For birds, differences in personality are a function of both age and experience, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists.

New research provides insight into the structure of silicon nanocrystals, a substance that promises to provide efficient lithium ion batteries that power your phone to medical imaging on the nanoscale.

The Canadian Rocky Mountains were formed when the North American continent was dragged westward during the closure of an ocean basin off the west coast and collided with a microcontinent over 100 million years ago, according to a new study by University of Alberta scientists.

One in 25 people has at least one STI, says the World Health Organization.

A probe will be held into 150 deaths at the failed Liverpool Community Health trust.

It seemed like just another night. Influencer Dani Austin was in her kitchen cooking broccoli and chicken casserole (uh yum), when she heard her husband, Jordan Ramirez, scream out in agony from the other room.

She dropped the casserole (not literally; that would be a real tragedy) and ran to his aid. That's when she saw it. His toe was broken, and it was bent at a 90 degree angle. *gasp*

If you're thinking, A broken pinky toe? That's it? Then you clearly haven't seen the photo. Austin documented the experience on her Instagram (in the most LOL-worthy way, we might add), and she sent those who requested it a picture of the toe via email.

RELATED: 14 Reasons Your Feet Hurt—and How to Ease the Pain

Courtesy of Dani Austin

"I almost fainted when I saw it," Austin tells Health. Ramirez, on the other hand, was in shock. "He got right back on the phone and took this business call, so I was the one freaking out." 

You're probably wondering how Ramirez broke his baby toe. Drum roll, please: He hit it on a…door frame. OK, that's the last time we'll be anticlimactic. We promise. 

Austin and Ramirez hopped in the car (Ramirez literally hopped) and drove to the nearest clinic. Doctors gave him some serious pain meds and numbed his toe so they were able to pop it back into place (*cringes*). That's when the Instagram stories started rolling in on Austin's account. 

In one story, Ramirez points to the brace on his foot and says, "My basketball game…I can't play!" Austin made sure to point out he has never played basketball, ever. 

RELATED: The All-Time Best Products to Care for Your Feet, According to Podiatrists

In another story, she asks him what they gave him for the pain because he's acting goofy. "No I'm not. I'm acting normal," he responds. Right. So normal… 

Ramirez has since come out of the pain medication haze, but he may need to get surgery on his toe for it to fully recover. 

When it comes to broken toes, the first thing doctors typically do is pop the bones back into place, as they did for Ramirez. The toe then has to be immobilized so the fracture can heal. This is usually done by taping the broken toe to a stable toe, wearing a stiff-bottomed shoe (which the doctor will give you), or a cast. Then, in some cases, a surgeon may need to use pins, plates, or screws to make sure the bones stay in their proper positions while the toe heals. 

But most broken toes heal just fine, and we're sure Ramirez will make a complete recovery. It's a small price to pay for the Internet fame he's now gained from Austin documenting the whole fiasco. 

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The US Food and Drug Administration took a good look at the safety and effectiveness of CBD products on Friday, as it weighs how to best regulate the hemp-derived compound going forward.

During a public hearing that stretched for hours, the agency heard testimony from people on all sides of the issue.

Explosion of interest

In opening the hearing, FDA Acting Commissioner Dr Ned Sharpless said, “critical questions remain about the safety” of the products, CNN reported.

“While we have seen an explosion of interest in products containing CBD, there is still much that we don’t know,” Sharpless added.

To say the market for CBD products has exploded in the past year would be an understatement.

Everything from oils to gummies to pills, creams and ointments are now for sale at supermarkets and specialty chains. You can even get massages infused with CBD, or cosmetics laced with the drug.

All of these products contain cannabidiol but not THC, the ingredient in pot that provides a “high”.

CBD products have swamped the market not because of any new medical evidence, but because of a change in federal law.

What do scientists really know?

Late last year, Congress passed a farm bill that lifted a decades-old ban on growing hemp. As long as the plant contains less than 0.3% THC, hemp can be grown legally anywhere in the United States by licensed farmers.

The bill specifically said the US Drug Enforcement Administration cannot regulate hemp products like CBD. So, it’s now up to the FDA to manage the CBD craze.

