After age 21, problem gambling is considerably more common among U.S. adults than alcohol dependence, even though alcohol dependence has received much more attention, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions. The results are published this month in the Journal of Gambling Studies. ...

Migraine rates in a comprehensive Norwegian health study have climbed by 1% in a decade - that may not sound like much, but in the Norwegian context, it means 45,000 more migraine sufferers - and if the trend were to hold for the European Union that would be an additional 5 million more people plagued by migraines. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) are baffled by the c ...

Life was hard in occupied Norway during WWII, but the occupation had one surprising result: deaths from heart attacks dropped precipitously because Norwegians ate less fat, smoked less, and were more physically active. Now, in the last half of the 20th century, Norway has seen a similar precipitous drop in heart attack deaths, but this time due to focused prevention programs and improved treatment, reports ...

The federal anti-drug campaign "Above the Influence" appears to have effectively reduced marijuana use by teenagers, new research shows. A study of more than 3,000 students in 20 communities nationwide found that by the end of 8th grade, 12 percent of those who had not reported having seen the campaign took up marijuana use compared to only 8 percent among students who had reported familiarity with the camp ...

The number of cancer survivors in the United States increased to 11.7 million in 2007, according to a report the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) released today. This is a nearly 20 percent increase in cancer survivors from 2001. The results were published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Check the end of this post to download the complet ...

Adults aged 50 and older comprise 51.5 percent of all emergency department visits each year related to adverse reactions to medications, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The report says 61.5 percent were made by people aged 65 or older and 60.9 percent involved women. Check the end of this post for a link to download the complete report. ...

As many as 100 million Americans may currently be misclassified as having abnormal blood pressure, according to Dr. Brent Taylor from the Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota and his colleagues. Their findings show that these people are not actually more likely to die prematurely than those with 'normal' blood pressure (i.e., below the current accepted standard ...

Community gym surfaces do not appear to be reservoirs for MRSA transmission, according to a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC – the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. MRSA is an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can lead to severe infections and is associated with approximately 19,000 deaths an ...

Of all the non-starchy vegetables, Americans eat more tomatoes and tomato products than any others. Eating more tomatoes and tomato products can make people healthier and decrease the risk of conditions such as cancer, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease, according to a review article the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, (published by SAGE). The original full-text study is available for free for ...

Radio frequency exposure from mobile phone use does not appear to increase the risk of developing brain cancers by any significant amount, a study by University of Manchester scientists suggests. The researchers used publically available data from the UK Office of National Statistics to look at trends in rates of newly diagnosed brain cancers in England between 1998 and 2007. ...