Your couch or mine: Telephone therapy is almost as effective as face-to-face consultations for depression.
Birth control for weeds: A new way to use herbicides.
Can your genes predict Alzheimer’s? No.
Robbing the cradle is bad for women’s health: “Marrying an older man shortens a woman’s lifespan, but having a younger husband reduces it even more.”
Why is there something rather than nothing? Because of muons.
Can dirt do a little good? “Exposure to a certain amount of dirt and germs…may help the body build up resistance to disease.”
Does a warm-up improve your athletic performance? Maybe not.
Study: shyness is bad for marriage. Come to think of it, it’s probably bad for most human interactions.
Applicants to Berkeley can submit a DNA swab. The university tests genes that help regulate the ability to metabolize alcohol, lactose and folates.
The Texas Medicare system is beginning to implode. That’s Medicare, not Medicaid.
John E. Calfee (The American): Too much transparency could mean higher health care prices.
Ten things health clubs won’t tell you. They’re all bad.
Does the religion of the egg matter? Some rabbis say that a child conceived in vitro is Jewish only if the egg came from a Jewish woman.
Octopus eats a shark (neat video).
New Study Says Older = Happier: Although women across the board are more likely than men to worry and feel greater stress and sadness.
James Capretta (Kaiser Health News): The Medicare Independent Panel Advisory Board has been designed so that the only thing that it can recommend to control Medicare costs is a cut in provider fees.
David Williams (Health Business Blog) defends robot surgeries: Humans are the most likely cause of recent mistakes.
ACSH Dispatch: The FDA pays for a study calling for greater regulatory authority for the FDA.
Milliman: Medical spending reaches $18,074 for family of four, up $1,303 from last year.
Donald Berwick praising the British National Health Service. (video) This is President Obama’s nominee to run Medicare.
New way to treat pain: blocking the nerves to the brain. Didn’t I see this in a James Bond movie?
The “(in)fidelity gene”: Men who have it are more likely to have serious marital problems and unhappy wives.
Sleeping with the Enemy, Part II: PhMRA is pouring money into Harry Reid’s campaign. AHIP is joining Families USA to support ObamaCare.
Why FDA expert panels are less and less expert: Research physicians who know the most are barred from FDA expert panels by conflict-of-interest rules.
Top-ranked hospitals not always the best. Reputation is “minimally associated” with objective quality measures.
When is good news about declining maternal death rates worldwide not welcome news? When it hurts fundraising.
Genetic tests to hit drugstore shelves. Experts don’t like it.
Patients give false information in emergency rooms: “Only 42 percent could be successfully contacted using the number provided [and] nearly 28 percent of the patients gave wrong or disconnected numbers.” (HT to KevinMD.com)
Everything tastes better with caffeine. Especially when you’re caffeine-deprived.
