As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time – the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.

With permission from the patients, investigators followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat.

Never before had the CDC successfully mined the mountain of data that supermarket chains compile.

Men are more likely than women to be interested in sex, have sex and enjoy sex, according to new scientific research, which also found people who stay active and healthy enjoy longer sex lives.

Research by University of Chicago academics published online Wednesday in the British Medical Journal found that, across all age groups, men were more interested in sex than women – and the gap increased with age.

The difference was most pronounced in the 75 to 85 age group, where 39 percent of men and 17 percent of women said they were sexually active, although the gender difference was smaller among people with a partner. Women of that age are more likely than men to be widowed.

ROME – Fans of the blockbuster “Avatar” applaud the film’s use of 3D technology, but the Italian government believes it may also present a health risk.

The health ministry said Thursday it had confiscated about 7,000 sets of 3D glasses from Italian cinemas and could collect more of them.

Officials said the glasses pose hygiene problems if they are not properly cleaned between screenings, and that the confiscated glasses did not display tags proving they would not cause short-term vision problems to users.

The missing glasses have had little effect on the success of “Avatar” in Italy, where it remains the top-grossing film in the country.

Anica, the Italian cinema and audiovisual association, declined comment.

Sneezing, congestion, and runny noses from hay fever may be lasting longer because climate change may be extending pollen seasons, doctors in Italy said on Monday.
Pollen seasons as well as the amount of pollen in the air progressively increased during a 26-year study in Italy, the doctors told a meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in New Orleans.

Young adults who used marijuana as teens were more likely than those who didn’t to develop schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms including hallucinations and delusions, an Australian study found.

Those who used the drug for six or more years were twice as likely to develop a psychosis such as schizophrenia or to have delusional disorders than those who never used marijuana, according to research released online by the Archives of General Psychiatry. They were also four times as likely to score high on a list of psychotic-like experiences.

The findings build on previous research and shows that marijuana use isn’t as harmless as some people think, lead study author John McGrath said yesterday in an e-mail. The study was the first to look at sibling pairs to discount genetic or environmental influence and still find marijuana linked to later psychosis, the authors said in the study.

“This is the most convincing evidence yet that the earlier you use cannabis, the more likely you are to have symptoms of a psychotic illness,” said McGrath, a professor at the Queensland Brain Institute in Brisbane, Australia, in a statement. “The message for teenagers is: if they choose to use cannabis they have to understand there’s a risk involved.”

Sequenom Inc launched its fetal test for sex determination based on its SEQureDx technology, which had been hit by a scandal over employee mishandling of research and data.

Dorothy Lee and her husband of 40 years were driving home from a Bible study group one wintry night when their car suddenly hit the curb. Mrs. Lee looked at her husband, who was driving, and saw his head bob a couple of times and fall on his chest.

The results of a new study on managing juvenile <a title="In-depth reference and news articles about Diabetes.diabetes may give hope to millions of parents in this country and abroad who typically wake up several times a night to make sure their children’s blood sugar levels have not dropped into the danger zone.

More than half of Americans looked up health information on the Internet last year, U.S. government researchers reported on Tuesday.

But only 5 percent used email to communicate with their doctors, the survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found.

Researcher at the center used a survey of 7,192 adults aged 18 to 64 questioned between January and June 2009.

“From January through June 2009, 51 percent of adults aged 18-64 had used the Internet to look up health information during the past 12 months,” the center, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement.

People who spend a lot of time surfing the internet are more likely to show signs of depression, British scientists said on Wednesday.

But it is not clear whether the internet causes depression or whether depressed people are drawn to it.

Psychologists from Leeds University found what they said was “striking” evidence that some avid net users develop compulsive internet habits in which they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites.