Health

On Tuesday, the Conference Board, a global research firm funded by about 2,000 corporations, reported the results of its annual survey on U.S.

Alternative medicine has started the year with a one-two hit.
First came the findings last week about Gingko biloba, the herbal supplement that millions of Americans have been taking to ward off memory problems as they age.
A large randomized double-

With air travel becoming even more of a headache and hassle — not to mention a hit to the pocketbook — those of us who do a lot of traveling for so-called pleasure find ourselves wondering more and more often (as we sit stuck on the tarmac or race to

I happen to love the whole idea of New Year’s resolutions.
Despite the total arbitrariness of it, Jan. 1 offers up a psychological fresh start.

Any woman who’s been told by her doctor that she has osteopenia (low bone density, but not low enough to be osteoporosis)  — and especially any woman who’s taking medication for it — needs to read (or listen to) Monda

Are we addicted to the concept of addiction?
Neuropsychologist Vaughn Bell thinks so.

Do you have the personality to be successful in medical school?
A recent study, co-authored by a University of Minnesota psychology professor, has found that certain personality traits may be excellent predictors of success in medical school — partic

A disturbing investigative story in today’s New York Times describes how the 35-year-old Safe Drinking Water Act is terribly outdated, permitting hundreds, perhaps thousands, of chemicals associated with cancer and other illnesses to seep into our dr

Remember that episode of “Seinfeld” in which George arrives at Jerry’s house singing “Master of the House” from “Les Miserables”?
“I can’t get it out of my head,” he complains to Jerry. “I just keep singing it over and over. It just comes out.

The overuse of computed tomography (CT) scans is subjecting people to high levels of radiation that may eventually cause thousands of extra cancer deaths, according to a new study released Monday.
Specifically, the study, published in the current iss

Almost as soon as the New York Times posted a long article this weekend on how the pharmaceutical industry turned “horse estrogen into a billion-dollar panacea for aging women,” the article jumped onto the newspaper’s most e-mailed list — right behin

In the current issue of Newsweek, senior editor Sharon Begley laments how the liberal-conservative partisan divide now includes “the accuracy of scientific findings” — a divide she also calls “a gold mine for research on how personality and other psy

Feeling a bit grumpy today?
Well, you may not be able to blame it on the bitterly cold temperature outside. (For readers not in Minnesota, our expected high temp today is going to be a lung-bracing 6 degrees. Go ahead.

Can we believe the published results of studies sponsored by drug companies?

I knew it would be only a matter of time before the evolutionary biologists psychologists stepped in to add their perspective to the sadly sordid Tiger Woods affair (or, um, affairs).
In an article

Whenever I was tempted to lecture my children as they were growing up on the corrupting lyrics of the rock music they were listening to, I thought of Bing Crosby.
My grandfather (according to my mother) had been horrified by the “suggestive” crooning

OK. Maybe the holidays are too much on my mind (or I’ve seen “A Christmas Carol” at the Guthrie one too many times).