Health

Three California poultry processing plants linked to a salmonella outbreak in raw chicken that’s sickened 278 people in 17 states can remain open, the U.S. Agriculture Department says.

The three plants are owned by Foster Farms, which has made “immediate substantive changes to their slaughter and processing to allow for continued operations,” according to the department, the Associated Press reported.

Eating more fresh vegetables is one of the simplest choices you can make to improve your overall health. A vegetable-rich diet can help protect you from arthritis, heart disease, stroke, dementia, cancer, and can even help slow down your body’s aging process.

A recent study found that people who consume seven or more portions of vegetables and fruit a day have a 42 percent lower risk of dying from any cause, compared to those who eat less than one portion—and vegetables have the greatest impact…

More than 100 years ago, a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda discovered the secret that made dashi, a classic seaweed soup, so delicious. It was glutamic acid, which, in your body is often found as glutamate.

Ikeda called this new flavor “umami,” which means “delicious” in Japanese, but it wasn’t until 2002 that modern-day scientists confirmed umami to be a fifth taste, along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty…

Adding to a growing global movement to acknowledge the serious health risks associated with fluoride exposure, as of August 26, 2014, the Ministry of Health in Israel lifted the mandatory requirement for water fluoridation that was put in place in 1970.

There is now a nationwide ban on water fluoridation in Israel, a decision Israeli Health Minister Yael German said “would allow Israeli parents and doctors to decide on their own whether to provide fluoride to children, in what doses, and in what manner.”…

Mercury pollution is extremely persistent once in the air, water, and soil, and levels steadily increase over time as it accumulates. A number of industries contribute to mercury pollution, but dental offices are one of the primary culprits.

Dental amalgam, a tooth filling material that is 50 percent mercury—not silver—is the leading intentional use of mercury in the US, and dentist offices are the largest source of mercury in wastewater entering publicly owned treatment works…

Your body’s microbiome—colonies of various microbes that reside in your gut and elsewhere in and on your body—is as unique to you as your fingerprint.

It varies from person to person based on factors such as diet, lifestyle, health history, geographic location, and even ancestry. Your microbiome is in fact one of the most complex ecosystems on the planet…

A new study found that deaths from opioid overdoses have fallen sharply in the 23 US states where medical marijuana is now legal. Coincidence? Not likely.

For those with chronic pain, medical marijuana can be life changing, allowing a safer, natural form of treatment than the conventionally recommended pain-relieving drugs called opioids.

More than one in 10 Americans take an antidepressant, and that number jumps to one in four among women aged 50 to 64.1 They’re the most commonly prescribed class of medication other than antibiotics,2 but despite their overwhelming popularity there’s an important question that needs to be answered: do they work?

Overwhelming evidence shows that antidepressants do not work as advertised. In fact, at best, antidepressants are comparable to placebos…

Are you having trouble trimming down? Your diet definitely accounts for the majority of your success here, but exercise can help take you the rest of the way.

In addition to high intensity interval training, weight lifting is an excellent way to get rid of that stubborn excess body fat, because working your muscles is the key to firing up your metabolism…

In 1832, a Belgian mathematician named Adolphe Quetelet developed what is today known as the body mass index (BMI). The formula divides a person’s weight by the square of his height, and is one of the most commonly used measures of excess weight, obesity, and overall health.

Initially, BMI was primarily a tool used by insurance companies to set premiums (people with BMIs in the “obese” category may pay 22 percent more for their insurance compared to those in the “normal” category)…