Pop tunes, smooth jams and banging beats can help people more easily recover from surgery with fewer painkillers, a new review finds. Listening to music reduces the anxiety, pain and heart rate of patients waking up from surgery, researchers found. As a result, surgical patients provided music tended to need less than half the amount… read on > read on >
Intrauterine devices (IUDs) may raise the chances of a breast cancer diagnosis for women who use the hormonal birth control method, but that risk remains low, new research finds. In the study of 150,000 Danish women, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers discovered there was a 40% higher risk of… read on > read on >
Folks who struggle to reduce their carb intake might be able to blame ancient DNA still lurking in humans, a new study suggests. Humans carry multiple copies of the salivary amylase gene (AMY1), which helps begin breaking down starch in the mouth — the first step in digesting carb-laden foods like bread and pasta, researchers… read on > read on >
A global real-world study of the vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) finds it offers folks aged 60 and over 80% protection against severe illness and/or hospitalization. With U.S. vaccination rates falling, “I encourage older adults to follow CDC guidance and get vaccinated for RSV as we enter this year’s and every year’s respiratory disease… read on > read on >
Having close family and friends who care about their health makes women more likely to get regularly screened for cancer, a new study has found. Women are more likely to undergo regular cancer screening if they have a tighter web of social and emotional connections, researchers reported Oct. 17 in the journal Cancer Causes &… read on > read on >
Kids with good physical fitness are more likely to grow into teens with better mental health and brain function, a new study has found. Children who performed better at shuttle sprints scored better on cognitive tests as teenagers, researchers found. In addition, better cardio fitness in childhood added up to lower levels of stress and… read on > read on >
PFAS “forever chemicals” can be found in drinking water around the world, whether it comes from a tap or a bottle, a new study warns. Ten specific PFAS chemicals were found in samples of bottled and tap water sourced from 15 countries around the world, researchers report. For example, the chemicals PFOA and PFOS were… read on > read on >
Depression can make it tougher for athletes to recover from a concussion, and vice versa, a new study finds. Student athletes who have both concussion and depression have significantly worse symptoms for both conditions, researchers reported recently in the journal Brain Research. What’s more, electrical signals in the brain are more disrupted among people with… read on > read on >
The 2023 illness and death in Nebraska of a stray kitten infected with rabies set off a large-scale effort to discover how the feline became infected in the first place. That’s because the strain of rabies the 6-week old kitten carried had never been detected so far west: The nearest other cases of the Eastern… read on > read on >
Is vaping finally losing its coolness for American teens? The latest tally of federal data finds that 550,000 school kids, mostly high schoolers, quit using e-cigarettes in 2024. Vaping rates fell from 10% of high school students in 2023 to 7.8% this year, “reaching the lowest level ever measured” by the National Youth Tobacco Survey,… read on > read on >
