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A family in Indiana is mourning the loss of a 35-year-old mother-of-two who they said died after drinking 64 ounces of water in 20 minutes. Ashley Summers was celebrating the Fourth of July on a lake in Indiana when she started to feel intensely dehydrated, according to her brother, Devon Miller. "At one point during the day, she started getting a bad headache," Miller told "Good Morning America." "So, she was drinking a lot of water." Miller said Summers drank the equivalent of four 16-ounce bottles of water in 20 minutes, and then later collapsed inside the garage of her...

A medication for heart problems and high blood pressure may also be effective for treating alcohol use disorder. The study presents converging evidence from experiments in mice and rats, as well as a cohort study in humans, suggesting that the medication, spironolactone, may play a role in reducing alcohol drinking. Currently there are three medications approved for alcohol use disorder in the United States. Given the diverse biological processes that contribute to alcohol use disorder, new medications are needed to provide a broader spectrum of treatment options. Previous research has shown that mineralocorticoid receptors, which are located throughout the brain...

Restricting salt intake is a key component of heart failure treatment, but restricting it too much may actually worsen the outcomes for people with a common form of the condition, suggests research. Salt restriction is recommended in heart failure guidelines, but the optimal restriction range (from less than 1.5 g to less than 3 g daily) and its effect on patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction isn't clear, as they have often been excluded from studies. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, half of all heart failure cases, occurs when the lower left chamber of the heart (left...

Comprised of a lone hexagonal honeycomb lattice layer of tightly packed carbon atoms, graphene is one of the strongest, lightest, and most conductive compounds ever discovered. Bottom line, it's an extraordinary composite. However, a scientist from New York's Clarkson University says he's found a way to manufacture hemp waste into a material "better than graphene." Moreover, the scientist -- known to his peers as Dr. David Mitlin -- says creating this graphene-like hemp material costs but a minuscule fraction of what it takes to produce graphene. Presented at an American Chemical Society Meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Mitlin described how...

As hemp makes a comeback in the U.S. after a decades-long ban on its cultivation, scientists are reporting that fibers from the plant can pack as much energy and power as graphene, long-touted as the model material for supercapacitors, according to David Mitlin, Ph.D. Supercapacitors are energy storage devices that have huge potential to transform the way future electronics are powered. Unlike today’s rechargeable batteries, which sip up energy over several hours, supercapacitors can charge and discharge within seconds. But they normally can’t store nearly as much energy as batteries, an important property known as energy density. One approach researchers...

Flexible battery is paper-thin Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 14/08/2007 Paper and nanotechnology combine to create a new kind of battery, reports Roger HighfieldWhat looks to the untrained eye like thick, black paper is a novel flexible battery that could offer new opportunities for tomorrow's gadgets, from self propelling paper planes to smart pockets that can recharge a mobile phone.   The new nanocomposite paper developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Along with its ability to work in temperatures up to 150ºC (300ºF) and down to -70ºC (-100ºF), the battery can be printed like paper, rolled, twisted or folded, and even...

Startup Seeo has developed batteries that store far more energy than conventional ones, which could extend the range of electric cars. An experimental lithium-ion battery based on materials developed at a U.S. Department of Energy lab stores twice as much energy as the batteries used in most electric cars. If the technology can be commercialized, it could give affordable electric cars a range of over 200 miles per charge, says Hal Zarem, CEO of Seeo, a startup that’s working on the technology. Today the cheapest electric cars, which cost around $30,000, typically have a range of less than 100 miles....

Americans just celebrated the birth of Christ 2,000 years ago. What we are celebrating a lot less these days is the birth of our own babies. In short, America’s fertility rate is in a free fall. Over a 60-year period between 1957 and 2017, fertility rates in the United States plummeted. About 11 percent fewer babies were born in America in 2017 (3,853,472) than in 1957 (4,316,233.) But drop is at the same time as the population in America doubled, meaning the fertility rate as measured by number of births per woman in the country has fallen by more than...

A surprising new report questions public health efforts to get Americans to sharply cut back on salt, saying it’s not clear whether eating super-low levels is worth the struggle... --snip-- “We’re not saying we shouldn’t be lowering excessive salt intake,” said Dr. Brian Strom of the University of Pennsylvania, who led the IOM committee. But below 2,300 mg a day, “there is simply a lack of data that shows it is beneficial.” The average American consumes more than 3,400 mg of sodium a day, equivalent to 1 ½ teaspoons. Current U.S. dietary guidelines say most people should limit that to...

In the brilliant movie, "Idiocracy," centuries have passed and America is so dumbed down that a prostitute and a mediocre desk grunt are the smartest people in the world. The President is a pro wrestler and there's no more Congress. It's now the "House of Representin'." Well, apparently, we need not go to Hollywood make-believe or even the remote year 2500. Because the U.S. Census Bureau is already deigning to act like the House of Representin' in 2010 Yup, it's almost that time again. In about a year and a half, the U.S. Census will be taken. Illegal aliens will...

PERSONAL HEALTH Evolution is an excellent teacher when it comes to figuring out what and how much people should eat. For example, primates (including those with two legs and big brains) evolved on foods rich in potassium and very low in sodium. Early humans evolved to conserve sodium, which was hard to obtain, and to excrete excess potassium, abundant in many fruits and vegetables. But Western-style diets these days are the reverse of what those early humans consumed, rich in processed foods, loaded with sodium and relatively poor in potassium. Consequently, according to a report released this year by the...