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(MILWAUKEE) — One of life’s simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn’t matter. The [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/study-finds-coffee-drinkers-live-longer/

For the first time in 20 years, U.S. health officials have lowered the threshold for lead poisoning in young children..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/u-s-lowers-cutoff-for-lead-poisoning-in-young-kids/

Want a happier, easier to calm infant and a more empathetic child?  Three new studies suggest that teaching even the youngest children to make music with others can not only reduce distress and make infants smile and laugh more but also enhance brain development and boost empathy. For two of the studies, published in the [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/want-a-less-fussy-easier-to-soothe-kinder-child-make-music/

To gain control of expanding waistlines worldwide, unhealthy foods and drinks need a 20% fat tax, along with subsidies for healthy food, experts say in a new paper published online in the British Medical Journal. Oliver Mytton, of the British Heart Foundation’s Health Promotion Research Group, and his colleagues at the University of Oxford conducted [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/study-a-20-fat-tax-would-improve-public-health/

The Food and Drug Administration is considering approval of the first over-the-counter HIV test that would allow consumers to quickly test themselves for the virus at home, without medical supervision. FDA reviewers said Friday the OraQuick In-Home HIV test could play a significant role in slowing the spread of HIV, according to briefing documents posted [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/do-it-yourself-hiv-test-fda-considers-approval/

Bad air means bad health, but just how harmful can pollution be to your heart? And exactly how do pollutants weaken the heart? The Beijing Olympics provides a clue. Researchers reporting in the Journal of the American Medical Association provide the first evidence that even over the span of a few weeks or months, air [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/study-during-beijing-olympics-shows-how-pollution-harms-the-heart/

More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. On Tuesday, the Obama Administration announced the launch of the National Alzheimer’s Plan, with the goal of finding effective ways to prevent and treat the devastating effects of dementia by 2025. “This is a strong plan that promises important progress when implemented,” Harry Johns, president and [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/u-s-launches-national-alzheimers-plan/

More educated people who make more money have lower rates of several chronic diseases, including obesity, compared to people with lower education and income levels, according to Health, United States, 2011, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report. In the government’s 35th annual comprehensive health report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), data [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/cdc-higher-income-and-education-levels-linked-to-better-health/

A good memory is typically seen as a powerful advantage, an aid to intelligence and socializing.  But when experience is traumatic, this asset may become a serious liability, according to new research on survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland studied a gene for a protein called PKCA, which [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/15/does-a-better-memory-equal-greater-ptsd-risk/

Slurpees are going on a diet. 7-Eleven is embracing health-conscious consumers who are trying to slash their sugar intake by offering low-calorie slushy versions nationwide. Next week, “Slurpee Lites” will be offered at most 7-Elevens with diet-friendly flavors like sugar-free mango and sugar-free cherry limeade. Slurpee Lites will have 50% fewer calories than  traditional Slurpees, [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/15/dieters-rejoice-low-calorie-sugar-free-slurpees-hit-the-market-soon/

Sleepwalking is surprisingly common among Americans, with about 3.6% of U.S. adults — 8.5 million — rising in the wee hours of the night to wander around. A disorder caused by arousal from non-REM sleep, sleepwalking is very common during childhood and tends to decrease with age. ”It’s dangerous because it is quite a lot of [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/15/going-bump-in-the-night-sleepwalking-is-more-common-than-previously-thought/

Sometimes, when you’re down and out, you need an anthem.  Something that champions triumph in the face of adversity, something, perhaps, like Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger. The kids fighting cancer at Seattle Children’s Hospital who are featured in a viral video — along with doctors, nurses and parents — can use all the cheer they can [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/15/young-cancer-patients-may-get-a-boost-and-a-visit-from-kelly-clarkson/

There’s no question that colonoscopy can save lives by detecting colon cancer early, but there are a couple of very good reasons why so few people actually get screened — namely, to get the test, you have to clean out your colon with a laxative and endure having a scope inserted through your rectum. Virtual [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/15/can-laxative-free-colonoscopy-improve-colon-cancer-screening-rates/

Sunscreen confusion may continue through this summer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on May 11 that it’s giving sunscreen manufacturers an additional six months to make labeling changes that will help users better protect themselves. Last summer, the FDA told manufacturers they had until this June to revise their sunscreen labels in [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/15/fda-new-sunscreen-guidelines-delayed-six-months/

Are you or have you ever been a college binge drinker? Welcome to alcoholism, a diagnosis your college self could qualify for under the changes proposed to the next edition of psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, the DSM 5. As the New York Times noted on Saturday in an article that rapidly became one of the most [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/14/dsm-5-could-mean-40-of-college-students-are-alcoholics/

Novelist Alice Randall says black women make the choice to remain overweight, but other research shows social and environmental factors can also play a huge role. Read Noliwe M. Rook’s full opinion piece on our companion blog Ideas...

Details: http://ideas.time.com/2012/05/14/do-black-women-really-want-to-be-fat/?iid=op-main-lede

For about two weeks now, 24-year-old Aimee Copeland has battled a rare flesh-eating bacteria she contracted after cutting herself when she fell from a homemade zipline. The disease claimed her left leg and will likely take her fingers as well, but her family reports she is showing signs of recovery. Although necrotizing fasciitis is rare, it’s [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/14/necrotizing-fasciitis-the-flesh-eating-disease-one-georgia-grad-student-is-fighting/

They’re synonymous with infancy, but baby bottles, pacifiers and sippy cups may not be as baby-friendly as parents would like. Between 1991 and 2010, about 45,000 children under age 3 were treated in emergency rooms for injuries due to these products, according to a report in the journal Pediatrics. Most of the injuries were caused by toddlers [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/14/the-hidden-dangers-of-baby-bottles-pacifiers-and-sippy-cups/

To better understand what makes psychopaths tick, researchers are using brain scans to compare them with other abnormal personalities like sadists and those with antisocial personality disorder...

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/14/understanding-the-psychopathic-mind/

On Thursday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel voted 18-to-4 to approve the prescription diet drug lorcaserin. It’s the second diet pill to be endorsed by an FDA advisory panel this year and, if approved, would be first new weight-loss drug in more than a decade. Lorcaserin, made by Arena Pharmaceuticals, is actually [...]..

Details: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/11/fda-panel-backs-approval-of-weight-loss-drug-lorcaserin/