Author: healthadmin

Recent research reveals that adults of all ages can meaningfully improve their cognitive, emotional, and social well-being through short daily brain teasers. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that mental decline is not an inevitable part of aging and suggests proactive approaches to prolonging your years with a healthy, highly functioning mind. Over the past century, advances in medicine and public health have doubled the average human lifespan. However, this increase in years of life does not necessarily equate to longer periods of brain health. A period of brain health is a period of life during which…

MADRID – Spanish authorities on Friday prepared to take more than 140 passengers and crew onboard a hantavirus-infected cruise ship bound for the Canary Islands, where health authorities said a cautious evacuation would be carried out. The ship is scheduled to arrive on the Spanish island of Tenerife off the coast of West Africa on Sunday, where passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated and locked-down area,” Spain’s head of emergency services, Virginia Balcones, said. The United States and Britain have agreed to send aircraft to evacuate citizens from cruise ships. Three people have died since the outbreak and…

A new systematic review led by researchers at the University of Adelaide’s Exercise, Nutrition and Activity Research Alliance (ARENA) suggests that exercise can be a simple but effective addition to smokers’ efforts to quit. The review found that while structured exercise programs slightly improved smoking cessation success rates, even just one session of exercise could rapidly reduce nicotine cravings. Smoking remains one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide, yet many people struggle to successfully quit. Although existing smoking cessation approaches such as counseling, nicotine replacement therapy, and medication are effective, long-term cessation rates remain low and many smokers…

President Donald Trump plans to fire FDA Commissioner Marty McCulley, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a source familiar with Trump’s plans. McCurry’s departure brings to an end a checkered tenure for the former Johns Hopkins University surgeon. He first gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic when he criticized mandatory vaccinations and encouraged children to use masks to reduce the spread of the virus. Trump’s plan to fire McCurry has not been finalized and the president could change his mind, the Journal said. Mr. McCulley recently drew the ire of Mr. Trump with his reluctance to endorse fruit-flavored e-cigarette products.…

While the Supreme Court put on hold for a week to temporarily restore online access to the abortion drug mifepristone following last Friday’s shocking Court of Appeal ruling, a number of experts, industry executives and former regulators weighed in to defend the product’s availability. Their arguments, filed in a series of court briefs ahead of Thursday night’s deadline, issue stark warnings about the potential impact if last week’s Louisiana federal appeals court ruling that temporarily banned mifepristone from being prescribed over the phone and shipped by mail is left in place. The brief, which also includes advocacy for mifepristone from…

More than 230 million people use ChatGPT to ask health and wellness questions every week. Meanwhile, four out of five physicians are considering using AI in their practices, and Claude for Healthcare, a large-scale language model launched in January, is poised to transform medical billing. As new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in healthcare emerge every day, healthcare leaders are faced with the paradox of urgency to implement and persistent reluctance to scale up. There are also signs that AI could improve access to medical information and guidance for vulnerable populations, with 600,000 health-related queries to ChatGPT coming from underserved rural…

A new study shows that consuming the equivalent of two cups of coffee increases the brain’s ability to temporarily quiet motor signals in response to sensory input. The results show that daily habits can alter the results of neurological tests, which can influence the diagnosis of certain cognitive conditions. The study was published in the journal Clinical Neurophysiology. Measuring electrical activity in the living human brain presents unique challenges. Neurologists often rely on non-invasive techniques to safely investigate how different brain regions communicate. One common tool is transcranial magnetic stimulation, which involves placing electromagnetic coils on a person’s scalp. The…

Written by Lauren Cross, Midwest Survey, Midwest Survey May 8, 2026 Rising cancer rates in Iowa and other agricultural states are becoming too much for communities to ignore, experts said Thursday. At the Midwest Research on Pesticides and Public Health panel discussion, speakers noted growing concerns about environmental exposures associated with industrial agriculture, including pesticides, nitrate pollution, PFAS, and radon. https://youtu.be/Z78Fgb1iXV4?si=_wvJnQL6lhHn5Nly The virtual event featured oncologist Dr. Richard Deming of Des Moines’ MercyOne Cancer Center, investigative journalist Carrie Gillum, Iowa Environmental Council policy director Kelly Johansen, food and water surveillance research director Amanda Starbuck, and Iowa resident Lisa Lawler, who…

In March, it lost the top spot to Johnson & Johnson’s immunotherapy drug Tremfya, but AbbVie’s rival drug Skyrizi has regained the top spot in advertising. AbbVie spent $46.8 million advertising Skyridi in April, an increase of $4.7 million from the previous month, putting the drug comfortably ahead of Tremfya. J&J’s drugs came in second with the biggest spending cut of $10.6 million, according to data shared by iSpot.tv analysts with Fierce Pharma Marketing. AbbVie’s other leading immunologist, Rinvoke, held onto third place in April, but in a close race with J&J, Rinvoke’s ad spend was just $200,000 behind Tremfya.…

Organ transplantation remains the basic treatment for end-stage organ failure. Although conventional broad-spectrum immunosuppression effectively controls acute rejection, it cannot address chronic rejection and is associated with long-term side effects such as infections, malignancies, and metabolic disorders. Achieving donor-specific immune tolerance while minimizing global immunosuppression has become a central goal of transplant immunology. Regulatory T cells are recognized as master arbiters of immune homeostasis within complex transplanted immune networks. Rather than acting through a single pathway, Tregs use a coordinated set of precise mechanisms to build a robust defense against graft rejection. Published in magazine volume 2, article number 23…