the CDC.It...
All the News That’s Fit: Spilling the tea, neck vertebrae and OTC birth control pills
OCTOBER 4, 2022Suits me to a teaGreen tea generally gets all of the love from health aficionados. It has been associated with improved brain function, fat loss, cancer risk reduction...
All The News That’s Fit: Music’s mellowness, COVID stats and coma-ending tunes
SEPTEMBER 27, 2022Music to my fearsSome 50 years ago, someone noticed that music seemed to dull pain during dental operations, and dentists everywhere have been playing Muzak ever since —...
All The News That’s Fit: Kids’ noses, air swimming and butter-free burn treatment
SEPTEMBER 20, 2022Pill postureResearchers at Johns Hopkins University report that standing or sitting tall helps accelerate absorption and effectiveness of pain relievers taken orally. It’s all about fluid dynamics.Most pills...
All The News That’s Fit: Germy sponges, coffee perks and a good night’s sleep
SEPTEMBER 13, 2022Holey microbes!A used kitchen sponge wallowing in the sink may be the germiest thing you touch on a daily basis, far “dirtier” than the dishes it is supposed...
All The News That’s Fit: Mosquito preferences, pandemic work absences and the benefits of a runny nose
SEPTEMBER 6, 2022Latest buzzYou probably missed it, but Aug. 20 was World Mosquito Day, in recognition (if not honor) of the insect responsible for nearly one-fifth of all vector-borne infectious...
All the News That’s Fit: BMI and vaccines, life expectancy and multiorgan transplants
AUGUST 30, 2022A weighty responseStudies suggest flu shots are less effective in people with obesity, perhaps due to an altered immune response, so similar concerns have been raised about COVID...
All the News That’s Fit: Jumbo bacteria, indoor air pollution and vaccine facts
AUGUST 23, 2002Big bacteria newsMost bacteria are tiny. You could fit thousands of them on the period at the end of this sentence. But on submerged leaves in the Caribbean...
All the News That’s Fit: Brain charts, tattoo ink and lengthy blood vessels
AUGUST 16, 2022This is your average brainFor the first time, scientists have created reference charts for the human brain, mapping its growth from infancy to 100 years old. It’s a...
All the News That’s Fit: Monkeypox renaming, medical cannabis and aspirin’s invention
AUGUST 9, 2022Monkeypox by another nameThere’s a push by scientists in Africa and elsewhere to rename the virus that causes monkeypox because it is stigmatizing and inaccurate. Historically, monkeypox infections...
All the News That’s Fit: Danger on the road, thyroid facts and an artificial heart
AUGUST 2, 2022Dangerous times on the roadYou can be the safest driver on the road, but chances are you’re not alone on the road, a good reason to always drive...
All The News That’s Fit: The end of your nose, tricep dips and FDA lingo
JULY 26, 2022Ring in the babyA small study found that the Oura ring, which contains sensors to monitor body temperature, appears to do a pretty good job of detecting pregnancies....
All The News That’s Fit: Humming a tune, birth rate and hefty hotcakes
JULY 19, 2022Sunshine in a tomato the Flavr Savr tomato in the 1980s, the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to improve shelf life and fungal resistance? Researchers recently reported...
All The News That’s Fit: Sleepless nights, inactive preschoolers and robot surgeons
JULY 12, 2022Sleepless over climate changeThe warming Earth is ruining sleep. From 2015 to 2017, global temperatures rose to an average 86 degrees Fahrenheit. At the same time, according to...
All The News That’s Fit: Inflexible arteries, immunization history and snoring prevention
JULY 5, 2022Stiff arteriesHigh blood pressure is a well-known risk factor for developing Type 2 diabetes, an affliction that affects 1 in 10 Americans and is increasing in prevalence. New...
All The News That’s Fit: Cancer’s link to wildfires, testicular tissue and forgetfulness
June 28, 2022Wildfires and cancerResearchers tracked more than 2 million Canadians over a period of 20 years to determine how proximity to wildfires, which tend to recur in the same...
All The News That’s Fit: Toilet seat stunts, sandwich records and concussive coconuts
June 21, 2022Get me that. Stat!The World Health Organization estimates the global death toll due to COVID-19 in the pandemic’s first two years is 15 million. The U.S. recently ed...
All The News That’s Fit: Babies’ bones, diversity in medicine and a Spam record
June 14, 2022Body of knowledgeNewborn babies have nearly 100 more bones than full-grown adults. Many of these bones will fuse over time.Get me that. Stat!Clinical faculties and academic leadership at...
All The News That’s Fit: Hypertension during pregnancy, hospital costs and celebrity kidney stones
JUNE 7, 2022Hypertension during pregnancyHypertension, or high blood pressure, during pregnancy is a growing problem, one that affects twice as many Black as White patients. Results from a new clinical...
