Health & Science

Going through surgery can take a significant toll on a patient's physical health and capabilities, especially if they are elderly. A recent study found that the effects extend far beyond mobility and pain management, as the operation may also lead to a significant loss of overall cognitive sharpness.

Inova, the leading nonprofit health system in the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, developed a novel dietitian-led program for the bedside placement of feeding tubes for critically ill patients. The goals were to reduce nursing workload and optimize patient safety. In addition, the system adopted an electromagnetic sensor-guided feeding tube (EMFT) system that allows clinicians to visualize the tube's path on a monitor for real-time positioning at the bedside.

The largest and most comprehensive study of memory and cognition in new parents has found no evidence for "baby brain" in mums and dads. New mums often complain about having "baby brain," where memory and cognition become vague and unreliable. Now a Monash University study—the largest ever done comparing cognitive ability in new mums and dads—has unequivocally found no evidence that "baby brain" reflects underlying problems with cognition that result from becoming a parent.

One way to lower smoking rates among teens may be to address their exposure to violence, as an analysis by public health researchers at Brown University shows that the two are strongly linked.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin, St James's Hospital, and collaborating institutions have carried out the most comprehensive review to date of tools used to estimate breast cancer risk in women with a family history of the disease.

The combination of a vaccine and a drug, which both harness the immune system to attack cancer cells, has proven successful in cutting the risk of skin cancer recurrence and death by 49%, a new study shows. This reduction was calculated five years after patients had their tumors surgically removed and remains unchanged.

The majority of young children showed good vitamin D status; no child had indications of deficiency, but among some, the intake was too low. This is the result of a study encompassing over 1,800 infants in Sweden. Foods providing children with vitamin D also contributed to greenhouse gas emissions.

Mental health disorders are now the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to a major new study.

With obesity now affecting more than 40% of U.S. adults and fueling rising rates of heart disease, a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association calls for a comprehensive treatment approach that puts physical activity front and center. The statement, "Role of Physical Activity in Obesity Treatment and Cardiometabolic Health," was published in Circulation.

According to research from the University of East Anglia (UEA), young people are far more likely to encounter illicit vaping content portrayed as normal, humorous and harmless on TikTok. Meanwhile, evidence-based health advice on official health and education websites may fail to cut through the digital noise.

Breast cancer deaths, once concentrated mostly among older women, are now claiming younger women more often, researchers recently reported in the journal npj Breast Cancer.

A first-in-class PET imaging approach can accurately detect a biomarker for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a devastating neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head impact. Rather than waiting until after death for a definitive diagnosis, this imaging biomarker has the potential to diagnose patients while they are still alive and could play a critical role in supporting clinical trials to develop CTE treatments.

Once confined to niche bodybuilding forums and hardcore gyms, unproven injectable peptides are now being openly marketed online to the average gym-goer by social media influencers—and regulators struggling to keep up.

A novel pill helped people with advanced pancreatic cancer live longer, researchers reported Sunday, raising hopes of long-needed better treatments for one of the deadliest types of cancer.

An outbreak of a rare type of Ebola virus has plagued Congo and Uganda, as cases outpace the response.

Two patients who recently arrived in Brazil from African countries have been put in isolation after showing symptoms linked to Ebola, officials said, raising concerns about the deadly virus spreading beyond the African continent.

A novel PET imaging approach enables simultaneous visualization of tumor progression and cardiac inflammatory responses during cancer treatment. Using this strategy, researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of a new combination therapy that enhances tumor response while reducing cardiac inflammation.

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have published the first known detailed study of breast cancer tissue from Native American women. The study, published in npj Precision Oncology, reveals important molecular differences that may impact the efficacy of therapies for female, Native American breast cancer patients.

Your heart already has its own built-in bypass system that predicts whether the heart muscle is alive or dead—according to new research from the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Switching off an enzyme that plays an important role in sugar metabolism, glycolysis, would normally be expected to cause serious problems for cells. Surprisingly, the opposite is also true: Cells can become highly resistant to a specific form of cell death known as ferroptosis.⮐