Women who were sexually abused as children are much more likely to be current smokers than women who weren’t abused as children. That’s a key finding of a preliminary study on possible connections between sexual abuse and smoking — a topic that has been largely overlooked in medical research.

The study is published in the February issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors.

“We found childhood sexual abuse is a strong predictor of smoking for women,” says Colmar De Von Figueroa-Mo

New research shows evidence that prescribed antepartum bed rest may result in babies that are smaller than normal as well as other problems.

A study published in the latest issue of BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH FOR NURSING reports that prescribed bed rest during pregnancy may cause a myriad of problems for mothers as well as babies with lower than normal birth weights. This news is alarming considering antepartum bed rest is prescribed for more than 700,000 pregnant women in the United States

Before humans can leave their boot prints on the dusty surface of Mars, many questions have to be answered and many problems solved. One of the most fundamental questions – one that has intrigued humankind for centuries – is whether life has ever existed on Mars, the most Earthlike of all the planets.

Through its long-term Aurora Programme of solar system exploration, ESA is already preparing a series of robotic missions that will reveal the Red Planet’s secrets and pave the way for a human

People on diets should be forgiven for moaning that chocolate tastes better when you’re hungry. Just missing breakfast makes you more sensitive to sweet and salty tastes, according to research published this week in BMC Neuroscience.

Hunger could increase your ability to taste, by increasing the sensitivity of the taste receptors on your tongue, or by changing the way you perceive the same taste stimuli, the author suggests.

Professor Zverev from the University of Malawi persua

Plant sterols — recognized for their cholesterol-lowering power when added to margarines, salad dressings and other fats — are just as effective in reducing low-density lipoprotein, or “bad” cholesterol” levels, when added to orange juice, say researchers at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center.

The results, based on a 10-week study of 72 healthy volunteers with mildly elevated cholesterol levels, are published in the March 8 issue of the American Heart Association’s journa

New evidence in animals suggests that theories about how the brain processes sight, sound and touch may need updating. Researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues report their findings in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using electrodes smaller than a human hair, researchers from Wake Forest Baptist and the University of California at San Francisco recorded individual cell activity in the brains of 31 adult rats. Th

New studies are the first to document changes induced by placebo in the brain’s pain pathways

Researchers have produced the strongest evidence yet that placebo–or the mere expectation of relief, with no real treatment–causes physical changes in how the brain responds to pain. Their report appears in the Feb. 20 issue of Science.

In two related studies at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System, University of Michigan and Princeton University, researcher

Experts agree that when it comes to teamwork, constructive conflict can result in better decisions and performance. When teams develop ideas together, debate differing perspectives, and synthesize those perspectives, the resulting group decision is often superior to a decision made by one person. But what about destructive conflict – when personalities clash, rivalries erupt, emotions flare, and the whole dynamic turns bad?

In a new study, two teamwork researchers at Stevens Institute of T

Knowing our partner is in pain automatically triggers affective pain processing regions of our brains, according to new research by University College London (UCL) scientists. The study, published in the 20th February edition of the journal Science, asked whether empathizing with the pain of others involves the re-activation of the entire pain network underlying the processing of pain in our selves. The results suggest that empathy for pain of others only involves the affective, but not sensory comp

Study suggests damage is cumulative

Prolonged exposure to low-level magnetic fields, similar to those emitted by such common household devices as blow dryers, electric blankets and razors, can damage brain cell DNA, according to researchers in the University of Washington’s Department of Bioengineering. The scientists further found that the damage from brief exposures appears to build up over time.

The new study is scheduled to be published in Environmental Health Perspecti

New research suggests that pointing enhances understanding

In some cultures, pointing is a faux pas, sometimes even insulting. New research is turning this social don’t on its head, showing that hand gestures, such as pointing, can enhance the understanding of messages.

While describing portraits, participants in a study who used referential gesturing were better able to identify targets and reduce verbal cues than participants who only relied on verbal directions.

Compared with their husbands, women tend to put less effort into planning for retirement, studies show. But lesbians tend to plan even less than other women, according to one of the first studies to look at the retirement plans of gay and lesbian couples.

A significant factor influencing same-sex couples’ retirement planning is, put simply, satisfaction with their relationship, according to Cornell University experts on gender issues.

“Although the quality of a marriage tends to

The effectiveness of the chickenpox vaccine decreases significantly in the first year after vaccination, and also appears lower if the vaccine is administered to children younger than 15 months of age, according to a study in the February 18 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

According to background information in the article, chickenpox (varicella) vaccine is recommended for routine administration to healthy children at 12 to 18 months of age and to older chil

Danish researchers found that sun exposure behaviors and personal characteristics are correlated with the dose of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) a person receives, according to a report in the February issue of The Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

UVR exposure is a well-known risk factor for developing skin cancer, according to the article. Guidelines of safe limits of UVR exposure have been issued by many international health organizations. These limits are determin

Studies of natural antibiotics in our mouths may lead to new treatments for oral infections, as well as ways to boost the infection-fighting powers of mouthwashes, denture coatings, and wound dressings, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). These compounds, called beta-defensins, are key components of our innate immune system.

“Innate immunity describes the defenses that we’re are born with; they’re cod

A group of Dutch investigators has published in the March-April issue of Psychotherapy and Psychoomatics a study linking childhood adversities and alexithymia (the inability to express emotions).

Affect regulation is assumed to be a biologically based function that can become disrupted by inadequate parenting and by traumatic experiences. We studied the relation between the perceived parental parenting style, and sexual and physical abuse, with alexithymia, dissociation, anxiety and depress