All The News That’s Fit: Aspirin and your heart, cancer’s cost and Yellow #5
MAY 31, 2022Food for thoughtThat lovely, if perhaps slightly unreal, yellow color in your packaged macaroni and cheese is due in part to a byproduct of the petroleum industry: coal...
All The News That’s Fit: Alcohol’s downsides, kids’ mental health and hypochondria
May 17, 2022Gulp: Alcohol may not be good for your heartThe so-called “French paradox” suggests that light consumption of alcohol (typically in the form of wine) may actually promote cardiovascular...
All The News That’s Fit: E-cigs and youth, nostril ‘expertise’ and stethoscope history
May 10, 2022Down in smokeOverall tobacco use among U.S. adults is in decline, reports the CDC. Though almost 1 in 5 people still use cigarettes, cigars, pipes or smokeless tobacco,...
All The News That’s Fit: Mammograms’ heart help, narcissicists and eccentric inventions
May 3, 2022Keeping abreast of heart disease riskRoutine mammograms often reveal calcifications in the breast: bright white lines snaking through the tissue. While not a sign of cancer, new research...
All The News That’s Fit: Functional fat, muscle types and hospitals on hot days
APRIL 26, 2022Trained fatFat or adipose tissue isn’t just inert blubber threatening our health and self-esteem, it’s a functional part of our bodies, interacting with other organs to boost muscle...
This week in health news: Yes, financial strain can kill you
APRIL 19, 2022At the heart of the problem: moneyAmong older people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack, severe financial strain — having too little money each month to...
All the News That’s Fit: Flu season recap, amazing eyesight and ‘geographic tongue’
April 12, 2022The season flu byWe’re wrapping up a second full flu season in the middle of a pandemic, and like 2020-2021, the latest season has proved to be thankfully...
All The News That’s Fit: COVID’s longer lasting consequences, ER visits and binge-drinking
April 5, 2022COVID’s longer lasting consequencesThere’s “long COVID,” defined as cases in which persons experience new, returning or ongoing health problems more than four weeks after first being infected with...
Free memory screenings offered this month for those 75 and older
The late and aptly named English actor Norman Wisdom once opined: “As you get older, three things happen. The first is your memory goes. I can’t the other two.”Well,...
Antidote to dementia? For now, knowledge, so read on
Dementia is considered a major public health threat in America, with millions of sufferers and caregivers affected. And an international study published in late-2018 says the number of individuals living...
Early detection is key in slowing Alzheimer’s
The statistics of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are impossible to forget and foolish to ignore.More than 5 million Americans live with this degenerative neurological condition. By 2050, that number could be...
Memory checkup: It’s worth keeping in mind
This is worth ing: Forgetfulness is part of life, a natural and normal consequence aging. In later years, though, when moments of absent-mindedness or confusion increase, a question begins to...
All the News That’s Fit
Think before you drink, then don’tLike a bad hangover, the debate over drinking during pregnancy lingers, with some people citing past research that suggests moderate alcohol consumption is beneficial to...
Health notes: Pot use up
Stories for the waiting roomThe percentage of Americans who reported using marijuana in the past year more than doubled between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013, according to the National Institute on Alcohol...
Social media unplugged
It’s well documented that teens need a good eight to nine hours of solid sleep each night to perform well in school and develop healthfully. But even parents successful at...
Weed use going to pot
Despite legalization (in one form or another) in many states, marijuana use has declined in a surprising demographic: American high school students. Data published recently in the journal Drug and...
Premature good news long awaited
Extremely premature infants are babies born before the 28th week of pregnancy, or basically three months earlier than the average human gestation. Being born so early in their prenatal development...
Head games
In an effort to reduce concussions, a rising number of athletes are being equipped with sensors designed to measure impact forces to the head, and thus, giving coaches and sideline...
Give ’em a break
It’s bad enough that two-thirds of American adults are considered to be overweight or obese, but there’s something particularly alarming about the fact that one-third of American children are too....
Nothing says I’m blessed more than a cupcake
Feeling thankful? Feel like a Snickers bar?According to Ann Schlosser, a professor of marketing at the University of Washington, feeling grateful for the helpful actions of others increases one’s preference...
IQ by Two
Researchers at the University of Warwick in England report that the IQ of adults born very premature or of very low birth weight can be predicted as early as two...
Spice of life
A recent large Chinese study that followed more than 485,000 participants over an average of seven years has found that a spicier diet was associated with a reduced risk of...
Get a grip
Let’s say your body mass index (weight divided by height squared) falls within “normal.” That’s good, right. Not necessarily if you’re skinny because you simply lack muscle mass. Researchers at...
Pinpoint surgery
Needlescopic surgery, which has been around since the 1990s, involves using surgical instruments shrunk to the size of a sewing needle. It’s the ultimate version of minimally invasive surgery (incisions...
