Medicine

Medicine

Our brain interprets grief as stress. As a result, it activates our stress-response systems, especially the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system. These systems release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which are meant to protect the body in short-term crises. In acute grief, these responses are adaptive. They help us cope with shock and disruption. If unresolved, however, the same systems can become dysregulated.

"I grew up in a family that valued hard work and education," she says. "Starting over in a new country reinforced that nothing comes easily, but progress is always possible."

"As we get older, the immune system is shifting away from good inflammation," which is the body's short-term, acute response to fend off injury or infection and promote healing, explains Dr. Thomas Marron, one of the researchers leading the new study. Marron directs early phase clinical trials at The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

An international trial is examining whether a finger-prick blood test could be used to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The study, involving 1,000 volunteers aged over 60 in the UK, US and Canada, will aim to detect biomarkers associated with the condition. Dr Michael Sandberg, a London GP, was encouraged to take part in the study after witnessing his mother's slow decline from Alzheimer's disease. He had a negative result from the tests and said it was "a huge relief".

"I ain't gonna lie to you, I'm in the best shape of my life right now," Lewis said on "The Beast and the Cowboy" pocast. "Mentally, physically, everything's going great right now. The UFC provided me with some great peptides, and I've been taking it every day, and I've been feeling the difference."

The human brain, which is suspended in clear cerebrospinal fluid inside the skull, can also be impacted by the effects of microgravity - in a surprisingly tangible way. As detailed in a new study published by an international team of researchers in the journal PNAS, the brain "shifts upward and backward within the skull following spaceflight, with sensory and motor regions exhibiting the largest shifts."

EMPAVELI is the first and only approved treatment for C3G and IC-MPGN across pediatric patients 12+, adults, and post-transplant recurrence. That's roughly 5,000 patients in the U.S., with EMPAVELI holding exclusive approval for about two-thirds. Add the European CHMP positive opinion in December 2025, and you have a rare disease franchise with global expansion potential and pricing power that typically commands gross margins north of 90%.

A Colorado endocrinologist helped spark a quiet revolution in weight care by changing how primary care clinics talk about - and treat - obesity. Instead of vague advice to "eat less and exercise more," a new system called PATHWEIGH gave patients a clear, judgment-free path to real medical support for weight management.

For example, when it was asked what the normal range for liver blood tests was, the AI would give false numbers due to lack of information. Nationality, age, and sex are all factors that play a role in determining the correct results. Therefore, someone could believe they are healthy when they should have actually been seeking medical attention. "Google's AI Overviews can put inaccurate health information at the top of online searches, presenting a risk to people's health,"

Morry Kernerman, an accomplished violin prodigy, commits YouTube recordings of classical music to memory, hikes in a hilly ravine with his son and volunteers to teach music in South America. As he prepares to celebrate his 101st birthday next week, Kernerman is convinced that music has played an outsized role in contributing to his long and active life. The Toronto resident is what's known as a super-ager, someone 80 or up who retains the memory abilities of those in their 40s or 50s.

Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez has spent more than 10 years pursuing a goal that seemed very distant, but which he now sees as a little closer: to develop a preventive vaccine against cancer. The physician and researcher is leading a study that presented the first promising results of a colon cancer vaccine in a small group of patients suffering from a rare disease that makes them 17 times more likely to develop colon cancer than the general population.

Mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II), or Hunter syndrome, is a rare genetic disorder primarily affecting boys, caused by a deficiency in the enzyme needed to break down sugar molecules. This harmful buildup in cells and tissues impacts multiple body systems, causing frequent infections, organ enlargement and developmental disabilities. Management involves supportive care and enzyme replacement therapy, as there is currently no cure,

The Food and Drug Administration commissioner's effort to drastically shorten the review of drugs favored by President Donald Trump's administration is causing alarm across the agency, stoking worries that the plan may run afoul of legal, ethical, and scientific standards long used to vet the safety and effectiveness of new medicines. Marty Makary's program is causing new anxiety and confusion among staff already rocked by layoffs, buyouts, and leadership upheavals, according to seven current or recently departed staffers.

Try hard enough, we are often told, and eventually you'll get what you want. But sometimes the hardest - and bravest - thing to do, is to stop trying. After years of hoping to start a family, including the painful rollercoaster of fertility treatment and a devastating miscarriage on Christmas day, Caroline Stafford, found the only way to find some kind of peace again was to accept it was not going to happen and to build a different future.

