Batten down the hatches and break out the vitamin C. Cold season is officially here, and it’s possible to get two strains at once! Two new studies of human rhinovirus (HRV), the common cold, have welcomed a new cold bug to the family. Previously, there were only two known species of the virus—HRV-A and HRV-B. Now a third, HRV-C, can be added to the list.The HRV-A and HRV-B species alone represent different strains of the virus, 99 to be exact. What’s surprising is that HRV-C, which has an ad... Read Full Story

Good news for gamers and parents—playing certain video games could actually count as exercise. New research shows that playing Wii Sports, if used correctly, could be the equivalent of a mild workout. Sixteen volunteers, ages 20 to 24, took a fitness test to determine a baseline rating of perceived exertion (RPE).  Participants were instructed on proper usage of the game and played various Wii games while researchers monitored oxygen intake, heart rate and RPE.The study, led by John Por... Read Full Story

New software using cell phones may allow doctors to analyze coughs and diagnose respiratory illness, including pneumonia. “A cough is one of the most common symptoms of illness and a common mode of disease spread,” says researcher Suzanne Smith, PhD, of STAR Analytical Services. “Yet we don’t use technology in any way to measure or understand what coughs mean.” The program is designed to distinguish different coughs using acoustic vocalization analysis, a way to distinguish different audio t... Read Full Story

Like chocolate milk and hot cocoa? You could be just two glasses a day away from a healthier heart. New information indicates that drinking chocolate milk containing cocoa could help improve abnormal blood lipid and cholesterol levels, which puts people at risk for  atherosclerosis and heart disease. Dr. Ramón Estruch of the University of Barcelona’s Department of Internal Medicine was the study’s senior author. Estruch and his team asked 42 high-risk men and women age 55 or older t... Read Full Story

Adding just a little more fiber to your diet could help you drop pounds and shrink your waistline, according to weight research from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. “In the past decade, the decline in carbohydrate quality has been identified as a likely culprit leading to increased adiposity and metabolic disorders among children and adults,” authors write. Eighty-five overweight Latino children from the Los Angeles area were asked to participate in the... Read Full Story

Certain cleaning products with pleasant smells may leave you with more than a spotless home—they may also leave you with a squeaky-clean conscience. Pleasant smells may actually promote honesty, based on two experiments from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Former studies have shown that using cleaning products with citrus scents can help motivate cleaning-related tasks as well as keeping a cleaner dining environment. In much the same way, cleanliness is associated with physical puri... Read Full Story

Certain types of antipsychotic medication can cause children to put on weight—as much as 18 pounds—according to research appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Chrostoph Correll, MD, and associates observed 272 children aged 4 to 19 taking atypical antipsychotic medication for the first time. Drugs/Medications included olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), risperidone (Risperadol) and aripiprazole (Abilify)—drugs sometimes used to treat children with autism,... Read Full Story

There are likely to be plenty of ghosts and ghouls about this Halloween, but one thing that may have parents spooked this time of year is candy and dental health. Roughly 30 percent of 5-year-olds in Plymouth, England, were found to have some form of tooth decay, according to a newly released review. The review examined the 2007-2008 dental records of U.K. children, 211 of whom were Plymouth five-year-olds. This number was just under the national average of 30.9 percent, but other regions we... Read Full Story

Early obesity in women may be linked with difficulty in becoming pregnant. Women who became obese by age 18 and participated in a weight-loss surgery study showed higher rates of infertility and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Forty-two percent of the women in the study trying to conceive experienced infertility, but pregnancy was more likely for women who became obese after age 18. The good news is, surgical weight loss may increase fertility.The study, the Longitudinal Assessment of Ba... Read Full Story

Parents often give their infants acetaminophen (Tylenol) after immunizations and booster shots. As it turns out, this may do more harm than good. The medication may actually weaken infants’ immune systems, according to research from the Czech Republic.Acetaminophen is sometimes given to infants and small children following shots to prevent fever, a common reaction to vaccinations. This study examined the effects of acetaminophen on immune response after initial and booster vaccinations. Two h... Read Full Story