Dr. Richard Green, one of the earliest and most vocal critics of psychiatry’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, died on April 6 at his home in London. He was 82. The cause was esophageal cancer, his son, Adam Hines-Green, said. Dr. Green, who was also a forceful advocate for gay and transgender rights…
There are a handful of things in this world I’m extremely thankful for, yet also quite grossed out by. Public bathrooms are one of them. (Also: colonoscopies.) My disgust peaks around this time of year, when everyone around me seems to be coughing or sneezing or both — sometimes in the next stall. What, if…
In a study that raises profound questions about the line between life and death, researchers have restored some cellular activity to brains removed from slaughtered pigs. The brains did not regain anything resembling consciousness: There were no signs indicating coordinated electrical signaling, necessary for higher functions like awareness and intelligence. But in an experimental treatment,…
Gregory Spoor got the distressing news about his wife on the morning of Jan. 16 while standing outside her room in the intensive care unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. The doctor explained that Stephanie Spoor, 64, had contracted a “rare, very rare, fungus.” The physician said the fungus was called Candida auris, and…
Essential oils contain concentrated plant extracts. Aromatherapy with some essential oils may help relieve neuropathic pain. Neuropathy is a general term for conditions that develop as a result of nerve damage. One of the most common forms of neuropathy is diabetic peripheral neuropathy, which occurs in up to 50 percent of people with diabetes. Peripheral…
Domestic animals can contract parasites from insects and ticks, prey, soil or other animals and can spread them to humans, pets or wildlife. Dogs can give humans rabies, and cows can give people a diarrhea-causing parasite called Cryptosporidium. But dogs often only go outside with their owners on leashes, and cows don’t usually get to…
Stress may increase the risk for heart disease, especially in younger people. Researchers writing in BMJ used Swedish data on 136,637 people diagnosed with stress-related disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress reaction and others. They compared them with 171,314 unaffected siblings, and with 1,366,370 people in the general population without a stress disorder diagnosis.…
New research dispels some common sleep myths that prevent people from getting adequate rest and that may lead to health problems in the long run. Debunking common sleep myths is key for our overall health, suggests new research. Over a third of adults in the United States do not get enough sleep, according to the…
Women now in their 60s, women who had careers and kids, can be forgiven for feeling like they grew up with Anna Quindlen even if, like me, we never met her. That’s because we read “Life in the 30s,” the column she began writing for this newspaper in 1986. Like many of us, she graduated…
The workouts we completed years ago may continue to influence and improve our health today, according to a fascinating new study of the current lives and health of people who joined an exercise study a decade before. The findings suggest that the benefits of exercise can be more persistent than many of us might expect,…