The company just raised its quarterly dividend to $0.63 in January 2026, a 6.8% increase from the prior $0.59 rate. That puts the annual payout at $2.52 per share with a yield around 1.9%. Not eye-popping, but the safety and growth profile more than compensate. Abbott generated $6.35 billion in free cash flow in 2024 against $3.84 billion in dividend payments.

Dementia is linked to changes in the brain. Health professionals used to assume that brain damage and dementia symptoms always went hand in hand. More recent research, however, shows that some people have significant brain damage yet never develop dementia. How can that be? In a previous post, I shared that dementia is defined by the inability to function in everyday life, such as getting lost in familiar places, having difficulty managing finances, forgetting to turn off the stove, or struggling with basic tasks.

After losing both of his parents to cancer, Tom set out to challenge a healthcare system that often waits for symptoms instead of identifying risk early. What began in Deerfield Beach, Florida, has grown into a multi-location preventative imaging company serving communities across the state. Life Imaging Fla focuses on preventative heart and full-body screenings. These services give people access to advanced imaging that is typically only approved once symptoms appear. The goal is straightforward: identify disease earlier, when people still have time, options, and control.

It's a watershed moment in aesthetic medicine, resonating across age groups. "Younger people are coming in with concerns about texture, tone, inflammation, early laxity, and how their skin behaves under stress," observes Dr. David Jack, an aesthetic doctor renowned for his light touch. "While more mature patients - many of whom have already had filler - are increasingly aware that volume alone does not age well if the architecture beneath it continues to degrade."

Antiviral drugs for influenza, the best known of which is Tamiflu, are-let's be honest-not exactly miracle cures. They marginally shorten the course of illness, especially if taken within the first 48 hours. But amid possibly the worst flu season in 25 years, driven by a variant imperfectly matched to the vaccine, these underused drugs can make a bout of flu a little less miserable. So consider an antiviral. And specifically, consider Xofluza, a lesser-known drug that is in fact better than Tamiflu.

My dad was in the emergency room, short of breath, chest tight, upper back aching. He looked pale and confused. An ultrasound showed excess fluid between his lung and chest wall. "We'll drain it," a resident said, as if he were unclogging a sink. For the next five days, thick, red-tinged fluid filled a plastic container beside my dad's hospital bed. Doctors sent his cells for "staining," a way to identify cancer. But no one used that word.

My daughter refused to accept what she was being told and sat by my side, tapping and singing softly. She sang my Hebrew kindergarten songs, one after another, continuously without pause. These were the songs I sang to her when she was small. She sang instinctively, as if her body knew something before her mind did. As if she understood, without explanation, how to bring her mother back to life.

In March I started experiencing excruciating pain in my right arm and shoulder burning, zapping, energy-sapping pain that left me unable to think straight, emanating from a nexus of torment behind my shoulder blade and sometimes stretching all the way up to the base of my skull and all the way down into my fingers. Typing was agony, but everything was painful; even at rest it was horrible.

"I remember sitting in the ultrasound room," Mornhineway, 30, tells TODAY.com. "Our hearts dropped. They said there was nothing to be done. Most people terminate."

Drink responsibly, or you might fall victim to "whiskey dick." There are few men of drinking age who haven't experienced some performance challenges after a night of heavy drinking ― whether they struggle to get an erection or reach climax. In the moment, it feels like your body has cut power to your penis at the worst possible time, said Garrett, a 32-year-old sales executive from Seattle.

Last year, I sat in my office staring at the three monitors on my desk. On the screens were my online bank accounts - all of which were channeling Whoopi Goldberg's character from the movie "Ghost." "You in danger, girl," they seemed to be saying, mocking me. I spent decades building a career, collecting titles, degrees, and glowing reviews. Yet the numbers on my bank statements told a different story.

New therapies for Alzheimer's disease should target a particular gene linked to the condition, according to researchers who said most cases would never arise if its harmful effects were neutralised. The call to action follows the arrival of the first wave of drugs that aim to treat Alzheimer's patients by removing toxic proteins from the brain. While the drugs slow the disease down, the benefits are minor,