Millions of people keep a bottle of melatonin on their nightstand like it’s as benign as a glass of warm milk. It’s sold without a prescription in nearly every pharmacy and grocery store across the country. The label calls it “natural.” The marketing calls it “safe.” And for most people, it feels like a sensible,...
Most of us think of potatoes as a side dish, something humble and starchy that fills the plate around whatever else is happening at dinner. But for one population living high in the Andes mountains of South America, the potato was something else entirely. It was the foundation of survival. And over thousands of years,...
Most people trying to lose significant weight eventually hit a wall. They’ve made the dietary changes, added the exercise, maybe even tried one of the new GLP-1 medications their doctor recommended. And yet, for many, the scale moves only so far. The conversation around what’s medically possible for weight loss has been shifting rapidly over...
New research on manganese and mineral artery plaque is offering a surprising new angle on heart disease prevention. Here's what the science actually shows.
Most people don’t expect it. One moment everything is normal. The next, something feels wrong in a way that’s hard to explain. Maybe a strange numbness that passes in seconds. Maybe a headache completely unlike anything before. Or the face in the mirror that suddenly doesn’t look quite right. The body is a remarkably precise...
Most people don’t spend much time thinking about what sunscreen does on the inside. You lather up, maybe wear a hat, and call it a day. But scientists have been exploring a different angle – whether what you eat could offer your skin an extra layer of defense against UV damage. The food at the...
Most of us take our medications without much thought about what they might be doing in the background. You take the pill, it does the job you need it to do, and you move on with your day. That’s the whole point of prescription medicine. But some of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the...
Every spring, millions of Americans load their grocery carts with the same produce they always buy: a bag of spinach for the salad, a punnet of strawberries for the kids, a bunch of kale for the smoothies. These are the foods we reach for specifically because they’re supposed to be good for us. So the...
Most people don’t give much thought to their kidneys until something goes wrong. These two small organs work around the clock, filtering blood, regulating fluid balance, and quietly removing waste products the body no longer needs. They’re essential to everything from blood pressure to bone strength, and yet they rarely get the attention they deserve...
Most scientific breakthroughs don’t begin in a laboratory. They begin with someone pausing and noticing something that everyone else walked right past. This one began with a kid lifting a fallen log in his Pennsylvania backyard. Eight-year-old Hugo Deans wasn’t thinking about science when he spotted a cluster of tiny, BB-sized spheres sitting near an...
Most of us move through our 30s, 40s, and 50s with a quiet certainty that there’s still time. Time to take better care of ourselves. Time to call that friend we keep meaning to call. Time to stop saying yes to things that drain us and no to things that light us up. We tell...
Most people who take herbal supplements think of them as a safe, natural choice. They pick up a bottle of St. John’s wort for low mood, some ginkgo for memory, or a garlic supplement for their heart. Natural, plant-based, sold freely without a prescription. What could go wrong? The answer, for a growing number of...
