If your kid is highly skilled at hockey but wants to try basketball, new research suggests you shouldn’t worry about whether that might cost your child a college scholarship. Researchers surveyed 91 professional and collegiate ice hockey players and found they tended to play multiple sports as children, and only started to focus solely on… read on >
When you have serious food allergies, eating at a restaurant can literally mean risking your life. But new research suggests you can take steps to protect yourself when dining out. In fact, the more steps you take to protect yourself from exposure to the allergic substance, the less likely you are to have an allergic… read on >
Milk allergy affects more than half of American infants who have food allergies in their first year of life, a new study finds. However, study lead author Christopher Warren said, “Our findings suggest that while milk allergy is relatively common during infancy, many children are likely to outgrow their milk allergies. “We observed that while… read on >
The “hygiene hypothesis” holds that early exposure to a variety of microorganisms may decrease the risk for chronic inflammatory diseases, like asthma. Two Swedish studies that tracked 650,000 children found that exposure to farm animals and even dogs can have this kind of beneficial effect. Living on a farm cut kids’ asthma rate by half.… read on >
Your EpiPen will still work after being frozen, researchers report. The epinephrine auto-injector can be lifesaving in cases of severe allergic reaction, and millions of Americans carry the devices. In this study, researchers “took 104 same-lot pairs of [EpiPens] and froze one of each pair for 24 hours, while the other was kept at recommended… read on >
While taking a long, brisk walk is great exercise, you’ll need to pay extra attention if you’re walking along busy streets. Here are tips for pedestrians, courtesy of the New Jersey Division of Highway Safety: Only cross the street at a crosswalk. Pay attention to road signs and cars around you. Don’t assume that cars… read on >
When vocal cords become inflamed, it is more difficult to speak and the voice could sound hoarse, the Nemours Foundation says. The voice is produced by the processes of lengthening, shortening, tensing and relaxing the vocal cords. Laryngitis may be triggered by speaking or singing loudly, or by excess stomach acid that backs up into… read on >
Coffee’s bitter taste shouldn’t be a selling point. But a genetic variant explains why so many people love the brew, a new study suggests. Bitterness evolved as a natural warning system to protect people from harmful substances. That means they should want to spit out coffee, the researchers said. But their study of more than… read on >
Prejudice directed at older people results in $63 billion in excess health costs each year in the United States, a new study claims. Ageism, which is the marginalization of the elderly in society, accounts for one of every seven dollars spent on the eight most expensive health conditions for Americans older than 60. Those conditions… read on >
The new movie “Boy Erased”– about a gay teen’s ordeal when forced to attend a “conversion therapy” program — is shining a spotlight on a treatment deemed bogus and harmful by most experts. And new research shows the key role parents often play in efforts to change an LGBT child’s sexual orientation. The first-of-its-kind study,… read on >
