The theory behind artificial sweeteners is simple: If you use them instead of sugar, you get the joy of sweet-tasting beverages and foods without the downer of extra calories, potential weight gain and related health issues. In practice, it’s not…
Stressful experiences ‘can age the brain by four years’
Stressful events in life, such as the death of a child, divorce or being fired, can age the brain by at least four years, US researchers suggests. They looked at performance in memory and thinking tests of 1,300 people in…
Hearing is believing: Speech may be a clue to mental decline
Your speech may, um, help reveal if you’re uh … developing thinking problems. More pauses, filler words and other verbal changes might be an early sign of mental decline, which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, a study suggests. Researchers had…
Doctor finds 27 contact lenses lost in woman’s eye, British Medical Journal reports
A brief write-up in the British Medical Journal claims that doctors found 27 contact lenses in a 67-year-old patient’s eye when she was being prepped for surgery at England’s Solihull Hospital. The piece was authored by Rupal Morjaria, a specialist trainee ophthalmologist, Richard…
‘We want to work:’ Striking nurses gather outside Tufts Medical Center
About 100 members of the striking Massachusetts Nurses Association made a symbolic effort to return to work at the Tufts Medical Center Thursday, but were rebuffed by security as the first nurses strike against a Boston hospital since 1986 turned…
Bad sleep may be an evolutionary survival tool
Trouble sleeping is a common complaint among older folks, but what if their insomnia traces back to prehistoric times when Grandma and Grandpa were in charge of keeping the cave safe at night? A new study of modern hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania…
Park worker’s family warns about danger of tick-borne virus
Family of an eastern Missouri park worker who relatives say died of complications from the tick-borne Bourbon virus are warning the public about the illness. Tamela Wilson, 58, worked at Meramec State Park, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/2tMMMuZ ) reported. The…
Placebos can work even when patients know what they are
Lying to patients is almost always unethical. But, in order for placebos to work, we have to believe they are “real” treatments, which means the doctor would have to lie to us and say that the placebo was actually a real…
Simply Smelling Food Can Cause Weight Gain
New research suggests that the odor of food eaten may play an important role in how the body handles the calories. Smell is a large part of the appeal of food. If one’s sense of smell were removed, he would…
More Than 50,000 People Now Alive Thanks To NHS Organ Donations
‘Someone amazing gave us all of this and we will never forget them.’ The number of people currently known to be alive thanks to organ transplants has broken 50,000 for the first time. According to a new report by NHS…