After 3,000+ supplements, reporter finds he’s no healthier (but a little heavier)
The overwhelming scientific evidence to date — not just anecdotal stories like Cloud’s — shows that for most people, supplements are a waste of money.
Health
‘Are we there yet?’ Why getting to a destination almost always seems to take longer than returning
Why does returning from a trip — say, from a week of wilderness camping in the Boundary Waters or a weekend of biking and theater-going in Lanesboro, Minn.
How to avoid being scammed — and pinkwashed — during Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Marie Claire magazine offers a warning as we approach Breast Cancer Awareness Month (otherwise known as October):
Think before you buy — or donate to — pink.
That’s because another name for Breast Cancer Awareness Month could be Scam Artist month.
Cheering dying: Psychology behind ghoulish outbursts at GOP debates
A University of Minnesota professor who researches the psychological underpinnings of political preference talks about two spontaneous outbursts that caught a lot of people’s attention.
Bioethicists Miles and Caplan challenge Bachmann’s HPV-vaccine claim
Dr. Steven Miles and Arthur Caplan offer combined $11,000 in rewards for proof of candidate’s anecdote alleging vaccination’s “dangerous” side-effects.
Four lifestyle factors that may keep your heart from prematurely failing
The Obama administration launched its Million Hearts Initiative Tuesday.
Men’s testosterone levels drop after they become dads, study finds
Testosterone levels tend to drop in men after they become fathers — particularly among men who are actively involved in parenting, a new study has found.
This finding suggests that men are biologically programmed to help with their children’s upbri
Reading fiction affects our behavior, studies find — but in what way?
Violent video games have been controversially linked to aggressive behavior.
Now along comes a study from a team of Brigham Young University researchers that links the reading of violent fiction to subsequent aggressive behavior — behavior
GOP’s HPV vaccination debate: Bioethicist Dr. Steven Miles explains vaccine’s value
During Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate, Texas Gov.
Menstrual synchrony: Another biological myth?
Earlier this week at the Science-Based Medicine blog, Dr.
Menopause does not cause heart disease, study finds
For decades, millions of women were instructed to take hormone therapy (usually estrogen plus progestin) after menopause, primarily to protect them from heart disease.
The reasoning behind that recommendation?
Many popular sports-injury treatments are unproven
New York Times medical writer Gina Kolata published a great article over the weekend on why popular treatments for sports injuries are often so futile.
Many of the treatments have no good scientific evidence behind them to show that they work.
Thi
Consider this on Labor Day: New studies on psychological health and work
As we head into the long Labor Day weekend, I thought I’d highlight some research on two psychological health topics near and dear to working people — the fortunate ones who are not currently unemployed, that is.
None of the findings for these topi
KARE 11’s prostate-cancer screening at State Fair revives debate
Medical writer Gary Schwitzer’s concern is that men who are tested there may not know that such screening’s harms (unnecessary treatment) may outweigh its benefits. The U’s Dr. Badrinath Konety disagrees with that assessment.
Your genes may be why you do — or don’t — get the flu
The flu season is rapidly approaching.
Want to lose deep belly fat? You need aerobics, not resistance training, study finds
Resistance training (such as weight lifting) is great for building stronger and even leaner bodies, but if you want to get rid of excess body fat — particularly the kind that’s putting your health at risk — you need to engage in regular, semi-vigoro
Minnesota’s children too often receive ineffective or harmful antipsychotic meds, Strib article says
In Sunday’s second installment in its excellent “Fragile Minds” series on treatment problems for young people with mental illness, the Star Tribune focused on a troubling trend: Many of Minnesota’s children receive prescription medications for psych
Few health problems can be linked to vaccines, government report says
An analysis by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of more than 1,000 scientific articles has found that common vaccines cause few health problems.
Furthermore, most of the side effects that were found to be associated with the vaccines tended to be ra
Our body odors are not subliminal mating signals
Writing in the online magazine Slate last week, Dr.
Near-vegetarian diet more effective than low-fat diet at lowering ‘bad’ cholesterol, study finds
For a long time, doctors have been telling individuals with high levels of so-called bad cholesterol to slice foods from their diet that are high in saturated fat, such as red meats, butter and hard cheeses.
