Latest Health News

SATURDAY, Jan. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Think you're safe from lung cancer because you've never smoked? Think again. While cigarette smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, it's possible to get the disease without ever lighting up."Anyone with lungs can get lung cancer," said Dr. Missak Haigentz Jr., chief of Thoracic and Head and Neck Medical Oncology at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick.In fact, a new U.S. National Cancer Institute study estimates 10% of men and 20% of women who develop lung cancer have never used tobacco products. There are three types of lung cancer in nonsmokers, according to the study."What we know already is that lung cancers, despite appearing similar under the microscope, may develop differently in never-smokers, and this...

FRIDAY, Jan. 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A three-month sexual abstinence rule for blood donations from sexually active gay and bisexual men should be dropped by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, critics urge as the country struggles with a blood shortage.Right now, based on the slight chance of infection with HIV, men who have sex with men must abstain from sex with other men for 90 days before being eligible to donate blood. It's a rule that's considered discriminatory by advocates and viewed by many in the medical community as an unnecessary roadblock to blood donation, NBC News reported.In April 2020, the FDA decreased the abstinence requirement from 12 months to three months of abstinence, which was done at the urging of lawmakers and advocates as the nation faced a...

FRIDAY, Jan. 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Want to look more alluring? Wear a mask.Really. That's the takeaway from Welsh researchers who found that masking up may make men look more attractive to the opposite sex and that some kinds of masks do a better job of this than others. “Research carried out before the pandemic found medical face masks reduce attractiveness -- so we wanted to test whether this had changed since face coverings became ubiquitous and understand whether the type of mask had any effect," said study author Michael Lewis of Cardiff University, an expert in the psychology of faces.And, indeed, it did.Lewis and his colleagues showed 43 women pictures of men's faces. They were asked to rate attractiveness of the guys without a mask, and with a cloth mask, a blue...

FRIDAY, Jan. 14, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- For thousands of years, people have picked up chile peppers to provide their diets with pizazz.There's no doubt chile peppers are packed with flavor. They also provide a little fiber without salt, sugar, saturated fat or many calories, said professor Linda Van Horn, chief of the nutrition division at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.Indeed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one raw, red chile pepper – 45 grams, or about 1.6 ounces – has a mere 18 calories.But chile peppers as a vegetable are relatively low in nutritional value, Van Horn said. "They offer a little beta carotene, but nothing comparable to carrots."It's true that ounce for ounce, a pepper has more vitamin C than...