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Category: Health

Finding the origin of a pandemic is difficult. Preventing one shouldn’t be

Finding the origin of a pandemic is difficult. Preventing one shouldn’t be

W. Ian Lipkin writes: In 1999, the New York State Department of Health asked me to test ‌brain samples from‌‌ people in Queens experiencing encephalitis, or brain inflammation. Surprisingly, we found they were infected with West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne virus that had never been reported before in North America. How did a virus endemic in Africa and the Middle East end up in Queens? At the time, ‌scientists posited that there were stow‌away mosquitoes on a flight from Tel…

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‘Biological aging’ speeds up in times of great stress, but it can be reversed during recovery

‘Biological aging’ speeds up in times of great stress, but it can be reversed during recovery

Live Science reports: Our “biological age,” which reflects signs of age-related decline in our cells and tissues, doesn’t steadily increase along with our chronological age. Instead, new research suggests that biological aging can accelerate during stressful events and then reverse after those events. In other words, there are measurable biological markers linked to age-related changes in cell function, and these markers can appear in times of stress and then disappear during recovery. Scientists already knew that biological age’s relationship to…

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How Portland police blanketed parts of the city with toxic chemicals

How Portland police blanketed parts of the city with toxic chemicals

The Guardian reports: Investigators have created a 3D simulation of the Portland police bureau’s (PPB) extraordinary use of teargas during a major protest event on 2 June 2020. Forensic Architecture (FA), a research agency that investigates human rights violations, worked with weapons experts to analyze hundreds of videos from that evening, along with internal police files, invoice records, manufacturer data and photos of teargas canisters. The analysis reveals that the city’s downtown was blanketed with gas at more than 50 times the level federal regulators…

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Cold temperatures seem to have a mysterious effect on longevity

Cold temperatures seem to have a mysterious effect on longevity

Science Alert reports: Lower temperatures might not warm your heart, but they could make for a longer life. Past research has proposed a few reasons behind this intriguing phenomenon. Now scientists from the University of Cologne in Germany have used experiments on worms to identify another possible reason: coldness drives a process through which damaged proteins are removed from cells. Several neurodegenerative diseases that can take hold as we get older – including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s – are linked to…

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In counties with more Black doctors, Black people live longer, ‘astonishing’ study finds

In counties with more Black doctors, Black people live longer, ‘astonishing’ study finds

STAT reports: Black people in counties with more Black primary care physicians live longer, according to a new national analysis that provides the strongest evidence yet that increasing the diversity of the medical workforce may be key to ending deeply entrenched racial health disparities. The study, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, is the first to link a higher prevalence of Black doctors to longer life expectancy and lower mortality in Black populations. Other studies have shown that when Black patients are treated…

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Mifepristone should not only remain in use, but it should be easier to get

Mifepristone should not only remain in use, but it should be easier to get

Elizabeth Janiak writes: Even before [U.S. District Court Judge Matthew] Kacsmaryk’s decision, existing federal regulations on mifepristone also reinforced abortion stigma. The drug, which works by blocking a hormone needed to sustain pregnancy, held promise of improving access to abortion care when it was introduced over 20 years ago. Before mifepristone’s approval, most pregnancy terminations in the U.S. used vacuum aspiration, a brief and safe procedure with high patient satisfaction, but one that requires specific clinical training many clinicians do…

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Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn

Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn

The Washington Post reports: Some of the workers received booster shots to prevent infection by common rabies, and none of them reported illness, according to their supervisor. But the incidents raised disturbing questions about the research: What if they encountered an unknown virus that killed humans? What if it spread to their colleagues? What if it infected their families and neighbors? As if to underscore the risks, in 2018 another lab on the same Bangkok campus — a workspace built…

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Giant study pinpoints specific gut bacteria linked to Alzheimer’s

Giant study pinpoints specific gut bacteria linked to Alzheimer’s

Science Alert reports: Tensions between the brain, the gut, and the makeup of its microbial inhabitants appear to play a critical role in the development of neurodegenerative conditions. While evidence favoring a link between the microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGBA) and Alzheimer’s disease continues to grow, the exact mechanism behind the relationship is still poorly understood. The puzzle pieces have so far been frustratingly incoherent, involving seemingly unrelated factors as tangled proteins inside nervous tissue to suspect gut microbes to subtle differences…

