Healthy Living Helps Keep the Flu at Bay

This flu season arrived early and hit children hard, but experts say you can dodge the flu by boosting your immune system.

How? By living a healthy lifestyle and getting sufficient sleep, according to experts from Purdue University's School of Nursing, in West Lafayette, Ind.

So far, nearly 13 million flu cases have been diag...

Psychedelics May Boost Mood Even After Their High Wears Off

Psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin -- also known as "magic mushrooms" -- can elevate mood and make one feel close to others, and those feelings may last after the high is gone, new research shows.

The findings, from more than 1,200 art and music festival-goers, echo lab work that showed psychedelics enhance feelings of social c...

Even Female Bosses Face Sexual Harrassment: Study

When most people think of sexual harassment of females on the job, they assume it's happening to lower-level staffers. But surprisingly, women supervisors actually encounter more of it than other female workers, a new study finds.

Researchers examined workplace sexual harassment in the United States, Japan and Sweden. They found that f...

Chicago Woman Is 2nd U.S. Case of Wuhan Virus

A Chicago woman in her 60s has been identified as the second U.S. patient to be diagnosed with a new Chinese coronavirus, health officials announced Friday.

The woman visited China in late December and returned to Chicago from Wuhan on Jan. 13, days before the CDC started screening incoming passengers for coronavirus.

A few d...

First Clinical Studies Find Wuhan Virus Closely Resembles SARS

The new coronavirus rapidly spreading in China and nearby countries seems to trigger symptoms similar to those seen in the severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARS) coronavirus outbreak in 2003, two new studies show.

Published Jan. 24 in The Lancet journal, these are the first clinical studies conducted on patients struc...

Making the Mummy Speak -- Or at Least Make a Sound

Nesyamun, an Egyptian priest who chanted hymns at the grand temple of Karnak in Thebes 3,000 years ago, has been allowed to speak once more.

Well, maybe not speak in full sentences: A British team has re-created the mummified Nesyamun's throat using 3-D technology, allowing it to utter a vowel they believe mimics how the priest sounded...

Low-Dose Aspirin Might Help Prevent Preterm Births

A daily baby aspirin helped first-time mothers lower their chances of delivering too soon in a new clinical trial, though it's not clear the practice should become routine everywhere.

The trial, which was run in six lower-income countries, found that giving first-time mothers a daily low-dose aspirin reduced their risk of preterm birt...

Faulty Immune System May Lead to Lung Cancer

An immune system that's not functioning normally may lead to lung cancer in patients who don't smoke, a new study suggests.

"A strong immune system helps to keep inflammation under control and chronic inflammation is known to promote cancer," said co-author Rayjean Hung.

"Our research suggests that it's underlying dysfunctio...

Many of America's Most Critical Workers Are Short on Their Zzzs

More than one-third of working Americans don't get enough sleep, and the problem is greatest among the police, the military, health care workers and truckers, researchers report.

Their analysis of data from more than 150,000 employed adults between 2010 and 2018 also found that the rate of inadequate sleep (7 hours or less) rose from ...

A Flu Shot May Spare Your Young Child a Hospital Visit

This flu season is hitting children particularly hard, but new research shows that a flu shot is still well worth it for these youngest patients.

Getting vaccinated halved the risk of hospitalization for flu-related complications among young kids, scientists found.

The researchers analyzed vaccination data from more than 3,70...

What You Need to Know Now About the Wuhan Virus

As China scrambles to contain an outbreak of a new coronavirus spreading rapidly within its own borders and to other countries, U.S. infectious disease experts tackled questions about the emerging virus.

What is the novel coronavirus circulating in China?

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses responsible for abou...

How Obamacare Helped Some Southern States

The physical and mental health of poor people is less likely to be at risk in Southern U.S. states that expanded their Medicaid programs under Obamacare, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 15,500 low-income adults in 12 Southern states and found that Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act reduced the ...

Prescription-Strength Steroid Creams Sold Over-the-Counter Can Be Dangerous

Rubbing cream into your skin to calm an itchy rash may seem harmless, but not all topical anti-itch formulas are created equal.

"People don't understand the potential dangers of prescription-strength steroid creams," said Dr. Lawrence Green, clinical professor of dermatology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Only 1 in 4 Older Cardiac Patients Get Rehab Therapy

Cardiac rehabilitation is known to help people recover after a heart attack or heart surgery, but a new study shows only one-quarter of eligible Medicare patients actually use it.

Which patients are most likely to pass on rehab? Women, those aged 85 and older, blacks, Hispanics and those who live in the Southeast and Appalachia, resear...

More Lasting Damage From Gun Violence Than Car Accidents

Gun violence appears to deliver more long-term damage to survivors than car crashes do.

"Our study shows that injury, and especially firearm injury, casts a long shadow over the lives of those who survive," said study author Dr. Juan Herrera-Escobar. He is research director of Long-Term Outcomes in Trauma in the Center for Surgery and ...

Blacks, Hispanics More Likely to Have Better Outcome After 'Bleeding' Stroke

After a hemorrhagic stroke, often called a "bleeding" stroke, young black and Hispanic people are less likely than white people to be disabled or die within the following three months, a new study finds.

Hemorrhagic strokes occur when a blood vessel ruptures, causing bleeding in the brain. This type of stroke is less common than ones ...

Largest-Ever Study Ties Over 100 Genes to Autism

More than 100 genes appear to be involved in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), according to the largest genetic study of the condition to date.

The study, involving over 50 centers around the globe, identified 102 genes associated with ASD -- including a few dozen that had not been recognized before.

Some of the genes are also...

Scientists Trace Coronavirus Outbreak to Snakes

Snakes may be the source of the new coronavirus outbreak in humans that started in China and has spread to other countries.

Patients who became infected with the virus -- named 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization -- were exposed to wildlife at a wholesale market where seafood, poultry, snakes, bats and farm animals were sold, re...

Racism Linked to Faster Aging Among Blacks

The racism black Americans face may age them prematurely, a new study suggests.

This aging is occurring at the cellular level -- specifically, the shortening of telomeres, researchers say.

Telomeres are the repetitive sequences of DNA that sit at the tips of your chromosomes -- like the plastic caps at the ends of a shoelace...

AHA News: What's Blood Type Got to Do With Clot Risk?

People with blood types A and B may have higher risks for developing dangerous blood clots compared to people who have type O blood. That's according to new research that also showed a slightly higher risk for certain types of heart disease among the A and B groups.

Past research has shown a likely link between heart disease and the A...