Category: WSJ

Lately it has been in vogue to dismiss the advice to drink eight glasses of water a day as a “medical myth,” but it’s really more a dispute over whether the glass is half-empty or half-full.

If you go into sudden cardiac arrest in a Chicago airport, where automatic external defibrillators are plentiful, your chance of survival is greater than 50%. Statistics like that are helping fuel the drive to put more AEDs in public places.

Scores of theories were offered on what might have been done to save NBC’s Tim Russert from his sudden, fatal heart attack, but the heart still has many mysteries. The best lesson that can be learned from Russert’s tragedy is to take responsibility for…

A “senior moment” is an unscientific term for various mental glitches. While experts believe that the majority of these memory lapses are part of normal aging, “senior moments” can also be a sign of early Alzheimer’s disease.

Mild cognitive damage from bypass surgery has long been recognized by doctors, even if they seldom warn patients about it. Symptoms include short-term memory loss, slowed responses, trouble concentrating and emotional instability.

“Neuro-aerobics,” a term for engaging different parts of the brain to do familiar tasks, may well lower your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and shore up your defenses against all kinds of cognitive decline.

Eating mindfully means paying attention to what you eat and stopping just before you’re full. Eating just a few mouthfuls, and savoring the experience, can be far more satisfying than eating an entire cake mindlessly.

Doctors can sometimes see esophageal cancer coming in a condition called Barrett’s esophagus. A new outpatient procedure that lets doctors zap Barrett’s tissue with radiofrequency ablation is showing promise. Video

An analysis of adverse-event reports filed with WHO suggests that the current generation of sleep medications may be nearly as problematic as the older generation.

What makes some people rebound from defeats and go on to greatness while others throw in the towel? Psychologists call it “self-efficacy,” the unshakable belief some people have that they have what it takes to succeed.