Author: healthadmin

French writer Marcel Proust famously recalled the vivid memories of his childhood when he heard the taste of madeleines. New research suggests there may be more to this type of reminiscence than just the brain. Signals from the digestive system may also help determine which food-related experiences become memories. The study, led by Scott Kanosky, a professor of biology in the USC Dornsif College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, shows that the gut may contribute to memory formation, especially when it comes to the experience of finding and consuming food. Published in nature communicationsthe study looked at the vagus nerve,…

For decades, scientists believed that photoreceptors in the retina primarily relied on adjacent supporting cells, known as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), to remove waste products. The RPE is still responsible for removing the worn tips of photoreceptors every day, but a new discovery from the University of Oklahoma reveals that photoreceptors also perform much of their own internal housekeeping. This research cell death and disease. Our study provides the first direct evidence that photoreceptors have a unique internal recycling system essential for their survival. Rather than relying solely on the RPE, photoreceptors use the cell’s recycling center, the…

A lack of data on prisoner characteristics gives an incomplete picture of who dies in prison and why, and may contribute to preventable deaths in custody, according to a new report. In the new report – “How documenting inequalities can reduce prisoner deaths.”a team of experts from the University of Nottingham has highlighted that equality data, including prisoner characteristics such as disability and indicators of socio-economic deprivation, is an essential foundation for evidence-based action to prevent deaths in custody. The research was part of the European Research Council-funded RECEDE project and was led by Philippa Tomczak, professor of criminology and…

University of Houston psychologists have received a $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to lead the first randomized clinical trial to examine whether remotely delivered parenting programs can improve healthy brain development in young children and support long-term mental health outcomes for premature infants. Researchers plan to investigate whether providing web-based support to parents during the critical weeks and months after premature babies are discharged from hospital enhances early brain development related to emotional and mental health. More than 1 in 10 babies in the United States is born prematurely each year, and…

The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded a new five-year, $2.4 million R01 grant to Jiahui Ding, Ph.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development at Wayne State University School of Medicine, to support research aimed at determining how viral infections during pregnancy reprogram the developing fetus’ immune system and influence lifelong susceptibility to infections. Maternal viral infections during pregnancy are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and long-term effects on offspring health. However, scientists do not fully understand how maternal infection alters fetal immune…

Hospitals should plan for rising supply chain costs in 2027, with prices in indirect spending categories such as IT, construction and even food projected to rise even faster than drug prices, Vizient warned in its latest forecast report. Vizient’s latest biannual report forecasts price inflation across the supply chain to be 3.39% in 2027, an increase of 0.61 percentage points compared to the forecast for the second half of 2026 and 12 months published in February. Jeff King, director of research and intelligence at Vizient, told Fierce Healthcare that the main drivers are the demand for AI and the rising…

Researchers at RWJ Barnabas Health and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found that an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled early warning system helped identify hospitalized patients at risk of rapid clinical deterioration sooner, contributing to fewer deaths among high-risk patients. Published in NEJM AIThis is a diary. New England Medical Journal Group (DOI: 10.1056/AIoa2500973), This study evaluated outcomes for 23,132 high-risk patients at 11 RWJBarnabas Health hospitals. After implementing an AI-powered early warning system, mortality rates among high-risk patients decreased from 23.1 percent to 18.6 percent. This represents an 18 percent reduction in the risk-adjusted probability of in-hospital death. Hospitalized patients…

Fried foods such as French fries are popular for their crispy texture and rich flavor. However, they absorb a lot of oil during cooking, which can increase their fat and calorie content. Regularly consuming fatty foods can lead to health problems such as obesity and high blood pressure. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are investigating whether microwave energy can be used to produce french fries that absorb less oil without sacrificing the quality consumers expect. Their findings suggest that combining microwave frying and conventional frying can reduce cooking time and limit oil intake while producing the crispy…

Recent research suggests that how children’s brains respond to emotional faces can predict their social habits years later, and these brain patterns show very different results for boys and girls. Specifically, higher activity in a brain region called the amygdala tends to predict increased overall social engagement in adolescent girls and decreased social engagement in adolescent boys. The findings were published in the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. The human brain has specific areas that work together to manage how we interact with others. Scientists call this complex network the social brain. During early adolescence, the social brain undergoes major developmental…

During the summer, you may find dead bumblebees lying on your local sidewalk. There are several reasons for this, some due to the weather and others due to humans. Bumblebees are sociable, live in colonies maintained by very active worker bees, and have a relatively short lifespan of 4 to 6 weeks. This means that in a relatively short period of time the old bees die and the healthy young workers carry out the dead bees and move them far away from the colony to prevent disease from entering the colony. Another factor is the weather. June 2026 will be…