Myostatin is a protein that slows muscle growth. Animals such as the Belgian Blue and Piedmontese cattles lack the gene for myostatin and are very muscular. Wendy the Whippet is an excessively muscular whippet who also lacks myostatin. When mice are genetically…

WebMD.com, probably the best medical information website behind Medline Plus, has a new depression meter on its front page, appropriately just in time for the major holidays.
Holiday depression is a mood disorder that can range from the blahs to the blues. Some of…

The web has become a key way in which many people obtain health knowledge. E-health is becoming the future for persons to self diagnose and treat before going or not going to the doctor. In 1996 Business Wise coined the term…

St. Louis has finally relinquished its title as the sexually transmitted disease capital, dropping to number two in the country for rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia. For several years the city’s disease rates topped the country.

St. Louis has a chlamydia rate of…

The holiday eating season has arrived. It arrived with the first bag of Halloween candy and will stick around until that last chili dog on Super Bowl afternoon.
The myth is people gain five and even 10 pounds during this season. But…

For as long as I can remember I have not told my patients to fast when getting a cholesterol level. I saw this as an inconvenience with minimal extra benefit. Today an article in the Journal of the American Medical…

A third Ronald McDonald House serving St. Louis will be built on the campus of St. John’s Mercy Children’s Hospital in Creve Coeur.

Groundbreaking on the site is set for Nov. 20.

Up to 20 families of hospitalized children will be able…

Jefferson County residents in high-risk groups can make appointments to get H1N1 vaccine from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 16, 19, 20 and 24 at the county health department office at 405 Second Street in Hillsboro. High risk…