Health
Discover facts about health. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Health
When new-mom exhaustion is actually a thyroid problem
Postpartum thyroiditis can first release excess thyroid hormone and later leave too little. Symptoms such as tiredness or mood changes can overlap with the…
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Heavy ketamine use can damage your bladder
Ketamine can injure the bladder’s inner lining, causing painful inflammation and ulcers. With heavy use, that damage can become severe enough that doctors may…
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Why doctors cool some oxygen-deprived newborns
After oxygen deprivation, some newborns face a risk of ongoing brain injury even after oxygen returns. Carefully lowering the baby’s temperature slows the…
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Inflammatory biomarkers track ICU survivor trauma
The end of an ICU stay does not always mean the body’s inflammatory activity has fully settled. Some proteins can remain elevated in the blood for weeks,…
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Why brain fog can linger after COVID
One proposed explanation is that lingering viral material may keep immune activity elevated, with inflammatory signals affecting brain function. Those signals…
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The ketogenic diet was treating epilepsy a century ago
Used for epilepsy from 1921, the high-fat, very-low-carbohydrate approach changes the body's fuel supply toward ketones. Specialist-supervised dietary therapy…
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What your eyes can reveal about your heart
The retina contains tiny blood vessels that doctors can examine through the eye without surgery. Changes in those vessels can reflect damage elsewhere in the…
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How gut bacteria can turn chemotherapy against you
Irinotecan is meant to fight cancer, but its trip through the body leaves behind a processed form that certain intestinal bacteria can turn back into active…
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Eat sleep console model replaces newborn meds
Newborns with withdrawal symptoms may have trouble feeding, sleeping, and settling, so Eat, Sleep, Console focuses on helping them manage those everyday…
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A silent blood mutation can threaten your heart
CHIP starts when one mutated blood stem cell makes copies of itself. Those cells can stir inflammation that helps artery plaque build up, so the heart risk…
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Chronic EED stunts millions of tropical youths
When EED flattens the gut's nutrient-absorbing villi, food can pass through without delivering all its nourishment. That helps explain the cruel mismatch: a…
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The blue light helping babies can disrupt their sleep
The blue light changes bilirubin, the yellow pigment that can build up in a newborn’s blood, into forms the body can clear more easily. But bright light can…
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Estrogen spikes secretly alter Zolpidem clearance rates
The liver uses enzymes to break down some medications, and changing hormone levels can influence how those enzymes work. For drugs such as zolpidem and…
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Could someone else's plaque protect your teeth
Plaque is a community of microbes, and researchers are exploring whether adding microbes from cavity-resistant people could shift that community. The hope is…
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Why food alone may not save children with kwashiorkor
In kwashiorkor, disrupted gut microbes can make it harder for a child to process nutrients from food. That means providing food may not be enough by itself:…
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Blood miR-150 sequences predict fatal sepsis cascades
A blood test for miR-150 looks for a small RNA signal, not for sepsis itself. Because levels may shift as the immune system is disrupted, the result could…
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A health algorithm confused cheaper care with better health
A 2019 study found that a widely used system predicted medical spending as a stand-in for illness. Because less was spent on Black patients with comparable…
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How sleep apnea can blunt blood-pressure medication
When breathing repeatedly stops during sleep, the brain and body respond as if they need to stay on guard. The resulting overactivity in the sympathetic…
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The rare heart inflammation linked to Pfizer's mRNA vaccine
After a Pfizer mRNA vaccine, a rare immune-related reaction can inflame the heart muscle; this is called myocarditis. Because the affected tissue is…
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Why ketamine therapy requires medical monitoring
Ketamine can make blood pressure rise sharply as it takes effect. Medical monitoring lets a clinician track that change and respond if it becomes dangerous.
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How cutting quartz countertops can scar your lungs
Cutting artificial quartz can send fine silica dust into the air. When workers breathe it in, the particles can lodge deep in the lungs and trigger scarring…
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How early HIV drugs damaged mitochondria
Mitochondria need to copy their own DNA to keep supporting a cell’s energy production. Some early HIV drugs interfered with that copying process, so muscle…
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Hunger is a brain interpretation as well as a stomach signal
Interoception is the process of sensing and interpreting events inside the body. Researchers studying anorexia examine how those signals, emotion, and body…
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How bismuth shields protect children's thyroids during X-rays
The thyroid sits in the neck, where scattered X-rays from a scan may reach it. Bismuth can absorb some of those stray rays when placed over the gland, adding…
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