Results tagged “health” from 60 Second Science
Ted Alvarez on February 19, 2008 5:02 PM
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From our friends at
Breathalyzers are no longer just good for getting a DUI citation. Now when a police officer suspends your driver’s license he can throw in, “By the way, not only is your blood alcohol level over the legal limit, but according to my breathalyzer—you have an inoperable malignant brain tumor.” Indeed, scientists have found that by simply blasting a person's breath with laser light, you can detect specific molecules that will tell you whether or not they have specific diseases like diabetes or cancer.
Actually, this StarTrekish advancement is not intended to diagnose drunkenness (although it can do that too), but rather is meant to make professional medical diagnostics quicker, less expensive, less painful and potentially even more accurate that current methods. Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder say the advancement would allow doctors to simultaneously screen for a variety of conditions with a mere exhale. Known as optical frequency comb spectroscopy, the technology earned it’s creators a Nobel Prize in physics, and is powerful enough to sort through all the molecules in human breath while also being sensitive enough to distinguish rare molecules that can serve as biomarkers for specific diseases.
Continue reading 'Futuristic "Breathalyzer" Laser Created that Can Assess Personal Health with a Mere Exhale' >
Ted Alvarez on February 5, 2008 3:24 PM
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"Not to tonight, honey — I have a headache." Is there a more dreaded phrase in common parlance? I think not. But the wifey is either going to have to get more creative or buy a chastity belt, because recent research points to the idea that sex might actually cure migraine headaches, especially in women.
Oklahoma Health Sciences Center neurology professor James Couch first thought sex might cure headaches back in 1988, based on the context clues of a perhaps particularly randy patient.
"This lady said 'I really don't need a pill, I need a guy's phone number," [he said]. [...] The patient told Couch she had trouble curing her headaches since her husband had divorced her and she'd signed up for a pain treatment study.
Couch thought this was interesting, in a scientific way, of course. "A physiologic process — the climax — is turning off another physiologic process," said Couch.
The inquisitive Couch soldiered on, asking 84 female migraine patients what happened when they had sex during migraines. 61 percent reported some relief, which means for them, sex was comparable to modern migraine medications called triptans, which are thought to ease 60 to 80 percent of migraines. Even more impressively, 20 percent of women reported that sex cured their migraines completely, while triptans may cure migraines 30 percent of the time.
"Four women said it literally stopped the headache, period," said Couch. "No matter when the headache occurred, it stopped the headache cold."
Score one for...scoring! But there is some bad news, especially for men.
Continue reading 'Sex can sometimes cure headaches; world's housewives still 'not in the mood'' >
Ted Alvarez on January 25, 2008 3:33 PM
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There was a dark period in my young life where I consumed between 2 and 40 cans of coke a day — not Diet Coke or Pepsi, mind you, but pure, unfiltered, Triple-C Coca-Cola Classic. (Only the best for my body, I always say). I had to quit when my sugar levels got so high I would lift a bus but then crash hard and take a nap right on the curb after I threw it. That's how the cops find you.
I hadn't thought about it much since, but now I'm a little bit worried about my past: Drinking two or more cola drinks, artificially sweetened or not, can lead to a twofold risk of chronic, serious kidney disease, according to a study published in the journal Epidemiology.
Colas contain high levels of phosphoric acid, which has been linked to kidney stones and renal problems, but the evidence was considered largel anecdotal and circumstantial until the NIH decided to investigate.
Continue reading 'Put down the Coke, Lindsay — no, the one you're drinking — unless you want kidney problems' >
Ted Alvarez on January 9, 2008 6:12 PM
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You remember ten years ago, when all the FDA oatmeal research came in showing how good it was for you? It turned out your grandpa was right — oatmeal was fantastic for your health and heart, and you couldn't make fun of him for subscribing to Oatmeal Enthusiast anymore.
Well, grandpa just got right-er: Oatmeal is even better for you than previously thought. Dr. James W. Anderson, professor of medicine and clinical nutrition at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, just published “The Oatmeal-Cholesterol Connection: 10 Years Later” in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. Turns out that oatmeal's positive benefits exceeded the FDA's claims.
It looks like breakfast time is going to get really mealy, kids.
Continue reading 'It's the right thing to do: Oatmeal even better for you than previously thought' >
Ted Alvarez on January 7, 2008 2:56 PM
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I'll always be forever grateful to the overlords at 60 Second Science for giving me a job that practically mandates I stay in my underwear and drool all day. So what if I get paid in Nestle products? Did I mention the underwear, or the drooling?
But maybe I should be a little concerned: After the recent heart attack of blogger Om Malik of Giga Om, some brand-name bloggers report that the stress of their jobs can create serious health problems.
