Many Americans experience a “winter funk” as the days grow shorter and temperatures turn colder, a new American Psychiatric Association poll reports. Two-fifths of Americans (41%) said their mood declines during the winter months, according to the APA’s Healthy Minds Poll. Midwesterners and Northeasterners are most affected, where 52% and 46%, respectively, said they tend…  read on >  read on >

Eating fewer burgers and steaks could pay big dividends for Mother Earth, and human health, by combatting climate change, a new study suggests. Small cutbacks in beef production among wealthy nations could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, researchers report — an amount that exceeds the total number of global fossil…  read on >  read on >

Banning menthol cigarettes could help convince smokers quit the habit, a new study finds. People who prefer menthol cigarettes would rather buy nicotine gum or other nicotine replacement therapies than switch to traditional tobacco cigarettes, researchers reported recently in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. In addition, menthol cigarette smokers were less likely to use…  read on >  read on >

Women who’ve had concussions are more likely to suffer severe mental health problems following childbirth, a new study shows. A history of concussion increased a new mother’s risk of severe mental illness by 25%, after adjusting for other factors, Canadian researchers reported. “We found that individuals with a history of concussion were significantly more likely…  read on >  read on >