Ed Cara

ScienceHealth

Too-Potent Infants’ Ibuprofen Recalled from CVS, Walmart, and Family Dollar Stores

The manufacturer of a common infants’ over-the-counter pain medication is pulling some of its products off the shelves of several big box and discount stores, over concerns that the affected products might be too potent for infants to take. Late Wednesday night, Tris Pharma announced a voluntary recall of three lots of its infants’ liquid … Continued

ScienceHealth

In World First, Woman Gives Birth After Receiving Uterus Transplant from Dead Donor

A team of doctors in Brazil have announced a medical first that could someday help countless women unable to have children because of a damaged or absent uterus. In a case report published Tuesday in the Lancet, they claim to have successfully helped a woman give birth using a transplanted uterus from a deceased donor. … Continued

ScienceHealth

Wisdom Tooth Surgery a Gateway to Teen Opioid Addiction, Study Finds

A common rite of passage—having your wisdom teeth pulled—might be raising the risk of teens and young adults becoming addicted to opioids, a new study out Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests. Youngsters who are prescribed opioids by their dentist, often for wisdom tooth extractions, are more likely to abuse opioids within a year’s time … Continued

ScienceHealth

The Current Ebola Outbreak in Africa has Become the Second Largest in History

The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reached an especially tragic milestone. According to the World Health Organization, the outbreak is now the second-largest recorded in Ebola’s 42-year-long known history. On Thursday, the WHO reported that there have been 426 confirmed or probable cases of the viral disease in the … Continued

ScienceHealth

The First Clinical Trial of a Male Birth Control Gel Is Under Way

An elusive medical advance might finally be within grasp, one that could make some couples’ sex lives a lot more convenient. This week, researchers officially kicked off the first wide-scale clinical trial of a male contraceptive topical gel. The trial, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), is set to … Continued

ScienceHealth

Scientists Propose New Way to Treat Depression With Brain Implants

In recent years, doctors have explored an unorthodox method to address cases of depression that haven’t responded to other treatments: sending precise electrical shocks directly to areas of a patient’s brain, otherwise known as deep brain stimulation (DBS). While the technique has shown some promise, its positive effects tend to be inconsistent. But a new … Continued

ScienceHealth

American Life Expectancy Continues to Drop, with Suicides and Drug Overdoses on the Rise

The health of the United States remains in decline, according to a series of new reports released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Life expectancy in the U.S. has once again declined from the previous year, extending a years-long slide the likes of which we haven’t seen since the World War I … Continued

ScienceHealth

CDC Says Some Romaine Lettuce Is Now Safe to Eat—but Don’t Break Out the Salad Tongs Yet

Just as Americans prepared to gorge on their Thanksgiving meals last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blasted out an ominous warning: Throw out and definitely do not eat any romaine lettuce, since it might contain potentially deadly E. coli bacteria. But this Monday, following further investigation, the CDC downgraded its warning. Romaine … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA Scientists Find Possibly Infectious Superbugs on Board the ISS

No place is safe from the scourge of superbugs, a new study suggests, not even space. According to the study, samples of bacteria resistant to several antibiotics have been found on the International Space Station (ISS). And while the bacteria may not have made any astronauts sick, the authors say it’s pretty likely that they … Continued

ScienceHealth

Here’s How Long It’d Take You to Poop a Lego

Pediatricians in the UK have finally answered one of life’s grand riddles: Just how long would it take for a Lego toy accidentally swallowed by someone to gracefully make its way back out? The answer comes courtesy of a recent study published last week in The Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health. The six authors … Continued

ScienceHealth

CDC Convenes Task Force to Investigate Rare Illness Paralyzing Kids Across the Country

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking things up a notch to investigate a mysterious polio-like disease that’s paralyzing young children. Earlier this week, the agency announced it would form a task force to better treat and confirm the cause of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), seemingly in response to a substantial uptick in … Continued

Tech News

Rising Drug Prices Aren’t Going to Stop Under Trump

Earlier this July, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced price jumps for many of its brand name drugs, including the smoking cessation aid Chantix and the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. But less than a month later, the company reversed course, seemingly bending to pressure from President Donald Trump, who called out the company on—what else—Twitter  and then … Continued

ScienceHealth

Teen Vaping May Have Led to Less Teen Smoking, Study Finds

The FDA calls teen vaping an “epidemic,” but the influence of e-cigarettes on teens’ overall health might be more complicated than assumed, according to a new study out Thursday in the journal Tobacco Control. It suggests that while teens and young adults in the U.S. did start flocking to e-cigarettes these past few years, they … Continued

ScienceHealth

Brain-Destroying Prions Also Spread Through Victims’ Eyes

One of the strangest things that can sicken us—a rogue misfolded protein that destroys the brain, known as a prion—is even scarier than we knew. Researchers were able to find the prions responsible for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common prion disease in people, seeded everywhere in the eyes of 11 patients affected by … Continued

ScienceBiology

A Planned FDA Study Could Clear the Way for Fewer Dogs Used and Killed in Animal Research

Dogs have been everything we’ve ever needed them to be, including volunteers for clinical trials of drugs meant for both people and pooches. Sadly, these furry test subjects are sometimes euthanized at the end of these experiments, because it’s deemed the only way to get the accurate test results scientists are looking for. But the … Continued

ScienceHealth

The FDA Will Restrict, but Not Ban, the Sale of Flavored E-Cigarettes in Stores

The Food and Drug Administration has taken its hardest swing yet against teen vaping—though not as hard as we were expecting. On Thursday, FDA chief Scott Gottlieb unveiled a series of steps aimed at forcing the e-cigarette industry to work harder at keeping its products out of the hands of minors. Chief among them is … Continued

ScienceHealth

Why Cancer Is Replacing Heart Disease as the Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.

Heart disease has long been the number one killer in the United States. But a new study out this week is the latest to suggest that it’s only a matter of time before the second leading cause of death—cancer—becomes more commonly fatal for the average person. On the bright side, though, that’s largely because we’ve … Continued

ScienceHealth

Juul Says It Will Stop Selling All Its Good Flavors of E-Cigarettes in Stores

The vaping industry looks set to undergo a seismic shift in how it sells and markets its products, starting with its biggest U.S. player, Juul Labs. On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based company announced that it would stop selling a majority of its flavored vaping products in retail stores. It also plans to shut down several … Continued

ScienceHealth

Please Get Some Exercise, Any Exercise at All, New Federal Guidelines Plead

The U.S. government has released its latest recommendations on how physically active we should be to stay healthy, and do we detect a hint of desperation in their tone? The guidelines, as before, call for adults to aim for 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic exercise, or 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise, … Continued

ScienceHealth

Climate Change Is Going to Make Ragweed Allergies Even Worse, Study Finds

There’s no shortage of horrible things that will become more common in the near future due to climate change, like coastal flooding, extreme weather, and disease-causing ticks, to name a few. But new research published Thursday in PLOS-One adds another annoyance to the list: Allergy-causing ragweed. The common ragweed, or Ambrosia artemisiifolia as it’s formally … Continued