But what do scientists really know about the health benefits and risks of CBD?

Precious little, experts say, and consumers should take care that they aren’t wasting their money.

“You have a flood of CBD products that are coming from hemp that are going out onto the market, and you’ve got all sorts of claims being made about those from people who are trying to sell them,” said Timothy Welty, chair of the department of clinical sciences at Drake University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, in Des Moines, Iowa.

The flood of CBD products has become so overwhelming that the FDA recently stepped into the fray.

Rare forms of epilepsy

The agency has whipped out a flurry of warning letters to companies marketing CBD products, telling them to stop making unfounded health claims for the substance.

Companies have falsely claimed that CBD can stop cancer cells, slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, ease nerve pain and fibromyalgia, and curb withdrawal symptoms for people undergoing substance abuse treatment, the FDA letters state.

To date, there’s only one use for CBD that has significant scientific evidence behind it – curbing the symptoms of rare forms of epilepsy.

The FDA last year approved the drug Epidiolex to treat two forms of childhood epilepsy. The medical evidence has shown that the highly purified CBD in Epidiolex can ease seizures.

For the rest of CBD’s potential uses, there is simply too little evidence to make a firm conclusion.

The next potential medical use for CBD could be for the symptoms of anxiety disorder, said Welty and Yasmin Hurd, chair of translational neuroscience and director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai, in New York City.

May decrease anxiety

Clinical trials suggest that CBD could help treat anxiety, but Welty feels there needs to be more study. Hurd is slightly more convinced, but agrees more study is needed.

“There is published evidence that CBD does decrease anxiety,” Hurd said. “That’s another indication where I can say I can believe the data; however, we still don’t know the dosing regimen that would be effective for anxiety. Those are studies that are ongoing.”

Other uses – as an anti-inflammatory, an aid for substance withdrawal, a sleep aid, a pain reliever – haven’t been conclusively proven.

In some cases, the evidence runs counter to what people might suspect.

There’s not much reason to believe CBD would be an effective means of pain relief, said Dr Ajay Wasan, vice chair for pain medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“If you think of it as a medicine, it would be a weak analgesic,” Wasan said. “It’s really the THC component of medical marijuana which is the compound that gives you pain relief,” he explained.

Purity of content

“I’ve been surprised how much CBD has taken off and exploded with very little data,” Wasan said. “Most of the other herbal supplements, there are at least some studies on it before it becomes really popular. But for this, I haven’t seen anything.”

The bottom line, researchers said, is that people who want to try CBD for one reason or another should talk with their doctor first.

Besides that, consumers might consider buying CBD products from a state-run programme. Some states like Iowa have established such programmes to make CBD available medicinally, Welty said.

“Those products are more reliable, because they have a system to monitor the purity of content,” Welty said. “You’re a little more sure that you’re getting what you’re paying for.”

Welty is much less sure of the “artisanal products” containing CBD that are available in stores and dispensaries, and for good reason – studies have shown that most of these products fail tests for content and purity.

“The CBD products that come through that route, there’s essentially no control, and you as a consumer have no way to know what you’re getting,” Welty said.

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High blood pressure is known as the “silent killer” because there are no obvious warning signs.

That might explain why nearly half of people diagnosed with it aren’t worried about having a heart attack or stroke, according to a new survey. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, greatly increases the chances of having a heart attack or stroke.

Lack of symptoms

“Even when people are educated that they’re at risk, they might not be worried because they don’t feel bad,” said Dr Michael Rakotz, vice president of health outcomes at the American Medical Association.

In the survey, 55% of respondents with high blood pressure said they worry they’ll have a heart attack and 56% say they worry they’ll have a stroke. That compares with a little more than one-third of Americans overall in the survey who worry about heart attack or stroke.

The Ipsos Public Affairs online survey was conducted for the AMA and American Heart Association. It surveyed 1 000 US adults in April, with results carrying a level of 90% confidence.

Possible reasons for the disconnect include the lack of symptoms and difficulty maintaining healthy lifestyle changes that can help control high blood pressure.

Meanwhile, many people with high blood pressure might be unaware of the life-altering effects for survivors after a stroke or heart attack. In particular, stroke survivors may lose basic abilities and have to relearn basic living functions.

