Health & Science: Science News, Health News, Scientific Developments, Healthcare & Nutrition - The Washington Post

Groups launch multimillion-dollar push to promote health-care law, sign up the uninsured

Sandhya Somashekhar — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:37:00 GMT

The race is on to sign up uninsured Americans for health-care coverage this fall, with a number of large national advocacy groups launching aggressive, multimillion-dollar campaigns this summer aimed at promoting President Obama’s health-care law.

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White House, NASA want help hunting asteroids

Joel Achenbach — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:01:00 GMT

The White House and NASA on Tuesday will ask the public for help finding asteroids that potentially could slam into the Earth with catastrophic consequences.

Citing planetary defense, the administration has decided that the search for killer rocks in space should be the latest in a series of “Grand Challenges,” in which the government sets an ambitious goal, helps create public-private partnerships and sometimes offers prize money for innovative ideas.

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Komen names new CEO to replace Nancy Brinker

Lena H. Sun — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:12:00 GMT

The beleaguered Susan G. Komen Foundation has named a nationally known health policy and research expert in Washington to replace founder Nancy Brinker as its chief executive, the breast cancer charity announced Monday.

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High-heeled shoes may look good, but they’re bad for your feet

Christina Ianzito — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:27:00 GMT

Now is the season when women take their freshly pedicured toes al fresco, often courtesy of strappy high-heel sandals or open-toed pumps that look fabulous but sometimes feel like the masochistic torture tools that many podiatrists insist they are.

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Diabetes has been a part of my daughter’s life for a quarter-century

Lenny Bernstein — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:12:24 GMT

My daughter has been a Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic since she was 10 months old. There were some scary moments when she was very young, and some rough times when she was a teenager. But she’s doing quite well now. One of the silver linings of the early onset of a chronic disease is that you learn to treat it as an unfortunate fact of life, though one that must be constantly monitored and managed.

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Myofascial pain syndrome often leaves doctors baffled and patients untreated

Amy Mathews Amos — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:04:49 GMT

My symptoms started in January 2008, with deep pain in my bladder and the sense that I had to urinate constantly. I was given a diagnosis of interstitial cystitis, a chronic bladder condition with no known cure. But in the following months, pain spread to my thighs, knees, hips, buttocks, abdomen and back. By the time my condition was properly diagnosed three years later, I had seen two urogynecologists, three orthopedists, six physical therapists, two manual therapists, a rheumatologist, a neurologist, a chiropractor and a homeopath.

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T. Rex at 20: How ‘Jurassic Park’ science has evolved

Michael Dhar — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:56:00 GMT

With a 3-D version in the theaters and a sequel due out next year, “Jurassic Park” roared into its 20th anniversary on June 11.

Two decades might seem like the blink of a lizard’s eye on top of 65 million years, but the science and speculations of “Jurassic Park” have evolved significantly since Steven Spielberg’s beasts first shook movie theaters.

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Mosquitoes, ticks and bees are summer hazards, as are sunshine and poison ivy

Consumer Reports — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:45:10 GMT

Ah, summer. The season of shorts and shirt sleeves, barbecues and vacations . . . but also sunburn, rashes and bugs determined to get a piece of you. Fortunately, most of summer’s dangers can be prevented. Here is a guide to common seasonal problems and how to treat them.

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Stem cell discovery might someday help regrow lost fingers

Science News — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:40:00 GMT

Clumsy manicurists can thank a set of stem cells under the base of the fingernail for erasing their mistakes. Those cells allow not only trimmed fingernails but amputated fingertips to regrow. Doctors might one day use nail stem cells to treat malformed nails or even amputated limbs, according to research by Mayumi Ito of New York University Langone Medical Center.

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Sunscreen is valuable, but different types produce different results

Gisela Telis — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:28:14 GMT

As the season of bare skin and scorching sun draws near, you — like so many other people — may find yourself scratching your head over sunscreen.

Yes, skin protection is essential, especially with skin cancer rates on the rise in many populations around the world. But sunscreens come with often confusing labels and long, unpronounceable lists of chemical and other ingredients. How do you know which are safe to slather on you or your kids?

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Health-care law’s network for resolving confusion shows mixed results

Michelle Andrews — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:22:00 GMT

About half of Americans say they don’t know how the Affordable Care Act will affect them. Four in 10 think the 2010 law has been repealed or overturned, or they are unsure where it stands. So chances are good that when the major provisions kick in next year, including online health insurance marketplaces and new standards for health plan costs and coverage, people are going to have questions. Lots of questions. When they do, the biggest one of all may be where to turn for answers.

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Rare and endangered birds are the focus of a book showcasing hundreds of species

Maggie Fazeli Fard — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:11:34 GMT

The white-bellied cinclodes, the long-whiskered owlet and Africa’s El Oro parakeet are three of nearly 600 bird species that are under threat of extinction. The creatures are featured in “The World’s Rarest Birds,” a book showcasing birds that are endangered or critically endangered, that exist only in captivity, or about which there are very few data.

