How to Stop Suicide by Cop

World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.

Preventing seafood fraud won’t be easy, but a new law has potential to stop fish poaching and laundering, which involves mislabeling fish in restaurants.

Communities with more primary care doctors enjoy better health, yet those physicians are a dying breed. Here is what some schools are doing to combat the looming shortage.

Here’s look at where the stuff in your medicine cabinet was manufactured. Just don’t ask if these foreign-made drugs are safe, because in many cases, it’s impossible to say.

For many consumers, the label “fair trade” promotes the inaccurate assumption that a chocolate bar is lower in calories than its competitors.

A toxic molecule found in pond scum may trigger neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Parkinson’s. Could a group of scientists, led by a botanist, hold the key to a cure?

Double-blind trials have long been considered the gold standard to determine drugs’ effectiveness. Do we need to rethink that assumption, given the power of the placebo effect?

Despite evidence that needle exchange programs for drug users slow the spread of AIDS, the new U.S. government spending bill once again defunds such programs.

An industry that’s grown up around a promising way to help people caught in a web of obesity needs to make a few less promises, the FDA declares.

Efforts to slow obesity by taxing sodas hit the wrong target, argue three economists who propose a better-aimed tax on sugar and syrup that even they admit still sidesteps the real problem.

The placebo effect’s ability to influence human healing and human behavior is well documented, but we must be careful to make sure this fakery does no harm.

The upward spiral in U.S. health insurance costs is especially acute for employers that offer the benefit and employees shouldering more of their own costs.

A better reading of American poverty by the Census Bureau shows more are poor than thought, but also that aid programs and tax credits can make a difference.

Researchers across California are working to bring medical microscopes to our cellphones — and vastly improve field medicine.

Researchers advance the idea that ecstasy and other controversial drugs could help treat traumatized combat vets.

Once derided as the wrong path forward in fighting this mosquito-borne killer, a new malaria vaccine offers decent results and renewed hope.

Part training and part treatment, a new kind of sports therapy — Foundation Roots — revamps how active people look at the body’s strength core.

The former U.S. president asks for $93 million to eradicate a neglected disease that lingers in the new Republic of South Sudan.

In the new book “Out of Practice,” a primary care physician tells why he quit his practice and why the care of 78 million aging baby boomers can’t be left to specialists.

The corn industry goes toe-to-toe with the sugar industry, for the use of the word “sugar.”

Researchers propose pulling patients out of anesthesia with “a shot of adrenaline to the brain.”

A researcher who compared the Netherlands’ marijuana use with that of other European countries and the U.S. finds the Dutch regime of tolerated small sales of cannabis does not lead to a drug free-for-all.

A microbiologist on the front lines of antibiotic resistance sees a lot of ways to improve the search and development of new antimicrobials.

A large-scale study suggests 9/11-related stress led to a major increase in health problems across the U.S.

Mark Humayun taps the burgeoning field of bioelectronics to help the blind to see and the lame to walk.

The future may hold a drug therapy for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, but some of the popular choices of the last few years, like Risperdal, won’t be part of it.

The golden rule has some effectiveness as a therapeutic tool, even in treating combat stress.

Does nutrition information help diners make wise decisions in fast-food restaurants? The latest study finds it does with some people — but that’s still a net benefit to society.

A group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with PTSD in a class-action lawsuit settled with the U.S. government to increase their disability benefits.

A tenacious outbreak of tuberculosis in British Columbia demonstrates how using all the research tools available — not just the ones we’re used to — is necessary to improve public health.

And that’s why keeping the larder stocked for safety-net programs such as food stamps may keep people fed and fit.

Despite its martial traditions, Germany has lagged in coming to grips with post-traumatic stress disorder.

When superfoods like blueberries, pomegranates, açai, green tea sound a little too amazing, it might be time to take a closer look.

“If everybody had an ocean …” perhaps Western militaries could start addressing cases of combat stress without medication, trading hang fire for hang 10.

Swamped with patients and hit hard by state cuts to Medicaid, community health clinics struggle to make ends meet in the recession.

Allergan lowers BMI requirement and raises questions about its effectiveness and appropriateness.

A glimpse at the epigenetics of post-traumatic stress disorder suggests that the physical markers for PTSD may show up across generations.

New research finds grocery shoppers who carry grocery baskets are more likely to purchase unhealthy food than those pushing a shopping cart.

In a little remarked upon sign of the times, U.S. government health surveys will start asking Americans to check a box about their sexual orientation in 2013.

The hippocampus, a structure inside the brain, shrinks after psychological trauma, which hints that a pharmaceutical cure may address post-traumatic stress disorder.

