Health

Although the dangers of smoking are well known, tobacco still remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States. The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that physicians…

Even as science searches for more clues about the causes of diabetes and medications to prevent it, the vast majority of new cases of the disease in older adults could…

Smoking, having high blood pressure, and being overweight are the leading preventable risk factors for premature mortality in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at…

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General hospitals report that using a computerized application to record and track patients’ medications could decrease the occurrence of potentially harmful medication discrepancies.…

Harvard College freshmen Anastasia Roda and Isha Jain have recently been featured in Discover Magazine’s “Teen Genius: 5 Promising Scientists Under 20,” which highlights outstanding young scientists who tackle some of the biggest challenges in science.

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) has named Harvard Professor of Ophthalmology Leo T. Chylack Jr., and Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences John E. Dowling as 2009 fellows. Chylack and Dowling will receive their fellowships in May at the annual ARVO meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Harvard Medical School (HMS) will host a two-day Dean’s Symposium on Clinical and Translational Research on April 30 and May 1. Students, trainees, and faculty who are engaged in, or are interested in, clinical and translational research will convene for the first event of this kind.

Decisions, decisions. We all make them, starting with which side of the bed to get up on in the morning. But on a personal and public scale, many decisions have grave consequences for health, financial well-being, and — true enough — the fate of the planet.

Harvard paleontologists have shed new light on one of the most enduring mysteries of life on Earth: the origins of the creatures that suddenly appear in the fossil record 530 million years ago in an event known as the Cambrian Explosion.

A reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports hardy microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years, researchers report this week in the journal Science.

Even as public health officials deal with the age-old problems of starvation and malnutrition, new nutritional maladies linked to Western diets and lifestyles are spreading around the world, complicating the global nutrition picture.

Comparing the nation’s obesity epidemic to a house on fire, Harvard nutrition experts took aim at sugar-sweetened beverages Monday (April 20), recommending the creation of a new, low-sugar alternative and urging adults and children alike to quench their thirsts the natural way — with water.

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) has named Harvard Professor of Ophthalmology Leo T. Chylack Jr., and Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences John E. Dowling…

Eating salmon or other fatty fish just once a week helped reduce men’s risk of heart failure, a recent study shows, adding to growing evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are of benefit to cardiac health.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) has demonstrated a better way to deliver cancer drugs…

Imagine visiting a doctor’s office five years from now and, as a routine part of your annual physical, getting an accurate test that can tell whether you have cancer long…

Health care disparities in the United States have long been noted, with particular attention paid to the gaps separating racial and economic groups. And while some research has looked at…

Among their many roles as message couriers and gene regulators, microRNA molecules also help control the repair of damaged DNA within cells, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School scientists…

Nicholas De Torrente was at Harvard as part of Harvard Global Health Day 2009, sponsored by the Harvard College Global Health and AIDS Coalition and the International Relations on Campus student groups.

Harvard researchers examining the activity of a common type of soil bacteria have taken another step in understanding the inner workings of cells, showing that proteins can arrange themselves according to a cell’s inner geometry.

Surgeons at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital toiled in twin operating rooms Thursday (April 9), becoming just the second U.S. team to perform facial transplant surgery.

Women in developing nations, once thought to have a small chance of contracting breast cancer, are increasingly getting the disease as lifestyles incorporate risk factors common in industrialized nations, panelists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said Tuesday (April 14).

An African leader whose anti-AIDS programs resulted in one of the continent’s few HIV success stories said Monday (April 13) that he is shifting his efforts from treatment toward prevention in hopes of creating an “HIV-free” generation.

A reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports hardy microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years, researchers report this week in the journal…

Women in developing nations, once thought to have a small chance of contracting breast cancer, are increasingly getting the disease as lifestyles incorporate risk factors common in industrialized nations, panelists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said Tuesday (April 14).

A study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital sheds new light on anabolic steroid users, augmenting previous research suggesting that users can become dependent on the drugs and showing for…

Harvard researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have developed a slow-release anesthetic drug-delivery system that could potentially revolutionize treatment of pain during and after surgery, and may also have a large impact on chronic pain management.

In certain respects, cells are less like machines and more like people. True, they have lots of components, but they also have lots of personality. For example, when specific groups…

Surgeons at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital toiled for 17 hours in twin operating rooms yesterday performing the second facial transplant surgery operation in the U.S. The complex, challenging operation,…

Adding to the growing evidence that a person’s waist size is an important indicator of heart health, a study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that larger waist circumference is associated with increased risk of heart failure in middle-aged and older populations of men and women.