About 20 million people are using the drug opium or one of its derivatives. A new study suggests new reasons for viewing this as problematic.

Research in the British Medical Journal finds strong connections between people using opium and conditions such as cancer, circulatory diseases and respiratory conditions.

"Long term recreational opioid use, even at relatively modest levels, causes important increases in death from multiple different causes," said study co-author Paul Brennan, head of the Section of Genetics at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.

Why it matters

Although this study focused on opium for recreational purposes, the research also has significant implications for medicinal uses of opium-derived painkillers - such as morphine and codeine, Irfan Dhalla, assistant professor at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

FULL POST

A study published this week in the journal Cancer shows that people who have had dental X-rays are more likely to develop a type of brain tumor called meningioma than those who have not.

This does not prove that dental X-rays cause tumors. But it supports previous research about the connection. Dental X-rays have also been implicated in thyroid cancer. But there's still significant doubt about the existence of any direct relationship between meningioma and dental X-rays, and dental professionals were quick to call for more research, saying the study was less than perfect.

"It’s a cautionary tale ... we do know that radiation can cause tumors, and we have to be judicious with its use," said Dr. Donald O’Rourke, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study.

FULL POST

Hey soccer fans, here's something to think about at the next game: The best players may be quicker thinkers than you.

A study led by Swedish researchers suggests that elite soccer players outperform players in lower divisions in tests of certain cognitive abilities, and both groups bested the general public. The results were published recently in the journal PLoS ONE.

Specifically, the study focused on executive function, which is involved in working memory. Whenever you bring forth a memory that you need to solve a task, such as make a phone call or tie your shoe, that's working memory in action. Executive function is also involved in creativity, multi-tasking and inhibition.
FULL POST

An analysis from Nature shows that there's not as much flu surveillance as you might think.

There were about 1,000 flu sequences from 400 avian virus samples collected in 2010, yet the world poultry population was 21 billion, the journal reported Wednesday. Countries such as Indonesia, Russia, India and Mexico contributed few samples to an international virus database despite large poultry populations. Brazil, with a poultry population of 1.27 billion, did not collect any avian flu samples - nor did Morocco, the Philippines, Colombia, Ecuador, Algeria, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

The Nature report characterizes surveillance generally as ad hoc and reactive, responding to outbreaks or temporary projects rather than being consistent. That's a problem because global threats can emerge from a flu virus at any moment. FULL POST

While some of you are probably out playing sports and smelling flowers, the rest of us are indoors with clogged noses, struggling to keep our burning eyes open.

The nice weather means spring allergies have kicked in for millions of Americans, and in the Southeast, the pollen assault is brutal. On Monday, Atlanta broke a 13-year pollen count record, with a 8,164 particles of pollen per cubic meter of air observed by the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic.

The previous record was 6,013 particles, detected on April 12, 1999.

The website Pollen.com, which tracks pollen nationwide, shows high pollen counts from Virginia to Florida, extending westward to Arkansas and parts of Texas. There are also pockets of high pollen activity in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nevada, California and Arizona.
FULL POST

Raising children brings financial challenge for many families, but especially for parents of children with autism. And the magnitude of that burden is a lot bigger than you may think.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that overall earnings in families with children with autism are 28% ($17,763) less compared to families whose children do not have health limitations, and 21% ($10,416) less compared to families with children with other health limitations.

The dichotomy is striking in the mothers' income: Mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder tend to earn 35% less than mothers who have children with different health limitations - in fact, $7189 less - on average. Compared to mothers of children who do not have health limitations, those with autistic children earn 56% less, which translates to an average difference of $14,755. There was no average difference in fathers' incomes, however.

FULL POST

Work can be a real burden for some people. They feel overwhelmingly exhausted and cynical toward their workplace environment, and believe their efforts are not valued. 

In other words, they are burned out.

A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition connects these sentiments with overeating and controlled eating behaviors.

The experiment involved 230 working women. Those who were experiencing workplace burnout at the beginning of the experiment were more likely to have emotional and uncontrolled eating than those without burnout. This held true even after 12 months.

Among those without burnout, uncontrolled eating decreased significantly over the year.
FULL POST

Food allergies are tricky business. They're on the rise in the United States and no one knows why.

Some children are allergic to many foods, and it's impossible to know based on preventive testing whether someone will have a mild or severe reaction. And so far there's no cure.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Duke University are working on a treatment that may one day allow kids with allergies to safely eat the foods that cause them life-threatening reactions. It's still in the early stages, but Dr. Robert Wood of Johns Hopkins, who has been on the forefront of food allergy research, estimates the treatment could be brought to the public within six to eight years.
FULL POST

Remember the myth of Oedipus, where the king of Ancient Thebes stabbed his own eyes after he realized he'd killed his own father and married his mother?

As gory as it sounds, intentionally blinding oneself isn't entirely mythical. Although rare, there have been cases of people seriously injuring their own eyes, and sometimes completely removing them. There's even a technical term, self-enucleation, for the behavior of taking out your eyeballs.

FULL POST

Editor's note: Elizabeth Landau (@lizlandau) is a writer/producer for CNN.com.

Meat from stem cells? Singing without your vocal chords? I'm still trying to mentally process all of the cool research that I learned about at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.

Last weekend, @AAASMeetings drew about 8,000 scientists, journalists, educators, policymakers and communicators came from all over the world to idyllic Vancouver, British Columbia.

For someone who misses the knowledge-thirst-quenching aspects of college, it's pretty blissful. You choose between dozens of subjects to learn about during the day, and then you get to hang out with fascinating people in the evenings. And you're tweeting the highlights to thousands of people, some of whom will want to meet up with you later. Of course, you'd better get those tweets right, or you'll get a #FAIL.

Here's a very condensed version (sorry for not mentioning everyone & everything):

FULL POST