Black stool has a distinct appearance. The main causes are eating certain foods, taking certain medications, and gastrointestinal bleeding. If a person has blood in their stool or any other symptoms of bleeding, they should speak to a doctor immediately. A variety of foods and medications can make a person’s stool black. These can include:…
A 40-year-old pregnant woman who fears catching measles on the New York City subway walks eight miles round trip from her home in Brooklyn to her job in Manhattan. Two New Jersey parents who don’t agree about vaccines and are now getting divorced have asked a judge to make a ruling on if their children…
You’re reading In Her Words, where women rule the headlines. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Let me know what you think at dearmaya@nytimes.com. “How much is a little girl worth?” — Rachael Denhollander, the first former gymnast to go public about abuse by Larry Nassar Early last year, Larry Nassar,…
Statin drugs like Lipitor and Crestor significantly reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease, rigorous studies have shown. But a “real-world” analysis published in Heart suggests that in practice about half of patients do not benefit from them. British researchers studied 165,411 patients free of cardiovascular disease who started statin therapy between 1990 and 2016. They…
LONDON — Researchers seeking evidence of chemical “micropollution” in five rural English rivers have found pesticides in many of the freshwater shrimp they tested. And cocaine in all of them. The presence of the illegal drug was unexpected because the sites where the researchers gathered their samples, in the eastern coastal county of Suffolk, were…
The protein shakes that health supplement stores sell, which people sometimes buy as a dietary aid to build muscle mass, may not actually be safe for health in the long run according to a new study in mice. Could protein shakes negatively affect health in the long run? Many fitness protein powders that are commercially…
“Don’t worry,” reads the cover photo of my sister’s Facebook page. “Everything is going to be amazing.” The words, in neon blue, green and red, glow from the screen as a kind of preternatural promise, a message from beyond. When I’m feeling stressed, I click on her profile, gaze at that image and take a…
Image Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, at a National Day of Prayer service in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday. Mr. Pence has long advocated religious exemptions for health care workers. CreditChip Somodevilla/Getty Images President Trump on Thursday announced an expanded “conscience rule” to protect health care workers who oppose abortion, sterilization,…
SASUF (the South Africa-Sweden University Forum) is a partnership among 36 Swedish and South African universities with the aim of strengthening collaboration between the two countries in research, education and innovation. For six days, from 6 to 11 May, the second week-long research and innovation event in Stellenbosch will bring together some 500 researchers, decision-makers…
Millions of people are infected with hepatitis B every year. Hundreds of thousands die. And small children are particularly at risk. Due to high cost and the stable environmental conditions required for vaccine storage, many people in developing countries are not vaccinated against this dangerous virus. As such, researchers have been working to produce a…