Doctors are notorious for criticizing patients who don’t take medications as prescribed. But physicians and their families are themselves less likely than everyone else to comply with medication guidelines, a new, large-scale study has found. People tend to adhere to medication guidelines about 54% of the time, while doctors and their families lag about 4…  read on >  read on >

Red may be a traditional holiday color, but no one wants to wear it on their teeth. An expert offers some tips for keeping “wine teeth” at bay during your holiday parties. “When you drink red wine, you’re encountering a triple threat to your teeth’s whiteness: anthocyanins, which are the pigments in grapes that give…  read on >  read on >

It’s easy to blame the childhood obesity epidemic for growing cases of type 2 diabetes, but a new study finds nearly one-quarter of all diagnoses are not related to obesity. “The finding was somewhat surprising,” said Dr. Constantine Samaan, an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “The findings…  read on >  read on >

Patients with a high-risk bladder cancer now have a new option to treat it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a gene therapy called Adstiladrin, which is designed to work for patients who have what’s called high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) that hasn’t responded to the standard treatment, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), but…  read on >  read on >

One way to maintain muscle strength with age: Get enough vitamin D. Researchers in Brazil and the United Kingdom found that older folks who were deficient in the vitamin increased their risk of losing muscle strength by 78%. “Vitamin D is known to participate in various functions. …,” said study co-author Tiago da Silva Alexandre,…  read on >  read on >

Black children and teens drown in swimming pools at rates seven times higher than white children, but a new survey suggests that special swimming programs could make a difference and help save lives. The survey, from the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, found that only 25% of Hispanic parents and 28%…  read on >  read on >

Bees, in their role as master pollinators, increase crop yields, leading to more production of healthy fruits, vegetables and nuts. But new research claims that the challenges these important insects face from changes in land use, harmful pesticides and climate change is affecting food production, leading to less healthy food in global diets and more…  read on >  read on >