Conversations… | with Dr. Greene

Could chocolate be more effective than codeine in treating coughs? And if so, how much chocolate would it take? Research published November 17, 2004 in FJ Express, which will appear in The FASEB Journal in January 2005, makes a strong case that dark chocolate may be a powerful cough suppressant. A cough is a healthy, [...]

Autism and related conditions continue to become more common. Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability, increasing in frequency by more than 10 percent each year; this makes finding its causes and treatments an urgent priority. A new piece of the solution to the autism puzzle appeared online in the Annals of Neurology on November [...]

Young babies and elderly adults are living at important times of transition. They share some common vulnerabilities and possibilities. For example, the otherwise healthy people most at risk for serious problems from the flu are the very young and the very old. On the positive side, getting omega 3 fatty acids, particularly DHA, in the [...]

The various studies looking at the effects of breastfeeding on childhood leukemia have had inconclusive and inconsistent results. Experts, led by Marilyn Kwan at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, have taken 14 of these studies and analyzed them together as a group. This meta-analysis is published in the November 2004 Public [...]

Newborn kangaroos are not ready to face the outside world: they are kept warm and safe by full-body contact within the pouches of mommy kangaroos . an ideal environment in which to thrive and develop. Might prematurely born humans benefit from a similar experience? The November 13, 2004 issue of the British Medical Journal was [...]

Nasal allergies are common in children, and appear to be getting more common all the time. In Chinese medicine, acupuncture is often used to treat allergies. People report great results, but there have not been many scientific studies to verify whether this really works. Recently, researchers evaluated a group of school-age children with chronic allergies. [...]

Healthy kids 3 to 5 years old thrive best with at least 120 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Most people think of preschoolers as high-activity kids, but the current obesity epidemic prompted researchers to measure preschool physical activity levels, just to be sure. This generation of school-age kids is the most sedentary [...]

In just a few hours, I will be boarding another airplane. Typically, commercial airplanes fly at an altitude of about 38,000 feet. The cabin is pressurized to make it safe and comfortable at that extreme altitude . but this does not make breathing in an airplane the same as breathing on the ground. Most people [...]

Would you rather your kindergarten-age child had blood lead levels 3 times the safe limit (like children living next to a lead smelters . double the level of most kids with lead toxicity), or would your rather your child snored? The impact on the brain is about the same, according to a provocative study in [...]

Almost half of the pregnant women in the in the United States receive prescriptions from their doctors for medications that the FDA has determined have no evidence to suggest safety during pregnancy, or worse, that evidence has shown can harm the baby developing within, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and [...]

At moments of stress, such as getting ready for bed or for school, some kids feel the need to touch certain objects, say certain words, or to wash and wash their hands. Some children have an overwhelming desire for sameness. For some, their thoughts keep returning to lurking fears, such as something bad is about [...]