Whose sex drive is higher: Men or women? Plus, black licorice can be dangerous, and more health news

A Missouri woman has sued L’Oréal and several other beauty product companies, alleging that their hair-straightening products caused her uterine cancer.

The lawsuit claims that Jenny Mitchell’s cancer “was directly and proximately caused by her regular and prolonged exposure to phthalates and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in defendants’ hair care products.”

Mitchell, now 32, was diagnosed with cancer on Aug. 10, 2018, and had a hysterectomy the following month. Mitchell first used chemical relaxers in third grade. She used the products from about 2000 to March 2022.

When a man has cancer in an area that affects sexual function, his doctor is likely to discuss it with him.

But the same is not true for a woman who has cancer in a sex organ, according to new research. Investigators found 9 in 10 men were asked about their sexual health, yet only 1 in 10 women received the same care.

“There seems to be a big disparity in the way we approach sexual dysfunction with our patients, where female patients are asked about sexual issues much less often than male patients are,” said lead author Dr. Jamie Takayesu. She is a radiation oncology resident physician at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center.

Why do some preschoolers refuse naps while others have a meltdown without an afternoon snooze? Researchers suspect it may have a lot to do with a specific memory-related part of the brain.

While young children all need a lot of sleep, they do vary widely in when they stop napping during the day: Some leave naps behind by the time they are 3, while many others happily take an afternoon nap through age 5 or even longer.

Parents typically care a lot about that timing, said Rebecca Spencer, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Taking a quick walk or doing squats after you eat may help you retain muscle mass as you age, new research suggests.

So-called “activity snacks” — short bouts of exercise — may help maintain muscle mass and quality by allowing your body to use more amino acids from food, explained study author Daniel Moore, an associate professor of muscle physiology at the University of Toronto, in Canada. When you eat protein, your body breaks the protein down into amino acids to repair and grow new muscle mass.

“If we move, we are better able to use the food that we eat to build and maintain muscle mass,” Moore said.

Perhaps to no one’s surprise, new research has determined that men do, in fact, have a much stronger sex drive than women.

After reviewing more than 200 studies, investigators “found that men consistently report a higher sex drive,” said study author Julius Frankenbach, a doctoral student of psychology at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany.

En masse, the research showed that men say they spend considerably more time thinking about sex, fantasizing about sex, feeling sexual desire and masturbating, compared to women.

For cat owners who are convinced that their furry feline understands and even responds to the sound of their voice, here’s the reward they’ve been waiting for: A new French study finds that, yes, cats can identify their owner’s cooing and calling.

After extensive work with 16 cats, the investigators concluded that cats can perceive and respond to the words of a human being, with two big caveats — that human must be the cat’s owner and that owner must be speaking directly to their cat, rather than to another human.

“It is the first time that a study demonstrates that cats can discriminate between human speech specifically addressed to them [cat-directed speech] and speech addressed to other humans [adult-directed speech],” explained study author Charlotte de Mouzon.

“How do you feel about black licorice?” sounds like a question for starting a simple chat at a Halloween party – or a silly internet fight. It’s a love-it-or-hate-it candy that inspires intense opinions.

But if you ask a health expert, expect a serious conversation – because eating lots of black licorice can cause complications that are “acutely life-threatening,” said Dr. Christopher Newton-Cheh, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Nobody is saying a twist or two now and then is a problem. But before you dive in, you’ll want to know the dangers of overindulging.