White Americans live on average3.6 years longer than black Americans. If you look only at men, the difference becomes 4.4 years.

Psychotherapy is just as effective as medications in reducing the severity of symptoms from irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, past research shows.

According to research from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in 2011 about two-thirds of pregnant women had their teeth cleaned in the year prior to delivery, but only about one-half had their teeth cleaned during pregnancy.

Pregnant women face a number of choices. Most are pretty noncontroversial: Don’t smoke or use drugs; avoid raw fish and eggs; get lots of rest.

Even though most Australians know we need to exercise more, many of us don’t. Our recent study suggests this is often due to diminishing availability of time.

A common bacterium found in improperly cooked chicken can cause Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or GBS, the world’s leading cause of acute neuromuscular paralysis in humans.

Taking a low-dose aspirin every day to reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer may be worth the increased risk of stomach bleeding, an analysis shows.

Regular physical activity is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, protecting us from a host of modern ills such as heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression and some cancers.

Most people who use alcohol and other drugs do so infrequently and never become dependent (or “addicted” as it’s sometimes called). On average about 10% of people who use alcohol or other drugs are dependent.

For most of us, heading into a gym can lead to confusion about what exercises to do. If you want to change the shape of your body, can selecting certain exercises really work?

A recent thunderstorm asthma event has led some people to question what made this hay fever season so bad and how this tragic event occurred.

One of the most difficult aspects of depression is coping with the nega­tive thoughts that happen moment to moment. People often ask me whether I think you can take an active role in managing and reducing your depression. I answer a very big yes to this question...

Whether it’s frothing milk for a cappuccino or beating egg whites into meringue for a pavlova or macaroons, you can thank chemistry for the reactions that make them possible.

A new study challenges the hypothesis that nerve cells in the brains of people with autism spectrum disorders do not reliably and consistently respond to external stimuli.

Some people with normal blood pressure have elevated blood pressure when their doctor takes the reading. This phenomenon is known as “white coat hypertension”.

The idea that healthy foods are universally more expensive can lead consumers to make choices that aren’t always necessary, a new study suggests.

Is it possible to sneeze without closing your eyes? You might recall the age-old myth that warned against sneezing with open eyes to mitigate the possibility of eyeballs popping out. Tales swirled for decades speculating that...

It was not the splinter of wood from the sidewalk that healed him. It was his imagination aroused to an intense degree, plus the confident expectancy of a perfect healing. Imagination was joined to faith or subjective feeling, and the...

According to the World Health Organization, iron deficiency – a condition where your body doesn’t have enough of the mineral iron – is a global public health problem of “epidemic proportions”.

You’ve probably heard people say they enjoy running because it lets them switch off. Perhaps you feel that way yourself. Brain activity really does decrease when you’re performing a simple, repetitive action...

Here we review the best science about how to start an exercise habit, and how to keep it going by addressing basic questions and issues.

Four of the world’s biggest cities are to ban diesel cars from their city centres by 2025, in order to improve air quality.

Most of us considered microbes little more than nasty germs before science recently began turning our view of the microbial world on its head.