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Lead Exposure in Last Century Shrunk IQ Scores of Half of Americans
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Lead Exposure in Last Century Shrunk IQ Scores of Half of Americans

In 1923, lead was first added to gasoline to help keep car engines healthy. However, automotive health came at the great expense of our own well-being. A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today,...

No Time to Nap in Nature
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No Time to Nap in Nature

The first study ever to examine sleeping behavior in a wild group of primates has challenged a central tenet of sleep science: that we must make up for lost sleep. Even after sleeping poorly, wild baboons still spent time on other priorities, such as socializing with group-mates or looking out for predators, rather than catching up...

Individuals in England Reduced Social Contacts by Up to 75% During the Covid-19 Pandemic
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Individuals in England Reduced Social Contacts by Up to 75% During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Transmission of respiratory viruses depends partly on the rate of close social contacts in a population. A study publishing March 1st in PLOS Medicine by Amy Gimma at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues suggests that during the most restrictive period of lockdown in the United Kingdom, the number of reported contacts decreased by...

Thoughts of Harming Baby a Normal but Unpleasant Part of Postpartum Experience
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Thoughts of Harming Baby a Normal but Unpleasant Part of Postpartum Experience

Many new mothers experience unwanted and intrusive thoughts about intentionally harming their babies, but those thoughts don’t appear to increase the likelihood that they will actually harm their newborn, according to a new UBC study. The researchers note that such thoughts should be discussed with new mothers as a normal, albeit unpleasant and likely distressing,...

How the Density of Bars, Restaurants Affects Parents’ Alcohol Use
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How the Density of Bars, Restaurants Affects Parents’ Alcohol Use

Past research has shown that people drink more frequently and drink higher amounts of alcohol when they have more bars and restaurants in the neighborhoods where they live. But a new study, focusing on parents of young children, suggests it isn’t just where people live that’s important – it also matters where they spend their...

YouTube Videos Have Problems with Quality of Information on Cosmetic Injectables
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YouTube Videos Have Problems with Quality of Information on Cosmetic Injectables

YouTube videos are the popular choice for online information on Botox and soft-tissue fillers – but these videos have ongoing problems with the quality of information provided, reports a study in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Videos produced by physicians are a better source of...

Health Care Wage Growth Has Lagged Behind Other Industries, Despite Pandemic Burden
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Health Care Wage Growth Has Lagged Behind Other Industries, Despite Pandemic Burden

A new analysis from Indiana University, the nonprofit Rand Corp. and the University of Michigan highlights the changes in the U.S. health care workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the average wages for U.S. health care workers rose less than wages in other industries during 2020 and the first six months of 2021....

Covid Still Threatens Millions of Americans. Why Are We So Eager to Move On?
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Covid Still Threatens Millions of Americans. Why Are We So Eager to Move On?

Iesha White is so fed up with the U.S. response to covid-19 that she’s seriously considering moving to Europe. “I’m that disgusted. The lack of care for each other, to me, it’s too much,” said White, 30, of Los Angeles. She has multiple sclerosis and takes a medicine that suppresses her immune system. “As a...

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As Politics Infects Public Health, Private Companies Profit

For some counties and cities that share a public health agency with other local governments, differences over mask mandates, business restrictions, and other covid preventive measures have strained those partnerships. At least two have been pushed past the breaking point. A county in Colorado and a small city in Southern California are splitting from their...

In Young People, Women Are 44% More Likely Than Men to Have Strokes
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In Young People, Women Are 44% More Likely Than Men to Have Strokes

University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty members Michelle Leppert, MD, and Sharon Poisson, MD, had a hunch that younger people were having strokes at a higher rate than most health care professionals realized, but when they dug into the numbers, the findings even surprised them: In adults 35 and younger, women are 44% more likely than men to suffer...