Health problems other than morbid obesity and missing out on a woman's touch for decades on end? I'm listening.
Continue reading '"Stress" of blogging could be hazardous to your health, sex life' >
Ted Alvarez on January 4, 2008 1:02 PM
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Ted Alvarez on December 31, 2007 1:45 PM
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Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by the annoyingly clever and oh-so-realistic House:
Debunking Medical Myths
Full transcript after the jump...
Continue reading 'Debunking Medical Myths [podcast]' >
Ted Alvarez on December 28, 2007 2:11 AM
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Ted Alvarez on December 27, 2007 2:17 AM
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Ted Alvarez on December 19, 2007 3:23 PM
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I live near the mountains, which attracts all types of people who seek to be closer to nature in lifestyle without really being prepared for it — most don't know how to stay warm in the winter, and if they had to, they couldn't even slay an elk with their bare hands, like me. But basically, it means while waiting in line at Vitamin Cottage I have to listen to all sorts of yupster hippies complain about all of us rubes who cook our food, thereby robbing it of Mother Nature's natural nutritional gifts. (The raw foodists look like they're talking amongst themselves, but all along I see them shooting sidelong glances at me. So what if I still have steak in the corners of my mouth? I don't complain about your licey dreads; I just cut them off while you sleep.)
Anyway, put down that buckwheat stalk, Sunshine, and listen up: New evidence by Italian researchers shows that cooking certain types of food might actually boost its nutritional value. In the Dec. 26 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Nicoletta Pellegrini and colleagues from the University of Parma tested the effects of boiling, steaming and frying on the nutritional components of carrots, zucchini and broccoli. Not surprisingly, frying reduced the antioxidant compounds of the vegetables, but boiling and steaming maintained antioxidant levels across the board. In broccoli, steaming actually increased the content of glucosinolates, a group of plant compounds lauded for their cancer-fighting abilities.
Continue reading 'Eat it, raw foodists: Cooking can boost nutrional value of vegetables' >
Ted Alvarez on November 27, 2007 2:22 AM
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Maia Szalavitz on November 14, 2007 2:15 PM
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Two cool “medical mystery” stories of note in the current issue of The Scientist show why “all natural” ingredients can often been “all deadly.”
One finds a nasty parasite in a popular fruit drink often touted as an anti-aging miracle; another unravels the cause of a mysterious, fatal kidney disease in Croatia, which seemed to selectively target certain unlucky families. I won’t spoil it here, but this story, too, has implications beyond the small pockets of affected people in that part of Europe.
Ted Alvarez on November 1, 2007 3:15 PM
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My personal theory was right all along -- lasers really are the answer to everything. Physicist Kong-Thon Tsen of Arizona State University and his son, Shaw-Wei Tsen, a pathology student at Johns Hopkins, singlehandedly redefined the idea of Take-Your-Son-to-Work Day by developing a superfast pulsing laser that can destroy viruses without harming healthy cells. In the future, this totally rad ultrashort-pulse (USP) laser could possibly be used to treat incurable viruses like HIV.
In the latest research, Tsen and his son demonstrated that their laser technique could shatter the protein shell, or capsid, of the tobacco mosaic virus, leaving behind only a harmless mucus-like mash of molecules.
The laser shattered the capsid at low energy: 40 times lower, in fact, than the energy level that harmed human T-cells. Other types of radiation, like ultraviolet light, kill microbes on produce, but would damage human cells.
Continue reading 'Superfast lasers could fix incurable viruses, everything else' >
Ted Alvarez on October 30, 2007 4:00 PM
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As the world population eats more crap and exercises less, the numbers of people afflicted with diabetes rises to match it: There were approximately 171 million diabetics in 2000, and researchers estimate 366 million people will have it by 2030. Diabetes diagnoses traditionally get split into type 1, which requires insulin injections to treat, and type 2, which can be managed with diet and exercise. But an article in NewScientist covers a disturbing trend in which newly diagnosed diabetics exhibit symptoms of both type 1 and type 2 diabetics.
More and more children exhibit some symptoms of both types, which some researchers informally call "type 1.5.," while increasing numbers of adults are developing full-blown symptoms of both — a condition known as "double diabetes." These diagnoses present new treatment challenges for physicians and call the very classification of the disease into question.
Continue reading ''Double diabetes' opens door to new definition of disease' >
Corey Binns on October 25, 2007 2:50 PM
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Fast food joints in New York City are about to face their worst nightmare: big, bold calories.
City health officials have put together a regulation that will require some restaurants to advertise calories on the big menus that hang above cashiers. If the law goes into effect, calories will get as much real estate on a menu as the price of a Big Mac or a Whopper.
Continue reading 'Calories may soon hit menus at fast food restaurants' >
