health check

Parkinson’s Disease is a frustrating and frightening medical condition, and treatment options are few. However, a group in Canterbury, England may have made a surprising discovery that could benefit not only them, but everyone else in the world – singing seems to make them feel better.

While you should eat, drink and be merry on Thanksgiving, doctors are warning not to overdo it. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to what’s known as “holiday heart syndrome.” The term was coined back in the 1970s when researchers detected heart rhythm abnormalities in 24 study participants, none of whom had a history of heart disease — but all of whom had too much to drink over the holidays.

If you’re one of those women people tease because you’re never seen without a Starbucks cup in your hand, you may actually be bettering your health. All that coffee might be warding off cancer. Researchers at Harvard University who followed the medical records of more than 67,000 women over a 26-year period found that those who drank at least four cups of java per day had a 25 percent lower risk o

For many of us, Thanksgiving means gathering with family and enjoying time-tested recipes — Dad’s famous mashed potatoes, your brother’s homemade cranberry sauce, or Grandma’s pumpkin pie. While the food itself may be wonderful, there’s a psychological component to eating the same things every year that benefits the human mind.

People who take vitamins may be perceived as healthier, but new research finds those people often engage in decidedly unhealthy habits — possibly thinking the vitamins will make up for it. A study in Taiwan discovered smokers who take vitamins smoked twice as much on average, and supplement-takers also made poorer food choices. Worse yet, the vitamin group was more likely to engage in risky behavi

Painful ear infections, common among children, are frustratingly heartbreaking for parents. But what if you could stave them off simply by having your kids chew gum? Scandinavian researchers have found “fair evidence” to support the conclusion that children who chew gum containing the natural sweetener xylitol may have a lower risk of developing middle ear infections. In fact, regular consumption

A new study finds those who’ve lost weight and kept it off tend to eat more often than heavier people — yet still took in fewer daily calories. Lead researcher Jessica Bachman, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Marywood University in Scranton, PA, was part of a group that profiled 250 people who’d lost significant amounts of weight. The key was to learn how they m

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that the teen birth rate in the United States dropped to an all-time low in 2010.

Data examined over a seven-year period revealed 48 million Americans — about one in five — aged 12 and older suffer from some form of hearing loss, far exceeding previous estimates of 21 to 29 million people.

It’s cold and flu season again. While that means many people will be getting flu shots, there’s one member of the family you may not realize needs one too: your dog. The H3N8 virus, identified in 2004 and commonly known as “dog flu,” has sickened thousands of dogs in 38 states. Currently there are outbreaks in the New York metropolitan area and near San Antonio, Texas, with other states like Penns

Is your kid hooked on video games? New research says simple brain-wiring may be to blame. Brain scans conducted on 154 teenagers who played video games at least nine hours per week found the structure and activity in the part of the brain associated with reward processing was larger than in those who played less often.

Members of Congress love pizza as much as any of us. So, when the United States Department of Agriculture threatened to take it off public school lunch menus, they did what many of us would have done in their position — they officially declared it a vegetable. Earlier this year, the USDA proposed new standards that would’ve limited both sodium and potatoes for school lunch lines — moves some conse