Carl Cranor’s book “Legally Poisoned” says lax, outdated law puts Americans at risk from untested industrial chemicals.

While the term “post-traumatic stress disorder” hints at a modern invention, the ill effects of combat stress have been documented back to the Iliad and Samuel Pepys.

New research from Finland finds people with a high BMI take longer to notice hidden food items.

Why do so many American and so few British soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress?

New warning labels will begin to adorn cigarette packs and advertisements. For some smokers, death-related warnings actually increase cigarettes’ appeal.

Keeping individual health information private is good thing, but so is aggregating that data to improve care in general. Can those competing good ideas find a happy medium?

A growing farm-to-table strategy by food banks delivers free fresh fruit and vegetables to the needy.

Contrary to popular belief, people who live longer are healthier and have fewer medical bills. Obese people, however, are living longer with health care costs increasing at an alarming rate. So efforts to prolong vitality are not, in themselves, an economic Frankenstein.

It’s the president of the free-market-minded Galen Institute versus a pediatrician/activist for a single-payer system in spirited debate on improving American health care.

Obesity virus kills thousands … of chickens. And it also reveals how little we know about humans.

With the backing of numerous scientific studies and provincial health authorities, Insite will fight for its life against the Canadian federal government in court.

It’s “soda, soda everywhere and not a vitamin in sight” across swaths of America identified in the USDA’s new online “food desert locator map.”

Peter Williams, an architect turned advocate, touts an unacknowledged connection between design and well-being.

A review of 83 studies provides strong evidence that reducing marijuana use could delay or even prevent some forms of psychosis.

New research finds both men and women tend to harshly evaluate breastfeeding mothers.

Bioprinting allows researchers to create replacement human tissue and output it on equipment similar to what came free in your desktop bundle.

The idea that governments can reduce both addiction and street crime — and maybe bleed black markets dry — by managing drug distribution has gained momentum.

One small step for patient-centered care, and one big step for patient engagement, would be to set out clearly how patients and the village of professionals serving them will communicate.

Government investment in prenatal and postnatal health care could help prevent violent behavior later in life, researcher says.

Partisan opponents of last year’s omnibus health care reform in the U.S. have a multitude of legislative tactics they can summon to keep the law from taking effect.

Circumcision helps prevent HIV infection. Why would AIDS-ravaged San Francisco even think of banning this proven, safe procedure?

Can $1.1 billion make comparative effectiveness research a regular part of medical care and health insurance in the United States?

Every five years, the U.S. government bravely tries to nudge Americans toward a healthier diet while not ticking off purveyors of less-desirable foods.

A new study of three existing programs seeks the elixir of quality health care at affordable prices for elderly patients with lots of chronic diseases.

New research suggests the superficial appeal of governing by light touch founders in the health arena where so many “unhealthy nudges” are already in place.

While it’s not a bad idea to pay attention to the various costs of your medical care, the president of the Center for Advancing Health argues that haggling over costs is not a long-term solution to spiraling expenses.

The need for a long-term study hinders what we know about high-fructose corn syrup.

A report by the nonpartisan Texans Care for Children finds that glaring social problems borne by Texas’ children have resulted from its state government’s policies.

The latest look at fast-food menu labeling suggests it’s not changing attitudes at the counter, but experts hope it may make a difference earlier in the decision chain.

The cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have proved remarkably popular, but might they contribute in a few cases to debilitating neuromuscular disease?

New research suggests previous studies supporting widespread use of cholesterol-lowering drugs is flawed.

Handheld sensors using specialized — and relatively cheap — biosensors may deliver an instant diagnosis of diseases, contaminated water and biological attacks.

Studies show nature restores our spirits, improves our thinking, keeps us healthier and probably even saner.

The health effects from wind turbine noise tell us interesting things about the way we hear things.

Gary Cohen and his nonprofit, Health Care Without Harm, have persuaded hospitals around the world to close their medical-waste incinerators, dramatically cutting emissions of dioxin and other toxins.

Hospitals can play an unexpected roll in the sustainable food movement.

A new study finds only the middle class — not the rich or the poor — are likely to change their behavior with a soda tax.

Obstetric fistula, a devastating consequence of childbirth that is both preventable and treatable, draws nongovernmental organizations and health care companies to pledge to fight it.

How the life and death of the Chicago painter known as Hilgos helped bring art — and a better quality of life — to Alzheimer’s patients.

The president of the Center for Advancing Health argues we need a more complete public discussion about comparative effectiveness research, not only for innovative therapies but for the standard ones, too.

Drinking, smoking, taking prescription meds or failing to eat a balanced diet can influence the health of men’s future children.

Researchers at the UCSF School of Dentistry work to create synthetic tooth enamel.

