Postpartum Blues Hit Dads, Too

Herbal remedy no better than placebo, researchers find

(NEWSER) - For those battling colds this winter, the herbal supplement echinacea may be popular, but it won’t actually help ease the severity or duration of your misery, researchers find. Those who took the supplement in a 700-person study found their symptoms faded just 7 to 10 hours earlier than those who didn’t take it, LiveScience reports. And researchers say that slight edge could just be luck: “Illness duration and severity were not statistically significant with echinacea compared with placebo." More»

But doctors aren't sure why

(NEWSER) - Depression sufferers are nearly twice as likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a pair of new studies. Doctors aren’t entirely sure why that is, and stress that they can’t prove that one causes the other. But they theorize that the brain inflammation that accompanies depression might have something to do with it, the BBC reports. Depression also increases the levels of certain potentially risky proteins. More»

Fatty, refined foods jack risk by 58%

(NEWSER) - Feeling blue? Put down the cookies: Eating a diet rich (or, should we say, poor) in processed foods increases the risk of depression, a study finds. British scientists studied 3,500 adults over five years; those who ate mainly fried, processed, refined, high-fat foods had a 58% greater risk of depression than those who ate the least. And those who consumed mostly whole foods, produce, and fish showed a 26% lower risk than those who consumed the least of those foods, reports the BBC . More»

People who live near vegetation suffer fewer diseases

(NEWSER) - People who live close to parks or other “green spaces” are likely to be healthier, a new study suggests. Dutch researchers scoured the health records of 345,000 people, comparing their health status to the amount of green space in the surrounding area, from a half-mile to 2-mile radius. Of 24 health conditions—including cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological diseases—people living in purely urban areas suffered higher instances of 15 of them, notes HealthDay. More»

(NEWSER) - The number of Americans on antidepressants doubled from 1996 to 2005, a new study finds, but fewer are seeing psychiatrists, and most aren’t using the drugs to affect their mood. As of 2005, the last year for which data were available, 27 million Americans—roughly 10% of the population—were on the drugs. But the majority used them to treat pain, fatigue, and other conditions, USA Today reports. More»