Even getting a good night’s sleep requires some thought and preparation. The National Sleep Foundation offers these suggestions: Go to sleep at the same time every night, even on weekends. Create a relaxing bedtime ritual. Avoid naps. Exercise daily. Maintain a cool sleeping temperature between 60 degrees and 67 degrees. Buy a comfortable mattress and… read on >
A full moon may spell extra danger for motorcyclists, a new study suggests. Momentary distractions are a common cause of crashes. Because a full moon can be a major distraction and occurs about 12 times a year, researchers decided to investigate whether full moons might be linked to more motorcyclists’ deaths. “Glancing at the full… read on >
When it comes to kids with cancer, most health care providers who care for them say they’d help their patients get medical marijuana. That finding stems from an analysis of survey responses from 288 doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, social workers and registered nurses. The survey respondents — in Boston, Chicago and Seattle —… read on >
Buying new clothes for an upcoming holiday trip may top your to-do list, but packing the right medications can mean addressing health needs with ease rather than scrambling to find an all-night drugstore in a strange city. Prescription medications are the top priority, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bring enough… read on >
As winter rolls into town, so does the flu and all its miserable symptoms. Yet, doctors and women alike have long noticed that men tend to bemoan those symptoms more than women. The phenomenon even has a name: the “man flu.” So, are men just whiny wimps? No, a new analysis out of Canada suggests,… read on >
The flu may be dangerous enough, but it’s even more of a threat for women who are pregnant. All women should get the annual flu vaccine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises. If you do develop the flu while pregnant, the CDC suggests: Begin treatment as soon as possible. Antiviral drugs work… read on >
Decades after the danger was first recognized, young children are still being injured or even killed by the cords in window blinds. Researchers found that between 1990 and 2015, nearly 17,000 U.S. children younger than 6 years landed in the ER for injuries related to window blinds. Most often, the injuries were not serious. However,… read on >
The chance of dying from a common heart rhythm disorder is higher for people treated at rural rather than urban hospitals, a new study finds. The researchers analyzed data from hospitalizations for the heart ailment known as atrial fibrillation — or a-fib — in the United States between 2012 and 2014. A-fib can lead to… read on >
Coming just days after reports of a gene therapy that pushed the bleeding disorder hemophilia B into remission, new research suggests the same could be true for adults with the “A” form of the disease. That’s significant because, due to the complexities of the gene responsible for hemophilia A, experts had thought it might be… read on >
If your pooch responds well to your smiling face, the “love hormone” oxytocin might have something to do with it, new research suggests. Produced naturally by humans and dogs, the hormone “influences what the dog sees and how it experiences the thing it sees,” said study co-author Sanni Somppi. She’s a graduate student at the… read on >
