Culture

Some of social media's greatest stars aren't even old enough to tweet: Pictures of kids playing dress up, having meltdowns and even in the bathtub adorn Facebook walls. Diaper-donning toddlers dancing to the likes of Beyonce and Taylor Swift rack up YouTube views. Countless blogs share stories about everything from potty training to preschool struggles.

Obese women have around a 40 percent greater risk of developing a weight-related cancer in their lifetime than women of a healthy weight, according to new figures released by Cancer Research UK today.

Obesity increases a woman's risk of developing at least seven types of cancer - including bowel, post-menopausal breast, gallbladder, womb, kidney, pancreatic and esophageal cancer.

The new statistics find that obese women have around a one in four risk of developing a cancer linked to weight in their lifetime.

The cost of treating people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) with newly approved therapies will likely place a tremendous economic burden on the country's health care system. The prediction comes from a cost-effectiveness analysis led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The findings, reported in the March 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, predict that the cost of providing patients their daily regimens could total $136 billion over five years - 10 percent of the country's annual prescription drug spending.

The DNA you inherit from your parents contributes to the physical make-up of your body -- whether you have blue eyes or brown, black hair or red, or are male or female. Your DNA can also influence whether you might develop certain diseases or disorders such as Crohn's Disease, cystic fibrosis, hemophilia or neurofibromatosis, to name a few.

A new study highlights the complicated spillover effects of incarceration on the quality of relationships.

Although paternal incarceration in the past 2 years was mostly inconsequential for fathers' reports of relationship quality, mothers connected to these recently incarcerated men reported lower overall relationship quality, lower supportiveness, and greater physical abuse. Surprisingly, current paternal incarceration was positively associated with some indicators of relationship quality.

If you want someone to open up to you, just make them laugh. Sharing a few good giggles and chuckles makes people more willing to tell others something personal about themselves, without even necessarily being aware that they are doing so. These are among the findings of a study led by Alan Gray of University College London in the UK, published in Springer's journal Human Nature.

Middle-aged Americans who show high levels of societal involvement and positive mental health are especially likely to construe their lives as stories of personal redemption, according to new Northwestern University research.

Previous research has shown that adults who are inclined toward generativity -- the concern for and commitment to promoting the growth and well-being of future generations -- are more likely to engage in a wide range of prosocial behaviors, including positive parenting styles, political participation and community volunteerism.

Canadian taxpayers could save billions by the introduction of a universal public drug plan to provide prescriptions to all Canadians, according to a paper in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Canada is the only developed country with universal health insurance that does not also offer universal prescription drug coverage.

As the nation's headlines turn more and more to issues of tolerance -- race, religion, free speech, same sex marriage -- research by San Diego State University Psychology Professor Jean M. Twenge shows that Americans are actually more tolerant than ever before.

ROCHESTER, Minn. - Increasingly high prices for cancer drugs are affecting patient care in the U.S. and the American health care system overall, say the authors of a special article published online in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

"Americans with cancer pay 50 percent to 100 percent more for the same patented drug than patients in other countries," says S. Vincent Rajkumar, M.D., of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, who is one of the authors. "As oncologists we have a moral obligation to advocate for affordable cancer drugs for our patients."

Increasing the minimum age of legal access (MLA) to tobacco products will prevent or delay initiation of tobacco use by adolescents and young adults, particularly those ages 15 to 17, and improve the health of Americans across the lifespan, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

A work group of physicians has developed new quality measures for the detection and treatment of childhood obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a potentially morbid, life-altering condition that affects hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents nationwide. The measures, commissioned and endorsed by the American Association of Sleep Medicine (AASM), are published on March 15 in a special section of The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

A father's depression during the first years of parenting - as well as a mother's - can put their toddler at risk of developing troubling behaviors such as hitting, lying, anxiety and sadness during a critical time of development, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

Unless you are a mountain hermit or a committed Luddite, you will have noticed there has been a massive growth in self-publishing activity over the last decade or so.

Senior citizens were concerned about the Affordable Care Act because they knew adding more people to Medicare would lead to even fewer doctors available. And they were right, they are now discriminated against by the healthcare system and it is not just stressful, it is literally bad for their health. A national survey shows that one in every three older Americans who are on the receiving end of age-related discrimination in the healthcare setting will likely develop new or worsened functional ailments in due course.