Hot MedFax

This should probably come as no surprise.  But men are more narcissistic than women. I suspect this is true because women who think highly of themselves are often thought of as vain and self-centered while men who do, aren't. When was the last time someone called George Clooney in love with himself? With three decades of data from more than 475,000 participants, a new study from the University at Buffalo School of Management reveals that men, on average, are more narcissistic than women, according to newswise.com.  “Narcissism is associated with various interpersonal dysfunctions, including an inability to maintain healthy long-term relationships, unethical behavior and aggression,” says lead author Emily Grijalva, PhD, assistant professor of organization and human resources in the UB School of Management. But at the same time, narcissism is also shown to boost self-esteem, emotional stability and the tendency to emerge as a leader. Think of the people you knew i

Maybe they're just getting screening when normally they wouldn't, but more and more younger men are being diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to a new study, the number of younger men diagnosed with prostate cancer has increased nearly 6-fold in the last 20 years, and the disease is more likely to be aggressive in these younger men, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found. Typically, prostate cancer occurs more frequently as men age into their 70s or 80s. Many prostate cancers are slow-growing and many older men diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer will end up dying from causes other than prostate cancer. But, the researchers found, when prostate cancer strikes at a younger age, it’s likely because the tumor is growing quickly.  Cancer almost always is more aggressive in younger people. “Early onset prostate cancer tends to be aggressive, striking down men in the prime of their life. These fast-growing tumors

It's hard not to know that obesity is a factor in many cancers, including that of the breast.  But an ominous new study has found that being obese puts you at high risk for a very rare but aggressive subtype of breast cancer. Called "basal-like," it's found in obese women, whose bodies present a favorable environment for the biological mechanisms of this disease to ignite. Breast cancer is not one but many diseases made up of several distinct subtypes, newswise.com reports. "The basal-like subtype, an aggressive form of breast cancer, is found in 15 to 20 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer, with a high percentage of cases found among young and African-American women," according to the Web site. The really bad news is that women diagnosed with the basal-like subtype often have a poor prognosis and cannot be treated with hormonal and targeted therapies. Studying mice, researchers found that obesity "radically alters the cellular micro-en

Let's hear it for helicopter parenting.  Well, maybe not. I admit, I'm one who practices it.  My son is nearly 12 and I'm still trying to arrange play dates (only now they call it "hanging out"). I'm obsessed with his homework and don't relax till it's done (yes, I let him do it). Also, who he's talking to on Skype.  And, I admit it, try to get him to eat his vegetables. But an essay in The New York Times' Sunday Review stopped me dead in my tracks.  Eli J. Finkel and Grainne M. Fitzsimons quoted studies that have found that the more helicopter parenting we do, "the less satisfied college students feel with their lives." I'm a little ways away from college but still it got to me.  The two reported that "certain forms of help can dilute recipients’ sense of accountability for their own success."  Duh.  If Mom and Dad do everything, why  bother? Now I'm not nearly as bad as the parents who, trying to get the

A new study as reported by The New York Times today has found that, though "playing the games can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behaviors" the good news -- I think -- is that it's not totally clear if that is the case.  It's quite possible that those who like to play violent video games self-select themselves. In other words, as The Times noted, young people who tend towards violent tendencies just might be the ones most likely to play the bloodiest games.  A psychologist quoted in the story, however, said that the violent behavior of people like Adam Lanza, the Newtown murderer, could only partly be attributed to video games. “None of these extreme acts, like a school shooting, occurs because of only one risk factor; there are many factors, including feeling socially isolated, being bullied, and so on,” Craig A. Anderson, a psychologist at Iowa State University, told The Times. A statistic I found very revealing was that "the proliferat