New moms know that breastfeeding can be good for babies, providing them with much-needed nutrition as well as a shot of antibodies and other cells that help build immune systems. Now, evidence suggests that the practice may keep the mothers themselves healthier too.
Researchers led by Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz at University of Pittsburgh found that women who breastfeed are half as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as women who do not. That’s a big statistical difference, and although it’s not clear what is behind the gap, scientists speculate that …

U.S. researchers said Monday that magic mushrooms may help ease the anxiety that accompanies late-stage cancer.
They said that cancer patients given a moderate dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin were measurably less depressed six months after a single dose compared with a placebo.
The study of 12 cancer patients was designed to prove that hallucinogenic drugs could be studied as a way to relieve the distress of advanced cancer.
The study, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, revives a promising field of study lasting from the 1950s to the early …

Could your kitchen at home pass a restaurant inspection?
New researcher suggests that at least one in seven home kitchens would flunk the kind of health inspection commonly administered to restaurants.
The small study from California’s Los Angeles County found that only 61 percent of home kitchens would get an A or B if put through the rigors of a restaurant inspection. At least 14 percent would fail — not even getting a C.
“I would say if they got below a C, I’m not sure I would like them to invite me …

SAM-e plus prescription antidepressants may spell relief for hard-to-treat depression, according to a new study published in the August 2010 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. Short for S-adenosyl methionine, SAM-e is a dietary supplement that is often used in the treatment of depression.
“This is the first study that examines the use of oral SAM-e as an adjunctive therapy in patients with major depressive disorder who don’t get better on standard antidepressants,” says study author George Papakostas, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director …

While financial woes, on-the-job-stress, and relationship troubles build up over time and may cause ongoing stress, there was no direct evidence supporting the link between such chronic stress and heart disease  — until now.  New research shows that increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the hair shaft — a marker for chronic stress — raise the risk of heart attack.
The findings appear online in the journal Stress.
Levels of cortisol have previously been measured in blood, urine, and saliva, but these measurements only provide a snapshot of stress at …