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How Cigna saves millions by having its doctors reject claims without reading them

How Cigna saves millions by having its doctors reject claims without reading them

ProPublica reports: When a stubborn pain in Nick van Terheyden’s bones would not subside, his doctor had a hunch what was wrong. Without enough vitamin D in the blood, the body will pull that vital nutrient from the bones. Left untreated, a vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteoporosis. A blood test in the fall of 2021 confirmed the doctor’s diagnosis, and van Terheyden expected his company’s insurance plan, managed by Cigna, to cover the cost of the bloodwork. Instead,…

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Seabirds that swallow ocean plastic waste have scarring in their stomachs – scientists have named this disease ‘plasticosis’

Seabirds that swallow ocean plastic waste have scarring in their stomachs – scientists have named this disease ‘plasticosis’

Scientists have identified a condition they call plasticosis, caused by ingesting plastic waste, in flesh-footed shearwaters. Patrick Kavanagh/Wikipedia, CC BY By Matthew Savoca, Stanford University As a conservation biologist who studies plastic ingestion by marine wildlife, I can count on the same question whenever I present research: “How does plastic affect the animals that eat it?” This is one of the biggest questions in this field, and the verdict is still out. However, a recent study from the Adrift Lab,…

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‘Everything living is dying’: Environmental ruin in modern Iraq

‘Everything living is dying’: Environmental ruin in modern Iraq

Lynzy Billing writes: It’s 6PM and the pink-tinged skies turn black above Agolan, a village on the outskirts of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Thick plumes of smoke have begun to billow out of dozens of flaring towers, part of an oil refinery owned by an Iraqi energy company called the KAR Group. The towers are just about 150 feet from where 60-year-old Kamila Rashid stands on the front porch of her house. She looks squarely at…

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The toxic threat in thawing permafrost

The toxic threat in thawing permafrost

Christian Elliott writes: Covering nearly the same area as Norway, the Hudson Bay Lowlands in northern Ontario and Manitoba is home to the southernmost continuous expanse of permafrost in North America. Compared with many marine waterways this far south, Hudson Bay stays frozen late into the summer, its ice-covered surface reflecting sunlight and keeping the surrounding area cold. The influence of Hudson Bay on the weather is crazy, says Adam Kirkwood, a graduate student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario….

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Why cursing is a healthy feature of human behavior

Why cursing is a healthy feature of human behavior

Alex Orlando writes: Well, damn. Maybe you stubbed your toe first thing in the morning. Or some thoughtless commuter forced you to slam the brakes on the drive to work. Perhaps you’re just fed up with it all and feel like sinking to your knees and cursing the heavens. If you’ve ever suppressed the urge to unleash a string of obscenities, maybe think again. Some research suggests that it might be a better idea to simply let the filth fly….

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New analysis of genetic samples from China appears to link the pandemic’s origin to raccoon dogs

New analysis of genetic samples from China appears to link the pandemic’s origin to raccoon dogs

Katherine J. Wu writes: For three years now, the debate over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic has ping-ponged between two big ideas: that SARS-CoV-2 spilled into human populations directly from a wild-animal source, and that the pathogen leaked from a lab. Through a swirl of data obfuscation by Chinese authorities and politicalization within the United States, and rampant speculation from all corners of the world, many scientists have stood by the notion that this outbreak—like most others—had purely natural…

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Global microbiome study gives new view of shared health risks

Global microbiome study gives new view of shared health risks

Yasemin Saplakoglu writes: Our bodies consist of about 30 trillion human cells, but they also host about 39 trillion microbial cells. These teeming communities of bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi in our guts, in our mouths, on our skin and elsewhere — collectively called the human microbiome — don’t only consist of freeloaders and lurking pathogens. Instead, as scientists increasingly appreciate, these microbes form ecosystems essential to our health. A growing body of research aims to understand how disruptions of…

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How single-celled yeasts are doing the work of 1,500-pound cows

How single-celled yeasts are doing the work of 1,500-pound cows

The Washington Post reports: The first course was a celery root soup lush with whole milk. The last was a spice cake topped with maple cream cheese frosting served with a side of ice cream. And then a latte with its fat cap of glossy foam. In all, a delicious lunch. Maybe a little heavy on the dairy. Only this dairy was different. It was not the product of a cow or soybean or nut. The main ingredient of this…

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