Tuberculosis and HIV are both high-profile global health scourges, but surprisingly little focus has been paid on treating them when they team up.

A University of Illinois study shows that healthy gut flora and daily doses of broccoli — even when it’s been cooked to within an inch of its life — help fight cancer.

It’s not what you want; it’s where you go. Dartmouth study finds cancer patients’ end-of-life care is determined by their hospital, not their hopes.

WANTED, Home care providers: flexible hours, good working conditions, low pay, age irrelevant, bring own insurance.

The Friendship Paradox may provide a handy predictor for whether a flu bug will result in a mass outbreak or a few cases of the sniffles.

New research finds our minds wander much more frequently than we realize, and our inability to stay focused in the present leads to unhappiness.

Patrick McGovern’s alcohol-infused archaeology informs some of the best local alehouses, but the real benefit of his work may lie in the cancer ward.

The latest buzz in the eternal battle against mosquitoes, researchers identify a natural deterrent released by skeeters’ predators.

Americans living in high poverty bear the burden of more than 20 common diseases that the medical establishment largely does not monitor, diagnose or treat, studies show.

A program in a poor San Diego neighborhood shows how the fresh foods available at farmers markets can be accessed by those on food stamps.

Neglected diseases exacerbate the awful toll already taken by world conflicts, U.S. researcher says.

Emerging research suggests kids’ social network postings reflect their real-life behavior. Should that information be used in their medical care?

Fad dieting failures reveal Americans attitudes toward food and themselves.

A collection of studies shows that any HIV vaccine, while highly sought by doctors to battle the epidemic, would only be requested by some.

The mere existence of a walking or biking trail near your neighborhood doesn’t mean anyone is using it, researchers and trail advocates have discovered.

Global community must step up to fight schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease as widespread as malaria, doctors say.

Aussie researchers find a new reason to take up the violin: Increased levels of exhaled nitric oxide have been found in wind and brass musicians.

The quicker, easier solution isn’t always the wisest choice when it comes to many things in life, including heart disease.

Expensive computers that help facilitate face-to-face communication have been overtaken by cool — and relatively cheap — “Proloquo2Go” software and devices like the iPad and iPod.

A program to ensure all American children get at least one good meal a day may lie behind their expanding waistlines. Oddly, a breakfast program does not.

New research finds that among the elderly, functional limitations are associated with an increased risk of dying — but only for those who don’t do volunteer work.

Researchers suggest limiting liability issues to make playgrounds and other recreation areas on school grounds accessible as a cost-effective way to promote public health.

New research on responding to sound may have found a key to reversing, or even preventing, one of the effects of aging.

A new study finds palliative care doesn’t put patients out of their misery; it puts the misery out of the patients.

Claiming that our inbred propensity to war can be prevented by aggressively reducing the birth rate is a de facto declaration of war on the world’s poor.

Social epidemiologist Paula Lantz reveals what actually leads to premature deaths among Americans. Obesity? No. Poverty? Yes.

New research from Mexico finds music of Bach and Mozart helps ease the pain of people suffering from depression.

An 8:30 a.m. high school start time helps students get more sleep, stay alert in class, a pilot study finds.

New research finds suppressing thoughts of smoking just increases the likelihood you’ll light up later on.

New research suggests men opt for foods associated with a masculine identity — even if it means passing up something they prefer.

French researchers confirm that alcohol-related cues increase aggressive thoughts and behaviors, even if one hasn’t actually imbibed.

A generation of couch potatoes may be perfect to fight the next PlayStation war, but the Pentagon wants to know who will do the actual rough stuff on the ground.

For believers, religion acts as an emotional buffer, making it less likely one will feel anxious after making a mistake.

Almost everyone in the world’s “bottom billion” has at least one of a dozen or so tropical diseases that mostly ignored by Western medicine and pharmaceutical companies.

In the “AIDS exceptionalism” debate, emotions run high, and the options are difficult: Shift some AIDS funding to other care, or find billions in new support.

Researchers find a spike in heart problems among European soccer fans during World Cup matches, while other studies show the players on the pitch are suffering fewer injuries.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a list that can be abused to the detriment of patients and benefit of drug companies.

Conflicts, whether over ties to the pharmaceutical industry or fights over new categories of illness, come with the turf in revising psychiatry’s most important reference.

All those nagging issues from a year or so of Miller-McCune health coverage show up in the nation’s health report card.

The latest “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” is being revised and, by some, reviled.

Congress is preparing to take up reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, but the recipe for success is far from simple.

The new U.S. health reform law requires chain restaurants to post nutrition info. Might knowing the calorie count mean the extinction of deep-fried Oreos?

Researchers report the shame evoked by miserly behavior may have negative long-term health consequences.

