Author: healthadmin

People who have experienced severe childhood trauma may experience a marked improvement in their mental health after using psychedelic drugs in a ritual setting. New observational study published in psychedelic medicine They found that people who reported more adverse events in childhood had greater reductions in anxiety and greater improvements in overall well-being after attending a psychedelic retreat compared to those with fewer childhood traumas. These results suggest that guided psychedelic experiences may offer a new approach to helping people with deep psychological scars. Adverse childhood experiences include a variety of stressful life events that occur before the age of…

Medicare navigation company Chapter has raised $100 million in a Series E funding round to continue growing and building its platform. Generation Investment Management led the round, with participation from Fifth Down Capital and 8VC as new investors, according to an announcement Thursday. Existing backers Stripes, XYZ Venture Capital, Addition, Narya Capital, Susa Ventures, and Maverick Ventures also supported the round. In its announcement, Chapter said its valuation has more than doubled since its last funding round, which closed less than a year ago. The company said it intends to use the funding to accelerate its growth trajectory and continue…

Three studies of Singaporean children aged 36 to 83 months found that children were less likely to use deception in strategic games after they were explicitly allowed to do so. The paper was published in developmental science. Deception is the act of intentionally making someone believe something false. This may be done by lying, hiding information, exaggerating, or creating a misleading impression. In everyday life, deception is part of social interaction, competition, and self-defense. People use deception to avoid punishment, gain benefits, protect privacy, or save someone’s feelings. In some situations, deception, like polite or tactful communication, can help maintain…

Following the court defeat, Trump administration health officials revised the governing documents of a key federal vaccine commission to expand its membership, sharpen its focus on the potential harms of vaccines and empower allies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The new charter for the committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the use of vaccines appears aimed at avoiding the kinds of legal challenges that currently bog down the appointed agency. Additionally, the document places greater emphasis on the role of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in researching injuries that may be associated…

In December, Vanda Pharmaceuticals received FDA approval for its motion sickness drug Nereus. But more patients may be waiting for the oral treatment, as the Washington, D.C.-based company is testing it to prevent the nausea and vomiting associated with GLP-1 treatment. Vanda has begun a placebo-controlled Phase 3 study called Thetis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Nereus in patients receiving high doses of GLP-1 agonists. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients free of emetic episodes. The study follows a successful Phase 2 trial that featured a similar design in which patients were pretreated with Nereus or…

Exposure to “permanent chemicals” during pregnancy may increase the risk of childhood asthma, according to a new study from Sweden. Researchers at Lund University have found that prenatal exposure to extremely high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS in drinking water is consistent with high rates of childhood asthma in communities that have dealt with decades of pollution. The findings, published Thursday in the journal PLOS Medicine, are noteworthy. Exposure to PFAS causes a myriad of well-documented health effects, but its association with asthma has not been well studied. “We were surprised because we had no expectations…

How does the brain eliminate waste products? It relies on a specialized drainage network known as the lymphatic system. Scientists have been working to understand how this system works, pushing brain imaging techniques to new limits in the process. New research published in iscience Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have provided the first direct evidence in humans of a previously unknown control point in this system. That structure is the middle meningeal artery (MMA), and it is now thought to play an important role in how the brain removes fluid and waste products. Real-time MRI reveals…

Because we’re glued to screens all day long, we often ignore sensations other than sound and sight. Yet they are always working. When we pay more attention, we feel the rough or smooth surfaces of things, the stiffness of our shoulders, the softness of bread. In the morning, we might feel the tingle of toothpaste, hear or feel the sound of water in the shower, smell shampoo, and later, smell freshly brewed coffee. Aristotle said that we have five senses. But he also said that the world is made up of five elements and we no longer believe that. And…

The Trump administration is tightening its grip on the EPA’s science operations as it prepares to relocate employees from once-respected research departments. According to an internal memo obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, the agency’s new, smaller Office of Science has laid out policies for how the agency will approve new research and make research findings available to the public. Additionally, the remaining EPA scientists in the now-disbanded Office of Research and Development were reassigned earlier this week, including some who will have to transfer if they want to continue working at the agency. Chris Frey, who led the EPA’s Office…

Although high blood pressure is treatable with medication and lifestyle changes, it remains a leading cause of death in the United States. More than half of adults in the United States have blood pressure above 130/80 mmHg, the threshold for hypertension, and the condition is particularly prevalent in low-income areas. A new study by Tulane University researchers found that a team-based program in community clinics was more effective at lowering blood pressure in low-income patients than standard care alone. This research New England Medical JournalThe study was conducted at 36 federally qualified health centers in Louisiana and Mississippi. These nonprofit…