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Some strategies, both before and after losing a job, to safeguard medical benefits.

It's called the obesity paradox. Although obese people are more apt to suffer from inflammatory diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, they are also more likely to survive a major attack caused by one of those conditions. Scientists shed light on the reasons for this phenomenon in a study in Endocrinology.

Some strategies, both before and after losing a job, to safeguard medical benefits.

Many doctors don't offer emergency contraception pills to adolescents who may benefit from them during emergency department visits because of misinformation about how the medicine works, according to a study by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Improved physician education may increase prescription rates and reduce unintended pregnancy, the study's authors said.

With origins dating back over 4,000 years, green tea has long been a popular beverage in Asian culture, and is increasingly gaining popularity in the United States. And while ancient Chinese and Japanese medicine believed green tea consumption could cure disease and heal wounds, recent scientific studies are beginning to establish the potential health benefits of drinking green tea, especially in weight loss, heart health, and cancer prevention.

Researchers have discovered that a long-defunct gene was resurrected during the course of human evolution. This is believed to be the first evidence of a doomed gene - infection-fighting human IRGM - making a comeback in the human/great ape lineage. The study, led by Evan Eichler's genome science laboratory at the University of Washington and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is published March 6 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Pick an option: the prospect of months on crutches and a season on the sidelines, versus taking 10 minutes to do a short, simple, structured warm up. For athletes, particularly school-aged athletes, the choice should be clear.

People who put off regular exercise until they hit the age of 50 can still benefit from physical activity but it appears to take 10 years for the effects to kick in, Swedish researchers said Friday.

Background:Although border quarantine is included in many influenza pandemic plans, detailed guidelines have yet to be formulated, including considerations for the optimal quarantine length. Motivated by the situation of small island nations, which will probably experience the introduction of pandemic influenza via just one airport, we examined the potential effectiveness of quarantine as a border control measure. Methods:Analysing the detailed epidemiologic characteristics of influenza, the effectiveness of quarantine at the borders of islands was modelled as the relative reduction of the risk of releasing infectious individuals into the community, explicitly accounting for the presence of asymptomatic infected individuals. The potential benefit of adding the use of rapid diagnostic testing to the quarantine process was also considered.Results:We predict that 95% and 99% effectiveness in preventing the release of infectious individuals into the community could be achieved with qu