Research has shown that “sin taxes” help reduce consumption of addictive substances like cigarettes and alcohol. Could the same be true for tanning?

Researchers use statistical regression analysis to spot discrimination in an unexpected profession.

Presidential advisory group moves to broaden focus of cancer research to precaution, prevention.

New research suggests compassion helps buffer women against the physical consequences of emotional stress.

Researchers find a link between hip fractures in grandfathers and reduced bone size in their grandsons. Plus, see what happens when pop culture and academics collide …

If I’m going to help pay your health care bills, you could at least try and eat better.

A growing movement looks to change development patterns — as a matter of public health.

Finally, some research that may have positive public health implications for minorities! (Or at least recent immigrants.)

U.S. drug firms donate $6 billion yearly overseas.

New research finds visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial helps vets suffering from PTSD. But a single visit isn’t enough.

Scientists say the dietary silicon in beer boosts bone density, and moderate consumption might help fight osteoporosis.

When it comes to new treatment guidelines for breast cancer, back pain and other maladies, it’s the narrative presentation that matters.

For heart attack patients, a stent is the medical device that provides the best chance of recovery. But studies comparing the use of stents to medical therapy alone have sparked controversy.

New research indicates Transcendental Meditation may help reduce symptoms of depression, which could also lower the risk of heart disease.

Algae can purify wastewater and provide electricity.

As medical malpractice sticks in the craw of the American health reform debate, draining some of the denial out of the process picks up steam.

This just in: Drinkers more likely to pair potato chips than apple slices with beer.

Unlocking a bug’s chastity belt could open doors to a targeted insecticide to provide new hope in the fight against malaria.

From breast pumping to adoption tax credits, the leviathan known as the U.S. health care bill is loaded with little goodies.

Researchers examining depictions of the most iconic meal of all time find portion sizes dramatically increased over the last millennium.

A new study finds exposure to fast food increases impatience in unrelated areas of our lives.

Although shopping at the farmers market may or may not reduce your carbon footprint, these community bazaars offer benefits beyond efficiency.

More data comes in proving that, for American workers, specifically the older ones, job insecurity is bad for your health.

Experiments on canines suggest self-control, in both humans and animals, is related to blood glucose levels.

Don’t laugh: New research on baseball players suggests that the wider your smile, the longer you may live.

The Navy looks at new technology for keeping produce fresh during lengthy voyages; see-through salad era may be over.

Sen. Tom Coburn says it is. Even if that’s not absolutely true, the U.S. government can do a much better job of encouraging better meals on its dime.

There’s a connection between marijuana and schizophrenia, and as scholars tease out the chicken-and-egg genetic aspect, they counsel teen tokers to take heed.

New research suggests news of impending large-scale unemployment results in fewer males being born.

Reaching the potential of personalized medicine is as much a matter of logistics as science.

While the big health care summit was kind of artificial, it still let real people participate (at a remove) in real time.

Research shows that in Canada, health determines who sees a specialist, but in the U.S., income does.

A new study of stressed students finds a link between positive expectations and immunological health.

Researchers find that poor smokers’ children are the victims of the habit: Their nutrition takes a hit when their parents divert precious resources to pay for tobacco.

How the paper of record used partial data to reach a wrong conclusion on infant death in Mississippi.

Explanations for honeybee colony collapse range from artificial sweeteners to loss of cropland, but solutions may be on offer.

Depression-era health solution may find new favor in the modern American struggle for health care change.

Researchers have found a protein that may be the immune system’s fountain of youth.

New research finds subsidizing healthy food is no answer to the obesity epidemic.

The first comprehensive analysis of its type finds food and beverage products appear in more than two-thirds of popular movies.

Overweight is the new normal in America. So why do we still share an immediate, negative reaction toward the obese?

A different kind of health care reform is needed in America — how men treat themselves.

New research finds upward physical movements inspire positive memories.

Research shows that nutritional information about fast food inspires parents to make healthier choices for their kids.

Amending the unmutated part of the mutated protein that causes a neurodegenerative disease may lead to a cure.

Research suggests a possible specific target for drugs fighting the most common type of breast cancer.

How to change minds about the need for health care reform? Get out your handkerchief.

A new study finds that using motor skills while being asked to change behavior makes it more likely you’ll follow the advice.

Lots of urban kids are flocking to eat crappy food peddled by corner stores, but both kids and vendors can be shown a more nutritious way.

The scent of an ovulating woman is linked to higher testosterone levels in men.

A new federal Web site hopes to match human research volunteers with medical researchers.

New research on hamsters suggests steroid use produces greater long-term behavioral problems in males when the drugs are administered during adolescence.

