Category: 5. Health

Over the past decade, decreasing vaccination rates now threaten the huge beneficial impacts of vaccinations in the U.S. and globally. Researchers discuss the multifactorial barriers including increasing vaccine hesitancy and new clinical and public health challenges in vaccinations of U.S…. Continue Reading

When most people think of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, they probably think of memory loss first. But dementia also changes the way a person behaves, whether it makes them quick to get angry or distressed, causes them to become depressed, anxious or apathetic, or even changes their… Continue Reading

We’ve seen dramatic increases in life expectancy over the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks to healthier diets, medical advances and many other quality-of-life improvements. But after nearly doubling over the course of the 20th century, the rate of increase has slowed considerably in the last… Continue Reading

A study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers concludes that commonly used ways of positioning the patient’s arm during blood pressure (BP) screenings can substantially overestimate test results and may lead to a misdiagnosis of hypertension. In a report on the study, which will be published… Continue Reading

A blood test, performed when metastatic prostate cancer is first diagnosed, can predict which patients are likely to respond to treatment and survive the longest. It can help providers decide which patients should receive standard treatment versus who might stand to benefit from riskier, more… Continue Reading

Metastatic disease — when cancer spreads from the primary tumor to other parts of the body — is the cause of most cancer deaths. While researchers understand how cancer cells escape the primary site to seed new tumors, it’s not well understood why some of these wayward cancer cells spawn new… Continue Reading

Since the 1950s, a chemotherapy drug known as 5-fluorouracil has been used to treat many types of cancer, including blood cancers and cancers of the digestive tract. Doctors have long believed that this drug works by damaging the building blocks of DNA. However, a new study from MIT has found… Continue Reading

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found that the possibility of parental disclosure through online patient portals led older adolescents to hesitate in sharing complete health information with doctors, putting them at risk of missed diagnoses and treatments. The paper noted that confidentiality… Continue Reading

When the arm is on the lap or the side, a blood pressure reading can be erroneously high. But when the arm is supported and at heart height, a blood pressure reading is more likely to be right. In a clinical trial, researchers investigated the effect that different arm positions… Continue Reading

When Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered a new molecule they called microRNA in the 1980s, it was a fascinating diversion from what for decades had been called the central dogma of molecular biology. Recognized with the 2024 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, Ambros and Ruvkun… Continue Reading