The loss of a worker

“You can’t communicate with your loved ones, you can’t care for yourself,” for a while after the event and sometimes permanently, said Sondra DePalma, a physician assistant with the PinnacleHealth Cardiovascular Institute in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“From society’s standpoint, the cost is the loss of a worker and more support required to provide for that person,” she said.

The survey also reported these figures among respondents with high blood pressure:

• 22% checked their blood pressure in the prior week.
• 40% said their most recent reading was uncontrolled, or higher than 130/80.
• 16% said they don’t need to keep track of their readings when they’re taking medication.

DePalma and Rakotz said health care providers have an important role to play to help people understand their risks and take precautions. However, they also have to find the time to do it.

Much more to be done

“Part of the problem is that doctors are asked do so much now,” Rakotz said. “Appointments are getting shorter and the list of things we have to cover for prevention and health maintenance is getting longer.”

A big part of the solution is to build awareness through initiatives such as LowerYourHBP.org and stories about the real-life consequences. Such stories are showing up in a series of videos launched this spring by the AHA, AMA and the Ad Council.

Still, the survey results indicate much more is to be done.

“We need to continue to work to get real stories out there,” Rakotz said. “And we need to do a better job of motivating people to take charge of their health and raising awareness that together we can create a plan to bring their blood pressure under control.”

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For years, studies have shown a relationship between drinking a moderate amount of red wine and good heart health, but experts say it’s important to understand what that means before you prescribe yourself a glass or two a day.

No research has established a cause-and-effect link between drinking alcohol and better heart health. Rather, studies have found an association between wine and such benefits as a lower risk of dying from heart disease.

Mediterranean diet cardioprotective

It’s unclear whether red wine is directly associated with this benefit or whether other factors are at play, said Dr Robert Kloner, chief science officer and director of cardiovascular research at Huntington Medical Research Institutes and a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.

“It might be that wine drinkers are more likely to have a healthier lifestyle and a healthier diet such as the Mediterranean diet, which is known to be cardioprotective,” he said.

But you may not even have to drink red wine to get the benefit, Kloner said. Moderate amounts of beer and spirits also have been linked to a lower risk of heart disease.

It’s a common assumption that red wine may be good for the heart because it contains antioxidants such as resveratrol, which is primarily found in the skin of grapes but also peanuts and blueberries. Some studies suggest resveratrol can reduce cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

“There’s a debate about whether resveratrol is really cardioprotective or not,” Kloner said. “In addition, there is debate about the amount of resveratrol you would need to ingest to get a protective effect. To get the equivalent of the amount of resveratrol that has been reported to be protective would probably mean ingesting an excess of wine.”

Federal guidelines and the American Heart Association recommend that if you do drink alcohol, do so in moderation. That means no more than one to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. (According to the AHA, one drink is 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits or 1 ounce of 100-proof spirits.)

Alcohol in excess bad for heart

Studies have found that moderate alcohol consumption may have some health benefits, including raising “good” HDL cholesterol levels and lowering the risk of diabetes. However, excessive drinking can lead to a host of health problems, including liver damage, obesity and some types of cancer and stroke, not to mention its negative effect on the heart.

“Alcohol in excess is really bad for the heart,” Kloner said. “It can cause high blood pressure and promote arrhythmias. It can cause cardiomyopathy where the alcohol is actually toxic to the heart muscle cells, and that can lead to heart failure.”

Proving moderate alcohol use causes better heart health would be tricky, Kloner said. Ideally, it would require a large prospective study that not only randomly assigns people to a no-drinking group versus a moderate-drinking group, but that also compares different types of alcohol – red wine, white wine, beer, spirits – to determine if one really is better.

“And then you’d have to control for various factors – age, gender, cardiovascular risk, their diet. You’d have to follow them for many years,” he said, noting the added ethical dilemma of taking people who are not drinkers and telling them to become drinkers.

For now, the message certainly isn’t to go out and start drinking, Kloner said. “But if you do drink, drinking in moderation is the way to go.”

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Scientists studied elite events, including a 3,000 mile run and the Tour de France.