Long after the benefit concerts are finished, the victims of hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis suffer severe emotional aftershocks. Is there a better way to respond to disaster?

Here’s a thought for the New Year: Binge-drinking mice could help pave the way for exercise-oriented alcohol addiction treatments for humans.

Stem cells might be able to prevent blindness caused by macular degeneration.

A patient’s attitudes and beliefs don’t appear on any medical chart, but new research finds they influence the course of recovery.

Beyond the humanity, there’s a business case for tackling the persistent gap in health for most U.S. minorities.

As the United States struggles to vaccinate much of the population for the current H1N1 virus, it’s worth casting a look at both 1918 and 1976.

A mouse model suggests a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s-like dementia in aging Down syndrome patients.

Studies are finding that the pain relief induced by placebos may come from releasing the body’s own chemical pain relievers.

Recommendations from a panel of nutrition experts seek to make school lunches healthier, but enacting them is easier said than done.

A West African fruit’s astounding ability to turn the sour sweet makes it a party favorite, but its properties may help dieters and cancer patients, too.

Antique apple orchards harbor untold heirloom varieties, but they’re dying out.

A new look at the link between religiosity and long-term health finds devoutness does delay death — but only for women.

Having been almost banished from American beds, the apple seed-sized critters are staging a comeback.

In a less remarked-upon aspect of climate change, tropical diseases like dengue fever — once restricted to warmer or moister climes — are infiltrating the United States.

Is it possible to feel less pain if you look directly at the affected area? Take two drops of Murine and call us in the morning.

Can ADHD stimulants like Adderall be the answer for college students looking to increase academic performance? They think so.

The fries children see on TV may determine their weight as much as the ones they’re eating.

The popular perception of eating disorders like anorexia and binge eating usually identifies them with young women, but these illnesses don’t go away at some magical age.

Working to accomplish your goals may cause you stress in the moment, but will increase your overall happiness.

Biologists have discovered a gene that may keep naked mole rats cancer-free, a finding they hope can have implications with humans.

An esteemed professor rightly takes AIDS denialists to task, but his valuable history of the movement is at times a caustic read.

The fight over a public option means nil to the majority of Americans — who won’t have the option to buy it anyway.

Psychologist Todd Kashdan explores the many benefits of cultivating curiosity.

Henry George and his 19th-century manifesto have a renewed relevance during the current U.S. health care debate.

A transgenic rodent named for a philanthropic football coach is front and center in the effort to solve the multiple sclerosis whodunit.

In honor of Global Handwashing Day, we examine the hygiene of public restroom users and what motivates them to wash up.

A new study suggests body fat may moderate post-menopausal mental decline.

Yes, sort of, answers our correspondent as he compares the landscape of Europe’s smaller states with the ‘United’ ones.

One way America resembles the old Communist bloc can be found in the nexus of abortion and public health care.

University professor Loren Toussaint wants to spread the tangible benefits of forgiveness.

Our correspondent reluctantly returns to the trenches of the health care cost debate and reports back, with heart.

A ‘bazaar’ approach to health plans might be the least bizarre way to maintain America’s accidental tradition of medical insurance.

A promising but unproven treatment for people in chronic pain highlights obstacles of using mature drugs in off-label ways.

Our European correspondent concludes his look at health care options in Europe by trying to strike a balance between individual and centralized concerns.

Northwestern’s David Cella is leading a vast effort at better measuring pain, fatigue and outcomes. It may change the way researchers run clinical trials.

The health plan wonderland of middle Europe has some issues of its own that Americans might factor into their own debate.

As medically underserved Hispanic communities cry out for doctors, a new program puts physicians in their midst back into practice.

Health insurance watchdogs in Oregon say the way regulators and the industry have analyzed administrative costs for decades are wrong. Will Obama and Congress listen?

Some opponents of the president’s health care efforts liken it to totalitarian states. But what was health care policy like under, say, the Nazis?

Researchers have found that greater use of flu shots was accompanied by a reduction in prescriptions for antibiotics — a blessing for those concerned about overuse.

As summer comes to a close in the Northern Hemisphere, we take a look at the benefits of the unofficial required beverage for the Southern United States.

Researchers have a new way of tracking where disease hot spots are occurring, and, once again, it concerns an Apple a day …

Hot on socialized medicine or cool with private payer, take the temperature of your favorite U.S. health care option with our handy-dandy Miller-McCune meter.

Miller-McCune magazine highlights current research that merits a raised eyebrow or a painful grin.

When sick people change health plans, it can muck up the insurance market. A new paper suggests ways for fixing it.

As health care reform swirls around who pays and not what they pay, health insurers point fingers at medical providers for charging exorbitant prices that few know are negotiable.

