Is an “exercise pill” coming your way?

Researchers are developing pills that provide many of the effects of exercise. But none provides all the benefits of physical activity—a reduced risk of many cancers, cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis.  (Locked) More »

Treating pain with your brain

Mindfulness—concentrating on a sensation and analyzing it objectively—can help relieve pain by changing the way we experience it. The technique has been demonstrated to relieve headache, fibromyalgia, and low back pain. (Locked) More »

Considering cataract surgery? What you should know

 Image: CJ_Romas/ Thinkstock Cataract surgery—which involves removing the eye's clouded lens and replacing it with a clear synthetic version—once required several days in the hospital and a long recovery period. Today it is performed under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis, and people are back to their normal lives within days. The success rate is high, and the rate of vision-threatening complications is relatively low. For people with cataracts, the decision whether to have surgery may be easy to make. However, two additional decisions might be more difficult: when to have surgery and what type of lens implant to get, says Dr. Laura Fine, an ophthalmologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. To a great extent, cataracts are a normal consequence of aging. Cataract formation is usually a gradual process that plays out over years. The lenses of our eyes become less transparent, less resilient, and often thicker. By age 80, half of us will have cataracts. (Locked) More »

Adapting to life after cancer

Once you’ve completed therapy, you may face a new set of challenges to your health and well-being, including late effects of treatment, the fear of recurrence, and altered relationships. Your health-care team can help you deal with them. (Locked) More »