http://www.post-gazette.com/ Health, Science, Environment, Medicare news en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 05:09:34 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1208857-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Think of some of the nutrients in your daily vitamins: calcium, potassium, iron, zinc. These are four of the 118 chemical elements from which all matter in the universe is made. But what makes the elements themselves? The answer is shining above you in the sky. Indeed, the building blocks of all substances are chemically created in the stars. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209017-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml LOS ANGELES -- Some things are better left unsaid -- and that includes certain aspects of your medical condition, doctors say. In a nationwide survey of 1,800 physicians, 17 percent had some level of disagreement with the notion that they should "never tell a patient something that is not true." Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209019-53.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml A crisp romaine salad with chicken or tofu and Kraft Creamy Italian dressing led the menu Wednesday. Scattered around the tray were raw carrots, cooked corn and peas, an apple and a whole wheat roll. The drink of the hour was milk -- skim, 1 percent or soy. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209020-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The amount of trans fat in the American bloodstream fell by more than half after the Food and Drug Administration required food manufacturers to label how much of the unhealthful ingredient is in their products, according to a new study. Blood levels of trans fat declined 58 percent from 2000 to 2008. FDA began requiring trans-fat labeling in 2003. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209069-139.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Over the next few weeks and months, more runners will take to the streets and gyms to prepare for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May. They'll start slow, going a few miles per day, and ramp up to longer runs as the race draws closer. But there is more to running a marathon than just running. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209077-488.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Allegheny County Health Department spokesman Guillermo Cole says he doesn't think there's an answer as to why, but he's happy to report that the Pittsburgh area's having a mild flu season to date. So far, there have been only five confirmed cases -- one believed to have been contracted by someone when traveling abroad -- with just the rest of February, March and perhaps April to go. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209100-115-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml A piece of Mars fell on Morocco in July. But that was just the start of its travels on Earth. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209101-115-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml SAN FRANCISCO -- Venture deep inside the new skyway of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and it becomes clear that the bridge's engineers have planned for the long term. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208924-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml So far, Allegheny County is experiencing a "very mild" flu season with just five confirmed cases, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 15:39:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208682-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml This is one of a series presented by the National Aviary. The National Aviary works to inspire respect for nature through an appreciation of birds. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208706-28.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml If you think Pittsburgh's health insurance landscape has changed dramatically in the last year, you ain't seen nothing yet, according to six of the region's top insurance executives. Expect more friction between physicians and health plans as insurers try to wring what they call unnecessary procedures, scans and surgeries out of the system. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208794-115-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Norton D. Zinder, a researcher who helped lay the basis for the new field of molecular biology in the 1950s and '60s and who played a crucial role in the politics of decoding the human genome, died on Friday in a nursing home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He was 83. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208795-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Q. Are oral plaque, coronary vessel plaque and eye plaque the same substance? Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208632-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml A giant crocodile with a bulging shield of thickened skin on its forehead lived among dinosaurs, a new study reports. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208633-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml By filtering through 25 gallons of seawater from Puget Sound, a computer scientist in Washington State has managed to tease out and sequence the DNA of a tiny microbe that has eluded scientists for years. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208101-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml It isn't often a cash-strapped local government can find a way to cut costs and at the same time improve the morale and productivity of its work force. The city of Pittsburgh has. The cost of providing health insurance to city employees rose nearly 16 percent from 2006 to 2007. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 13:18:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208491-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Evan Waxman was visiting a clinic in Hazelwood recently when he had an unsettling experience. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 12:50:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208486-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Special events: VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System invites the public to participate in open-house activities Feb. 12-18 during the National Salute to Veteran Patients. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 11:17:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208088-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml If you haven't started looking for Mars in the evening sky, this week is a good time to start. After a two-year absence in the spotlight, the Red Planet, currently located in Leo, will soon take center stage when it arrives at opposition with the sun on March 3. Mars will rise about 8:30 tonight and will climb to about 25 degrees above the eastern horizon by 10:30. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208090-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml We're increasingly made up of artificial parts. More than 2 million Americans have received implanted pacemakers or defibrillators, for instance. More than 100,000 use insulin pumps. And hundreds of people have received bone growth stimulators during spinal fusion surgery. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208097-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Attention local schools, health centers, charities and nonprofits: Could you use the services of a well-trained public health or health care paraprofessional? If so, the Pittsburgh Health Corps, an affiliate of the national AmeriCorps program, has got a deal for you. PHC will provide you with the services full time of a paraprofessional for 46 weeks between September 2012 and July 2013. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208102-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Pam Pezzin of Freeport was walking in the woods on a winter day back around 1989 when she broke out in hives all over her body, including her stomach, arms, legs and face. Over the years, she continued to break out in bumps when it was cold outside, and she suffered from symptoms of asthma, too. She had a period of remission, but the reactions resumed about 10 years ago. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208431-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml PPG Industries has been selling house paint high in lead content in the African nation of Cameroon for years, and although it says it stopped production of that paint late last year, it has rejected a request that it recall or accurately label its lead paints now selling in stores there. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208432-455-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Wind turbine manufacturer Gamesa, a Spanish company with a manufacturing plant in Ebensburg, Cambria County, is working with the Department of Energy to transform wind power technology, making it cheaper and more reliable. If the project is successful, it could lead to the next generation of wind turbines, officials said. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208445-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Last year, Donate Life America, the nonprofit that advocates for people to donate their organs, reached an important, 5-year-old goal. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500