Our Joan Melcher visits a town hall featuring Barack Obama and reflects on the nature of free speech.

Researchers studying itchy mice determine that separate neurons deliver sensations for itchiness and pain.

New book Healing the Broken Mind by Timothy Kelly demonstrates how to begin fixing America’s utterly failed mental health care system.

Confidence in the American food supply has been at a low ebb of late. A resumed federal focus and frequenting local producers may help reverse the tide.

The FDA bans injecting chicken eggs with antibiotics as a human health threat but backs down when industry groups — known collectively as ‘Big Chicken’ — squawk.

New full-bodied research finds beer drinking increases bone mass in older women.

As the Germans and French have shown, a ‘public option’ for health insurance needn’t give government a socialistic monopoly.

MDMA holds promise as part of a therapy that helps post-traumatic stress patients confront and extinguish their fears. But ecstasy’s recreational reputation has slowed research.

America’s way of providing medical care has an Achilles’ heel — not in the operating room or the pharmacy, but at the oil well and the refinery.

Although they approach the challenge of addiction differently from scientists, 12-step programs still have a therapeutic role in helping human beings.

Two prominent doctors in the field of pain management reflect on the malign influence of celebrity.

As it attempts to balance controlling costs and providing health care while not stepping on entrepreneurship, will Congress take on self-referring doctors?

Having friendly animals comforting the afflicted seems intuitively sensible. Now researchers are confirming that with measurable results.

The tyranny of choice also appears to affect research into schizophrenia: The sheer volume of data can make teasing out what’s important from what’s trivial an obstacle to better understanding the disease.

Understanding human thought processes puts a different spin on everything from global financial meltdowns to fighter pilot errors. It can also help make technology more brain-friendly.

Making sure people get health care when they leave prison saves taxpayer money and protects public health. It may even help them stay out of prison.

Studies show that the current economic climate may very well be eroding months or even years from the lives of those on the bleeding edge of insecurity.

Searching for refuge — and, perhaps, health — in a sickeningly loud world.

Does the stress of living in a white-dominated society make African Americans get sick and die younger than their white counterparts? Apparently, yes.

An electronic survey launched at the height of media coverage about swine flu — but by no means at the height of the current pandemic — puts data to public perceptions.

Nanoparticles that help form ‘micelles’ — how perfect for this blog — help in targeting plaque linked to cardiovascular disease.

With African Americans disproportionately affected by HIV, we asked Donna Hubbard McCree to describe the culturally centered work being done to stem the infection. A Miller-McCune.com interview.

On the whole, the mental health establishment outshone most other emergency responders after Hurricane Katrina. In a Miller-McCune interview, the director of the National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research explains some of the lessons drawn from that experience.

Humans often don’t know what’s in nature’s medicine chest, but a brand-new study suggests that even the scummier corners may hold cures.

Research shows that the wounds of rats heal better when the rodents are living in a comfortable, less stressful environment.

Why isn’t there an AIDS vaccine? Between mice and monkeys, the answer soon may be, ‘There is.’

A study of rats shows that when a mother experiences some form of trauma even before her pregnancy begins, it will still influence her offspring’s behavior.

The executive director of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine explains that while zoonotic diseases like swine flu are increasingly with us, quick public health reflexes can successfully clamp down on the outbreak. A Miller-McCune.com interview.

A new sheriff in town is gunning for drug-resistant staph infections, but this sheriff is very, very small.

When you’re hooked up to an IV, are you receiving only fluids? Or is there something more harmful in there?

A new study suggests that no one really looks at the nutritional information that fast-food outlets are being urged to — or forced to — paste on their walls.

A drug used to treat alcoholics and heroin addicts shows promise in treating those addicted to theft.

The current swine flu pandemic is surprising in some ways and predictable in others.

By understanding how cell specialization is regulated, scientists could be able to convert one cell type into another, rendering the harvesting of stem cells from embryonic tissue unnecessary.

As America — and the world — devolves into terminal lethargy, a multidisciplinary effort works to pep up the populace.

Information, good or bad, about swine flu travels faster than the virus itself, and a team at Stanford wants you to help it track how you respond to this unfolding pandemic.

Two noted futurists are less concerned about acute knockout blows from a pandemic and more fearful of diminishing water and increasing warmth.

Amid gallons of competing studies about the benefits and banes of alcohol, the consistent message that moderation is a good course gets refined.

It turns out it really does matter whether you’ve ‘got milk.’

Genetics may help explain why the children of some women who drink alcohol during pregnancy have birth defects and others do not.

This is not just a pipe dream: The brain apparently does make its own marijuana.

A new study suggests the color red can serve as a danger signal to our unconscious minds, making people more likely to take actions that enhance their safety.

