Culture

Sunless tanning — whether with lotions, bronzers or tanning pills — has been promoted as an effective substitute to dodge the health risks of ultraviolet rays, but if the products don't provide the perfect tan, young women likely will not use them, according to a Baylor University researcher.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who also have allergic disease have higher levels of respiratory symptoms and are at higher risk for COPD exacerbations, according to a new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Death in hospital remains very common for cancer patients in developed countries.

Although hospital surveys show that death was highly expected, patients dying in hospital have a high probability of unrelieved and poorly treated physical suffering, and emotional, spiritual and social distress.

Having a pet might lower your risk of heart disease, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement.

The statement is published online in the association's journal Circulation.

"Pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is probably associated with a decreased risk of heart disease" said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and chair of the committee that wrote the statement after reviewing previous studies of the influence of pets.

Research shows that:

With simple and innovative measures, public agencies at state and local levels can play a significant role in promoting healthier eating habits — steps that could make a difference in curbing the nation's obesity epidemic.

Women who engage in "fat talk" — the self-disparaging remarks girls and women make in relation to eating, exercise or their bodies — are less liked by their peers, a new survey has found.

Alexandra Corning, associate professor of psychology and director of Notre Dame's Body Image and Eating Disorder Lab, presented the survey results recently at the Midwestern Psychological Association annual conference.

The era is long gone when a romantic breakup meant ripped-up photos and burned love letters and moving on. Digital photos and emails can be quickly deleted but the proliferation of social media in an Internet where 'nothing is really deleted' has made forgetting a bigger chore.

What about the ubiquitous digital records of a once beloved that lurk on Facebook, tumblr, and flicker?

Doctors should not have the right or responsibility to force-feed their patients with genomic information about their future health risks, according to bioethicists writing on May 9 in Trends in Biotechnology, a Cell Press publication. They write in response to controversial recommendations from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) on the reporting of incidental findings in clinical genome sequencing.

DENVER, May 9, 2013 – A new Canadian study shows that operating without interrupting warfarin treatment at the time of cardiac device surgery is safe and markedly reduces the incidence of clinically significant hematomas compared to the current standard of care. The new findings were released today at Heart Rhythm 2013, the Heart Rhythm Society's 34th Annual Scientific Sessions, and will be published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

New Orleans, LA – Research conducted by Xiao-Cheng Wu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, and colleagues, reports adolescents and young adults with cancer may be at higher risk for social isolation and that a substantial proportion of them have unmet social needs that could adversely affect their health. The research is published online in the Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology. More than 500 participants in the Adolescent and Young Adult Health Outcomes and

Why do brands such as Manchester United and Apple capture some hearts and minds while Arsenal and Samsung capture others?

When consumers feel a strong emotional attachment to a brand, they tend to be willing to pay more and defend it against detractors.

And why is brand attachment so rare? For all the millions of dollars spent on advertising and other efforts, consumers rarely feel an affinity for brands.

For young women in high school, the risk of childbearing may depend on the prevalence of obesity in their schools, according to sociologists, who found that as the prevalence of obesity rises in a school, so do the odds of obese high school students bearing children.

Toddlers living in socially-deprived areas are at the greatest risk of suffering a scald in the home, researchers at The University of Nottingham have found.

The study, published in the journal Burns, showed that boys aged between one and two years old and those with multiple siblings were statistically more likely to suffer a hot water-related injury, while children born to mothers aged 40 years and over were at less risk than those with teenage mums.

TORONTO, ON – An estimated 4,837,000 asthmatics with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) could benefit substantially from antifungal treatment, say researchers from the University of Toronto and Manchester University.

Their work, published today in the journal Medical Mycology, has also re-estimated the total number of asthmatics worldwide – to reveal a staggering 193 million sufferers. Twenty-four million asthma sufferers live in the United States, 20 million each in India and China, and seven million in the United Kingdom.

Montreal, May 8, 2013 – Children on dialysis for severe kidney disease have a dramatically reduced risk of death compared to 20 years ago, a new study shows. The findings, from a study led by Dr. Bethany Foster from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), are very encouraging for children with end-stage kidney disease. These children face a significantly shortened life expectancy, with dialysis as the only life-saving therapy while they await transplant. This study was published in JAMA.