Gray hair often feels like a simple sign of passing time. It is easy to see it as a cosmetic change and nothing more. Yet new evidence links hair pigmentation to deep cellular decisions that also touch cancer risk. In mice, melanocyte stem cells within hair follicles choose between two fates when stressed. One future...
When Pittsburgh resident AJ Owen placed some bins of food in his front yard, he didn’t expect much. It was just a small act of kindness that came from his heart. But that simple setup, which he later called his front-yard food pantry, became something far bigger than he ever imagined. It turned into a...
Have you ever heard of The Holy Fruit of the Himalayas? How about the Siberian Pineapple? Though it may come with a variety of interesting names, they all refer to the same fruit: Hippophae rhamnoides, or the sea buckthorn berry. This vibrant orange-yellow berry is not just used because it tastes good, either – it...
If you have lived with pain for months, you have likely heard of tramadol. Many people consider it a gentler opioid that feels somewhat safer to use. A large new analysis challenges that idea in a careful, data-driven manner. The researchers pooled randomized trials and then examined if tramadol actually help enough to outweigh its...
Off the coast of Costa Rica, a group of fishers pulled up what’s now being called the rare golden shark. It looked unreal, like something straight from a cartoon. Marine biologist Daniel Arauz Naranjo couldn’t believe it when he saw the photos. A nurse shark, shining like gold, its eyes pale white and eerie. “Wow,...
Public interest has recently turned to the human eye and the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine. Two peer-reviewed papers have helped drive the latest debate. One Turkish cohort measured the cornea before and after vaccination. Another systematic review catalogued rare ocular events after COVID-19 shots across many reports. Both studies deserve some attention, so we will take...
Plant-based medicines have played an integral part in society’s healthcare and wellness for thousands of years. Estimates from the World Health Organization indicate that approximately 80% of the world’s population still relies on traditional plant-based medicinal care. Cannabis has been used in traditional medicinal and cultural rituals for millennia.However, cannabis still remains illegal in many...
On October 28, Kim Kardashian appeared on Good Morning America to promote her new show All’s Fair. Robin Roberts asked about the brain aneurysm Kim had disclosed on The Kardashians. Kim confirmed getting a Prenuvo scan followed by extensive brain scans at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She told viewers to tune in to the next episode...
Illness and disease don’t exist in silos: often, one can trigger or exacerbate another. Emerging evidence is painting a clearer, more urgent picture: the global epidemic of diabetes may be one of the strongest, yet most controllable risk factors for developing dementia. Far from being two separate conditions, researchers are increasingly recognizing them as a...
The highway stretches dark ahead, and your headlights carve a tunnel through the night. A car pulls up behind with LED beams so bright they flood your rearview mirror with white light. The glare burns into your peripheral vision and makes the road ahead harder to see. Most drivers don’t know their rearview mirror has...
Reaching the age of 100 used to be quite a rare achievement. Yet, nowadays, it seems to be a rather commonplace occurrence. Well, believe it or not, centenarians are not the fastest-growing demographic age group worldwide. Researchers in Sweden followed tens of thousands of people and analyzed routine blood tests taken years earlier. They then...
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF, is now the most common form of heart failure. Many people who develop it also live with obesity and type 2 diabetes. GLP-1 medications began as diabetes treatments, yet their role has broadened recently. Many patients use them to improve glucose control and reduce weight. Over the...