Researchers have created a new system of slow-release delivery for anesthetic drugs, producing long-lasting local anesthesia in rats without signs of toxicity in their nerve or muscle cells.

New research shows that fatherhood can make you a better man. While men don’t endure the pangs of childbirth, studies show they get some of the same cognitive and physical benefits from their own altered biochemistry, which occurs once the baby arrives.

Progressive hearing loss, a common but poorly understood condition, is related to a newly discovered gene that affects the sensory hair cells in the inner ear.

The swell of support for broad use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have some medical researchers fearing that side effects we already know about suggest the drugs are too little understood.

Users of public transportation often fit in the activity guidelines proposed by the federal Health and Human Services department, just by walking to their bus or train every day.

Kirk Nielsen takes the pulse of the nation’s emergency health care costs by passing out and getting gouged.

Although it’s no surprise that any activity is better than none, hiking has specific medicinal benefits.

A brace of therapies ranging from improved bone marrow transplantation to stem cell research may finally put sickle cell anemia on the run.

The book “It’s Great! Oops, No It Isn’t” explains how different research and analysis methods lead to “definitive” studies with opposite conclusions, offers remedies for the problem and remains, throughout, a surprisingly good read.

Mental health care ‘consumers’ are taking a greater role in their own recovery, moving beyond merely being patients to being providers.

Using game theory and market-design software, doctors are arranging kidney-transplant ‘swaps’ — sometimes in long chains — to give more people with renal disease better transplant options and healthier futures.

It’s not sexy enough to make a Grey’s Anatomy episode, but better primary health care would save a lot of money — and lives.

Puzzled over health complications more persistent among African Americans than in other Americans, researchers invoke epigenetics.

A growing chorus of observers believes that nanotechnology needs better oversight, especially as it works its way into household staples like cosmetics and sunscreen.

Some mice residing in universities (university laboratories in particular) might be smarter than their street savvy counterparts.

New research on mice shows that without an anchoring protein, called ankyrin, muscle cells would shred when used. Yikes.

Kids navigate a semantic minefield where products with healthy-sounding ingredients are perceived as good for you, even if they’re not.

U.S. smoking rates have declined, but tobacco still runs rampant in prisons. A new study documents a technique to help prisoners quit.

Brain-injury research from the University of Missouri provides evidence that feelings of spiritual transcendence are the product of specific brain activity.

As homelessness too often accompanies mental illness in the United States, one project tackles both issues.

A Princeton University presents evidence that sugar can be physically addictive.

A community-based strategy to prevent and treat hepatitis B may reduce its staggeringly high prevalence among Asian Americans.

Can government incentives bring something besides fast food to South L.A.?

Researchers find that as people age, declining health and declining mental function don’t make people any less happy. But having the right attitude seems to matter a lot.

New research shows just how harmful insomnia is and how necessary sleep remains.

Australian government to spend $5 billion over five years to improve its mental health services.

A mirror and massage curtail pain in a case where strong and dangerous pain drugs had failed.

Some programs show great promise — but they haven’t been propagated.

For World Toilet Day (Nov. 19), we offer a chat with the author of the new book “The Big Necessity.”

Much of the money spent on the severely mentally ill is spent putting and holding them in prison.

Necessity, or addiction, is indeed the mother of invention.

Dutch researchers have characterized a large number of parasite proteins that could prove useful in the development of a human malaria vaccine.

In nation’s gambling Mecca, the odds of committing suicide double national norm.

Despite the unanimity that the system is broken, few agree on what will fix it.

A Veterans Administration psychiatrist and researcher offers a revamped model for treatment of returning soldiers that looks to training and education as much as therapy and pills.

Community-based outreach to address diabetic health care disparities offers broader lessons.

Faced with a horrific drug problem, Vancouver is trying a radical experiment: Let junkies be junkies.

A study from Shaw University reveals the attitudes of young African-American women toward food, body image and physical activity and the factors that influence their related decisions.

Research is confirming the medicinal effects that advocates have long claimed for meditation.

A new electronic newsletter strives to make evidence-based health care a little more likely with real-time research straight from the federal government.

Joanne Goldblum saw poor people reusing disposable diapers and had to do something. Her nonprofit, The Diaper Bank, now gives 150,000 diapers a month to people in need.

How likely is it that you will receive treatment the medical literature says is best? Flip a coin. Evidence-based health care can improve those odds, save lives and cut health care costs dramatically.

Hormones increasingly are shown to affect brain functions, and now they may battle MS symptoms, too.

Dramatically cooling patients after cardiac arrest improves survival, recovery.

