Live musical performances speak to the soul, stimulating the brain in ways more powerful than listening to a recorded tune does, new research finds. “Our study showed that pleasant and unpleasant emotions performed as live music elicited much higher and more consistent activity in the amygdala [the emotional center of the brain] than recorded music,”…  read on >  read on >

Pesticides and herbicides used in farming appear to increase people’s risk of Parkinson’s disease, a new, preliminary study finds. People exposed to pesticides and herbicides are 25% to 36% more likely to develop Parkinson’s, according to a study to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s upcoming annual meeting in April. The Parkinson’s risk…  read on >  read on >

Stuffy, sneezing, miserable: folks plagued by chronic sinusitis know the feeling all too well. Experts at University of Cincinnati Health say it’s also an all-too-common affliction, affecting an estimated 14.6% of Americans. What is chronic sinusitis? The sinuses are air-filled spaces in the skull at the back of the face, and they rely on mucus…  read on >  read on >

One out of every five adults who attempt suicide never met the criteria for a mental illness by the time the attempt happened, new research shows. “This finding challenges clinical notions of who is at risk for suicidal behavior and raises questions about the safety of limiting suicide risk screening to psychiatric populations,” concluded a…  read on >  read on >

Weather disasters driven by climate change are stressing out U.S. teenagers, a new study warns. Teens with the most firsthand experience of events like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, droughts and wildfires were more likely to show signs of mental distress than peers who hadn’t been confronted with the effects of climate change, researchers report. “We know…  read on >  read on >

Excess fat around your pancreas could bode ill for the health of your aging brain, new research shows. But maybe only if you’re male: The relationship wasn’t observed among women, noted the team from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. “In middle-aged males at high Alzheimer’s disease risk — but not females –higher pancreatic fat…  read on >  read on >

Well-to-do American families are more likely than poorer families to increase their children’s risk of cervical cancer by skipping the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, a new study has found. Nearly two-thirds of well-off parents (65%) do not intend to seek out the HPV vaccine for their teens, compared with 40% of disadvantaged parents, researchers report.…  read on >  read on >