Does exercise help or hinder our bodies’ ability to fight off infections? In the context of the novel coronavirus outbreak, that question has gained urgency and also, thanks to recent research, emergent answers. The latest science suggests that being fit boosts our immune systems, and that even a single workout can amplify and improve our…
A mother stands outside her house, ushering two adorable kids into the family minivan. A gray-haired man sits in a diner, his newspaper in front of him. A fresh-faced young guy in a button-down shirt pushes a bicycle out of an office building. A doctor stands in an examining room, surrounded by the tools of…
March 4, 2020 — The U.S. is witnessing a dramatic rise in nontraditional ‘gig economy’ labor markets where workers are hired for single projects often on a short-term basis. An estimated 0.4% of U.S. adults are currently receiving income from such platforms each month. Research conducted based on collaboration between Columbia University Mailman School of…
New research indicates that a prior induced abortion poses only a very small risk of negative effects on births from subsequent pregnancies, but the risk is higher if the abortion is performed later in the pregnancy. The Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica study included 418,690 first-time mothers with singleton births between 1996 and 2013 in…
Smoking doubles the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and continuing to smoke after being diagnosed has negative effects on patients. In an Arthritis Care & Research study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis who smoked, certain healthcare factors were linked with a higher likelihood that patients would quit smoking. In the study that included 507 patients…
Psychological stress has been proposed as a risk factor for melanoma, but clinical evidence is limited. A recent British Journal of Dermatology study funded by the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology looked for a potential link between the death of a partner, which is one of the most stressful life events, and melanoma. The…
BALTIMORE, MD – March 4, 2020 – Using a combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to target and sample suspicious prostate tissue along with a standard prostate biopsy is significantly more likely to detect the most aggressive prostate cancers than standard biopsy alone. This finding, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, could…
Middle school football players greatly reduce the chance of head injuries if they wear padded helmets and use safe tackling and blocking techniques, according to Rutgers researchers. The study was published in the journal Neurosurgery. With youth players representing 70 percent of all amateur and professional football participants, attention is turning to the safety of…
New Haven, Conn. — People can carry hazardous compounds from cigarette smoke that cling to their bodies and clothes and then release those compounds into non-smoking environments — exposing people nearby to cigarettes’ adverse effects, a new study shows. For the last decade, third-hand smoke has been described as the residual contamination from cigarette smoking…
In a study of Americans over age 50 years who died between 2004 and 2014, individuals who were characterized as lonely based on survey results were burdened by more symptoms and received more intense end-of-life care compared with non-lonely people. In the 2,896-participant study, which is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,…