While raw milk coming directly from the udder of the cow does have beneficial microbes, the chance of contamination once it leaves the bovine body is very high.

Believing you’re fat may be more emotionally damaging than actually being obese.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is no longer down with downer cows.

Studies show the over-50 demographic needs AIDS education.

A film on a health care system that impoverishes and kills people, just because they lose their jobs.

The 131 reported measles cases occurring in unvaccinated children in 2008 is the highest year-to-date figure since 1996.

In planning a diet based on global concerns, sometimes it’s better that there are miles to go before you eat.

Of all the human diseases, you’d think that acne would be an easy one to give mice — not so much.

Oregon researchers develop counseling approaches that reduce anorexia, bulimia and obesity among young women — apparently for years.

The latest wonder drug isn’t from Merck or Pfizer. It’s from Starbucks.

Portland-area researchers find that investing in social capital improves health among the disadvantaged.

Sara Mednick pits the world’s No. 1 stimulant against napping in a test of memory.

What can good hospital design achieve? How about healthier patients?

For the first time, biologists are vaccinating wild ferrets with an antidote against the sylvatic plague that was developed for humans by the U.S. Army.

Also on the rise is the ‘cool quotient’ of mini cigars, which are not subject to the same level of legal scrutiny as cigarettes.

With health insurance costs these days, why not just buy the whole clinic?

After researchers vaccinated mice with a protein, the mice developed 90 percent fewer metastases in the liver and 75 percent fewer in the lung, compared with control animals.

A cancer-killing treatment that works astoundingly well in mice is being readied for human trials.

While pharmaceutical companies battle to end desire discrepancy, some feminists fear the medicalization of not being in the mood.

Scientists are getting a better idea of how coffee might extend human life spans. Hint: It might follow the same path to immortality as eating less.

Safety by design is a guiding ethos as a new and smarter style of health care building looks at error prevention and stress reduction.

An award-winning journalist says not red meat but refined carbohydrates are responsible for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and many other maladies of civilization. He and other experts weigh in.

A camp for grieving children applies academic research on trauma to help kids cope with death.

Skin, at least in mice, responds to the oxygen around it, a finding that may have implications for endurance athletes.

Masked marathoners aside, a new paper suggests that as bad as Beijing’s air quality may be, it has improved during the decade leading up to the Olympics.

Two Cornell psychologists found we have two separate systems for memories, which helps explain how we can “remember” things that never happened.

A recent study shows that life spans are decreasing for some regions in America where reduced access to Medicaid is common.

For the first time, scientists have found stem cells in the pituitary glands of mice that allow the organs to grow after birth.

“Experiments” in eight states provide pointers on how America might provide guaranteed health insurance.

Students diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, perform as well as or better than their peers academically but, despite their large vocabularies, struggle with social interaction. The Koegel Autism Center, long a world leader on autism research, hopes to teach the students the art of conversation.

Scientists at the USDA suggest that irradiation can kill pathogens that are beyond the reach of conventional chemical sanitizers used on farms.

HIV infection is a growing fact of life for America’s baby boomer population. But it’s a fact both the aging and their caregivers are spectacularly unprepared to address.

People living with HIV are living longer, but a new study stresses that few preparations have been made to address the future health and social services needs of the aging group.

Congressmen and state legislators aim to further regulate hospital management, hoping to encourage better care and finances. New research suggests these laws might not make much difference.

The public is hearing mixed messages on eating right, and a prominent nutritionist believes government needs to cast off its lobbyist-inspired inhibitions and spread the gospel of common sense.

‘Fatworld’ shows video games can tackle (urp) weighty issues.

Sterilizing the family farm may not be the best way to keep E. coli out of your salad.

The U.N. sees a dire need for even simple actions. Western businesses find it in their own interest to take heed of the need.

Some health professionals serving people and animals suggest the DNA divide can close on the care side.

Climate change is bringing with it a host of public health challenges. Experts see hope for making the necessary adjustments.

While zero-tolerance laws have slightly curbed underage drunken driving, researchers have been unable to describe exactly why they work.

Many American women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer opt for more aggressive treatment than necessary, while many Americans with advanced kidney disease resist even minimal treatment.

Ronen Avraham proposes a system that might put economic incentives on the side of better health.

A new look at brain-activity patterns of sober alcoholics could help scientists understand, and better treat, the underlying neurobiology of addiction.

An unusual two-year analysis of grocery prices — based on the cost per calorie — reveals a nearly 20 percent rise in the cost of what are usually healthier foods, widening the already disturbing junk-food gap.

School cafeteria food may be hazardous to your children’s health, but a pair of University of Minnesota studies shows that cooking nutritious meals, and convincing children to eat them, might be simpler and cheaper than many experts had believed.