Call your therapist
A small study out of Northwestern University suggests how much you use your iPhone and where you go over the course of a day may indicate if you’re depressed or...
A new wrinkle in aging
Among the traditional rites at high school reunions and similar events is the universal assessment of attendees who have hardly seemed to age and those who have, well, gotten “really...
Good natured
A new study finds that people who take a 90-minute walk in a natural area — the woods or a park, for example — compared to similar strollers in high-traffic...
Refer badness
Even as more people find it possible to buy edible medical marijuana products for what ails them, a problem remains: Dosages. A Johns Hopkins University survey found that various marketed...
Look on the bright side
Feeling down? Cheer up. Researchers at Penn State say adults who are stressed but remain defiantly happy are healthier because their bodies appear to dampen levels of inflammatory stress hormones....
Ink again
Getting a tattoo remains a popular practice (one in five adult Americans now has at least one), despite eternal warnings and evidence that many such indulgences are destined to become...
Rhythm and speech
Stuttering may be more than a speech problem, according to Michigan State University researchers who say children who stutter also have difficulty identifying rhythmic drumbeats.“Stuttering has primarily been interpreted as...
In sickness and in health
Marriage is all about sharing, and one of the things shared is health. A new study shows that as couples get older, the health of one partner can have a...
Better teddy than deddy
The operating room of a hospital is one of the cleanest places on the planet — or should be. Patients here are often at their most vulnerable to infection, and...
One size doesn’t fit all
It may seem an obvious truth that all really fat people look alike. It’s not true.Neither is it true that all really fat people should receive the same obesity treatment....
An idea with teeth
Nobody likes tooth decay, not least because the remedy involves fillings, crowns, bridges and worse. Rodents don’t have that problem. They may lack pearly whites, but they benefit from the...
It’s the kill thing
Researchers at UC Davis asked healthy young adults to consume drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. After just two weeks, the young adults weren’t so healthy, showing increases in three...
Bald but plucky
It seems a kind of hearsay (hair-say?), but researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California have found that by tweezing out 200 hairs in...
Depression as your worst nightmare
If you’re prone to frequent nightmares, the underlying cause may be depression or, oddly enough, insomnia, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Turku in Finland.The...
Concussion blood marker could be a hit
Determining whether someone —like a football player, for example — has suffered a concussion can be difficult. The lines between yes, no and maybe can be a little fuzzy. What’s...
Weighting for change
For many good reasons, health experts and policymakers continually seek ways to encourage Americans to become healthier. Mostly these efforts fall short. (Raise your hand if you’ve met your New...
Till divorce do they part
In marriages where the wife experiences a serious illness, Iowa State University researchers say they have found a 6 percent higher probability of divorce than in couples in which the...
Pulling a fast one
The secret to a long and healthy life may not be skipping the occasional meal, but rather skipping a day of them, then gorging the next. Researchers at the University...
Booze views
Perhaps it’s a stretch to think of YouTube as, say, the voice of parental wisdom, but researchers at the University of Pittsburgh suggest it could do a better job of...
Winning the poo
Researchers at the University of Melbourne recently announced that they had sequenced the genome of Toxocara canis, which might not seem like significant news — scientists seem to sequencing a...
New Yuck
Back in 2013, the New York City Planning Department estimated that, as of July of that year, the urban rat population stood at 8,405,837 – an oddly precise estimate that...
Music with a heartbeat
After analyzing the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, a research team boasting a cardiologist, medical historian and musicologist suggest some of his most striking rhythms may have been inspired by...
News flash: Menopause is bad for the hips
Women who experience moderate to severe hot flashes and night sweats during menopause tend to have higher rates of hip fracture, according to researchers at the University of Buffalo. They...
Reefer tweeters
For advocates and partakers of marijuana (medicinal or otherwise), the Twitterverse is apparently smoking hot. Researchers at Washington University (the state is one of three where cannabis use is legal)...
Sleep it off
It’s commonly accepted that teens who are sleep-deprived (less than the recommended 8-10 hours per night) suffer the consequences. They do more poorly in school and they’re more likely to...
Animals and autism
It’s been known for a while that pet dogs can help improve the social skills of children with autism. The dogs act like a kind of “social lubricant,” encouraging autistic...
Light reading
Lots of people go to bed with a good book (or even a bad one), knowing that within a few pages the words will start to blur, the head begin...
Try this protein on for thighs
That old excuse about “big bones” doesn’t really explain why some folks are fat – or tend to put on weight faster than others – but there might be another...
Mite makes flight
Judged by its name (if not by its looks), Dermatophagoides ssp., aka the ordinary house dust mite, is something of a plubby homebody. It feeds on organic detritus, most notably...
Home sweet happy place
In 2013, Time magazine declared the “end of suburbs,” announcing that Americans by the millions were shifting to what planners call the “urban core.” The latest news isn’t going to...