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An Alzheimer’s battle

Maggie Fazeli Fard — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:57:00 GMT

Pam White was writing a memoir about her mother, who had died from Alzheimer’s in 2001, when she began experiencing symptoms of the disease herself. As her memory began to fail and typing became difficult, she struggled to work on the book, which she had titled “The Genius of Marian” after her mother.

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Getting a proper diagnosis requires persistence

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:53:00 GMT

I can identify with Shannon Bream’s story in “An eyeful of agony” [June 11]. I spent most of 2010 lying on the couch with a splitting headache. I was pretty sure the root of the problem was my eyesight, but after numerous trips to the optometrist the problem wasn’t getting any better. Then I went to an ophthalmologist, who then referred me to yet another ophthalmologist specializing in strabismus (cross-eyed) issues. That doctor found that my glasses were undercorrecting for my condition. The headaches have gone away.

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Two hundred apply for Boston Marathon charity money

Lenny Bernstein — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:15:26 GMT

Two hundred people applied for compensation from the main charity for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing by Saturday’s deadline, the fund’s deputy administrator said Monday morning.

The applicants seeking help from the fund are distributed throughout the four categories established by the plan, said Camille Biros, the fund’s deputy administrator. She declined to reveal the number of applicants in each category or the extent of their injuries.

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Shad catch limited in move to restore depleted fishery

Darryl Fears — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:46:29 GMT

If things were this bad in the late 1770s, George Washington’s starving Continental Army might never have made it out of Valley Forge.

The shad, according to one account, came charging up the Schuylkill River to spawn and ran headlong into soldiers who leapt into the water, herded them into nets and wolfed them down.

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As Obama moves forward on climate, he faces a tough political task

Juliet Eilperin — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:14:00 GMT

A pair of fundraisers just 90 minutes apart in the San Francisco Bay Area last week laid bare the competing forces of politics and policy that President Obama is grappling with as he prepares to unveil a slate of major initiatives on global warming in late June or in July.

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Panel to Congress: Medicare penalties too harsh on hospitals serving the poor

Jordan Rau — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:49:32 GMT

The financial penalties that Medicare imposes on hospitals with high rates of patient readmissions are too harsh for hospitals serving the poor and should be changed, according to a congressional advisory agency.

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FDA, facing cybersecurity threats, tightens medical-device standards

Lena H. Sun, Brady Dennis — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 01:06:00 GMT

The security analysts wanted to know how easy it would be to hack into medical devices used in hospitals, knowing the danger if outsiders could gain control. They found the answer when they managed to figure out hundreds of passwords for equipment that included surgical and anesthesia devices, patient monitors and lab analysis tools.

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D.C. medical marijuana dispensaries closer to opening

Annys Shin — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:08:00 GMT

The District is inching closer to the long-awaited opening of its three medical marijuana dispensaries.

District residents who suffer from certain conditions such as glaucoma and HIV/AIDS can now apply for a medical marijuana card that will enable them to purchase medical cannabis. The Department of Health released the application form Wednesday.

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In dropping opposition to Plan B, U.S. joins small group of nations

Brady Dennis, Sarah Kliff — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:24:49 GMT

The U.S. government, in dropping its legal opposition this week to unrestricted sales of the popular Plan B One-Step morning-after pill, joined a short list of nations that have followed a similar path: India, Bangladesh, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands, as well as some provinces of Canada.

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Fish and Wildlife proposes endangered listing for captive chimpanzees

Darryl Fears — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:34:00 GMT

The federal government moved Tuesday to declare all chimpanzees endangered, an act that would provide stronger protections and potentially end nearly a century of using great apes as test subjects for invasive medical research.

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Obama administration drops fight to keep age restrictions on Plan B sales

Brady Dennis, Sarah Kliff — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 03:58:33 GMT

The Obama administration on Monday abandoned its fight to keep age restrictions on sales of a widely used morning-after contraceptive pill, a stark legal reversal that ended years of court battles but did little to extinguish political passions on both sides of the issue.

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Andy Coghlan — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:52:00 GMT

Editor’s note: This story was inadvertently published before it was scheduled to run. It has been removed.

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Vivid corals and other creatures are found deep off the Mid-Atlantic coast

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:00:37 GMT

Marine scientists have found gardens of vivid coral and creatures normally seen in the Gulf of Mexico in deep canyons only about 50 miles off the Mid-Atlantic coast.

The little-known cold-water corals occur on the outer continental shelf and along the walls of the Washington, Norfolk and Baltimore canyons, up to 5,000 feet deep. The federally funded project that found the creatures is mapping the biological communities, the rocks and the archaeology of this region that, despite its proximity to the East Coast, has been mostly terra incognita — or maybe mare incognita.

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