Health & Safety

Why did a deliberately bad study showing the weight-loss benefits of chocolate get picked up by many news outlets? Science journalist John Bohannon — the man behind the study — says reporting on junk nutrition studies happens all the time.

Trickster Journalist Explains Why He Duped The Media On Chocolate Study

6:37pm June 01, 2015

by Maria Godoy

John Bohannon, the man behind a stunt that bamboozled many news organizations into publishing junk science on dieting, talks to NPR's Robert Siegel about why he carried out the scheme.

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A farm laborer uses a sieve to separate grains of wheat from the husk in Amritsar, India.

There Are 200 Million Fewer Hungry People Than 25 Years Ago

5:50pm June 01, 2015

by Linda Poon

That's the good news. The bad news is that there are still 795 million people who don't get enough to eat — and enough nutrients in their food.

Competitive swimmers often practice breath holding to increase endurance.

Breath-Holding In The Pool Can Spark Sudden Blackouts And Death

4:57pm June 01, 2015

by Angus Chen

When you hold your breath underwater, you might pass out before you realize you need oxygen right now. Experienced swimmers have drowned as a result, and most people aren't aware of the risk.

Seeing What Isn't There: Inside Alzheimer's Hallucinations

4:57pm June 01, 2015

by Rebecca Hersher

Sometimes Greg O'Brien gets a tingling in the back of his brain that tells him a hallucination is coming. Lions. Spiders. Birds. Sometimes the creatures are friendly. Too often, they're not.

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Does Your Neighborhood Doom You To An Early Death?

4:56pm June 01, 2015

by Kelli Dunham

People living just a few miles from each other in American cities can have radically different chances of living a long healthy life.

In The Hospital, There's No Such Thing As A Lesbian Knee

2:59pm June 01, 2015

by Kelli Dunham

People in the LGBT community often have a hard time getting appropriate health care. But the problems aren't unique to them. Doesn't everyone want to have a doctor call them by their preferred name?

The question of how to communicate with parents about vaccines is getting increasing interest from academia.

Training Doctors To Talk About Vaccines Fails To Sway Parents

11:04am June 01, 2015

by Lisa Aliferis

An effort to get doctors to improve their communication skills didn't reduce the number of new mothers hesitant about vaccines. But researchers say this is just a first try at a worthy concept.

Alcohol consumption is low in Asia — but it definitely happens. Above: Vietnamese friends imbibe at a open-air beer bar in Ho Chi Minh City.

Who's Addicted To What? The First Worldwide Guide

9:54am June 01, 2015

by Susan Brink

Researchers have put together a comprehensive look at alcohol, tobacco and illegal drug use — and broken down the data by region.

Experimental medicines related to ketamine, an anesthetic and club drug, are making progress in clinical tests.

Depression Treatments Inspired By Club Drug Move Ahead In Tests

7:36am June 01, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

A decade ago, scientists showed that the anesthetic ketamine could relieve major depression in hours. Now, two chemical cousins of the drug are entering the late stages of clinical testing.

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Patients receive treatment at the Chest Disease Hospital in Srinagar, India. The country has one of the highest rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the world, in part because antibiotics for the disease are poorly regulated by the government.

As Antibiotic Resistance Spreads, WHO Plans Strategy To Fight It

9:44pm May 31, 2015

by Jason Beaubien

The problem has gotten so bad that some doctors are pondering a "post-antibiotic world." The World Health Organization says countries need to boost surveillance for resistance and develop new drugs.

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