The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expressing concern supplements containing vinpocetine, a supplement (e.g. Vinca minor extract, lesser periwinkle extract, common periwinkle extract) which is a derivative of the vinca alkaloid vincamine, an extract from the lesser periwinkle plant and which sellers claims will enhance memory, focus, or mental acuity, increase energy, and cause weight loss.

A new paper says that racist experiences increase inflammation in African American individuals, raising their risk of chronic illness and providing more evidence that creates physical health outcomes, states a paper led by April Thames, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

"I looked at it as a chronic stressor. Our results showed that racial discrimination appears to trigger an inflammatory response among African Americans at the cellular level," states Thames.

Pop culture is in a bit of a quandary. Though food is essential for life, culturally it is no longer a basic necessity, and that's thanks to science. We grow more food on less land than ever dreamed possible. Even Europe, with all its political limitations in agriculture. Food is a cheap commodity and that makes it a values issue.

Cancer starts as a single rogue cell whose mutations then trigger aggressive growth, damaging the health of the organism. But if cancer cells were accumulating harmful mutations faster than they could be purged, wouldn't the population eventually die out? How do cancer cells avoid complete genetic meltdown? 

To try and find answers, researchers in a recent study probed the most famous cultured cancer cells, HeLa cells, isolated from cervical cancer victim Henrietta Lacks in 1951 and becoming the first immortalized cell line.

Some will say that walking a dog is a conversation starter and the fitness benefits of walking are well-known, but most who walk their dog simply enjoy it, not because of health or social benefits.

Using 26 interviews combined with personal written reflections of dog walking experiences, the authors of a International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health paper found that while owners may say the reason they go walking is to benefit the dog, the importance of their own improved happiness and wellbeing is clear.

Though some diet book authors want to suggest certain food types have magical power - trans fats, non-nutritive sweeteners, corn syrup, sugar, etc. - the rise in type 2 diabetes does not have anything to do with soda and everything  to do with energy balance.

People who eat more calories than they burn on a consistent basis gain weight, and that eventually begins to hinder insulin production, which can mean type 2 diabetes. 

In a recent paper, Lehigh University anthropologist Professor Allison Mickel says archaeological excavations are often led by foreigners from the West while dependent on the labor of people from the local community, a relic of Western colonial and imperial pursuits. 

With Alex Trebek’s recent announcement that his pancreatic cancer is in remission, many people have wondered if this difficult cancer is now easier to treat. Pancreatic cancer remains a major cancer killer, but advances are happening.

As a medical oncologist who specializes in treating and studying pancreatic cancer, I’ll try to provide insights, including some from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting now underway.

People treated in hospitals and other health care settings are increasingly at risk of infection with multidrug-resistant bacteria. Many of these microbes produce enzymes called extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), which make them resistant to antibiotics. Understanding how ESBL bacteria spread from person to person is key to developing effective prevention strategies.

An observational study conducted in a French hospital showed that human contact was responsible for 90 percent of the spread of one species of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to new patients, but less than 60 percent of the spread of a different species.

If you survey educators and students, current or former, many will claim they have a learning style -  such as visual, auditory or tactile - that they were born with, and some say it predicts both academic and career success.

There is no scientific evidence to support this common myth, according to new researc, but   surveys in the United States and other industrialized countries across the world have shown that 80% to 95% of people believe in learning styles. It's difficult to say how that myth became so widespread.