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Midpregnancy herbicide exposure linked to increased preterm birth risk

Exposure to a widely used herbicide during the middle months of pregnancy may increase the chance of giving birth too early, before 37 weeks, a new study shows.

31 Jul 2026

Digital marketing threatens breastfeeding rates in the Americas

Ahead of World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is calling on countries across the Americas to strengthen protections for families against the growing digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes and other products that may undermine breastfeeding.

31 Jul 2026

Exposure to fungicides and insecticides alters onset of puberty in girls

The study, which tracked more than 500 Spanish girls between the ages of 7 and 10, links the presence of certain fungicides in urine to early menarche and that of the insecticide chlorpyrifos to delayed menarche, highlighting the impact of pesticides on pubertal development.

31 Jul 2026

Linguistic style in children predicts future mental health problems

Linguistic models that analyzed the words children used when talking about stressful events proved better at predicting future mental health problems than a panel of human experts.

31 Jul 2026

Tea, tap water and child IQ: What a Canadian pregnancy study found

Researchers analyzed 485 mother-child pairs in Canada to examine whether estimated fluoride intake from tea during pregnancy was associated with IQ at ages 3 to 4. Each 0.5 mg/day increase was associated with a 2.24-point lower full-scale IQ score, although the observational design and estimated exposure prevent causal conclusions.

31 Jul 2026

University of Exeter launches ADHD toolkit for UK primary schools

A new ADHD toolkit from the University of Exeter is the first of its kind designed specifically to be used in UK primary schools.

30 Jul 2026

Common allergy medications offer no real relief for eczema patients

It's typical for someone looking for relief from dry, itchy, red and irritated skin – also known as eczema or atopic dermatitis – to turn to common allergy medications called antihistamines.

30 Jul 2026

Omalizumab beats multiallergen oral immunotherapy in multifood allergy trial

Omalizumab demonstrates higher treatment success for multifood allergies compared to oral immunotherapy, with fewer adverse events impacting patient retention.

30 Jul 2026

AI tool improves motor imitation assessment for children with autism

Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute and Penn Engineering announcing the development of an advanced artificial intelligence system that measures a child's ability to imitate simple body movements using ordinary video recordings.

29 Jul 2026

England sees rising hospital admissions for ectopic pregnancy since 2021

University of Liverpool researchers have identified that hospital admissions in England for ectopic pregnancy (when a fertilized egg implants outside the womb) have been increasing since 2021, with more than twice as many admissions of women from most deprived areas than the least deprived areas.

29 Jul 2026

Body fat percentage predicts male fertility better than BMI

A man's body fat percentage may be a better indicator of his reproductive health than body mass index (BMI) according to a large study of over 1000 Danish men.

29 Jul 2026

Study questions antihistamine use for managing eczema symptoms

Adding oral antihistamines to existing eczema treatments is unlikely to lead to clinically important reductions in eczema and itch severity, and may not reduce sleep disturbance or flare-ups, finds a review of the latest trial evidence published by The BMJ today.

29 Jul 2026

NIH awards $2.4 million to study how maternal viral infections reprogram fetal immune development

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a new, five-year $2.4 million R01 grant to Dr. Jiahui Ding, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine's C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development, to support research that aims to uncover how viral infections during pregnancy reprogram the developing immune system of the fetus, influencing susceptibility to infectious diseases throughout life.

29 Jul 2026

Climate change shifts malaria risk across sub-Saharan Africa

Malaria is the deadliest climate-sensitive infectious disease. Yet, researchers and public health officials have long argued over how climate change has shaped its spread.

29 Jul 2026

Harvard bioengineers develop a way to quickly create customizable blood vessel grafts

Traumatic injuries, whether on a battlefield or in a car accident, often involve damaged blood vessels that require immediate repair.

29 Jul 2026

National scabies control program drastically reduces parasitic skin disease in Pacific nations

A world-first scabies control program has drastically reduced cases of the highly contagious parasitic skin disease in Solomon Islands and Fiji, according to a new study.

29 Jul 2026

Overactive brain immune response linked to rare, severe genetic epilepsy

An overactive immune response in the brain may play a role in Dravet Syndrome, a rare and severe genetic epilepsy that typically begins in infancy, according to Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

29 Jul 2026

Oral semaglutide reduces heavy drinking in adults with alcohol use disorder

A clinical trial led by researchers at CU Anschutz has found that oral semaglutide, a medication widely used for diabetes and weight loss, reduces heavy drinking in adults with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).

29 Jul 2026

New gene editing tool reduces Huntington's symptoms in mice

A gene editing tool designed to precisely rewrite the gene that causes Huntington's disease reduced toxic protein fragments and symptoms associated with the disease in mice, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report.

29 Jul 2026

The everyday habits linked to better grades in teenagers

Researchers found that regular meals, Mediterranean diet adherence, sufficient sleep, and limited television viewing were independently associated with better grades among 974 adolescents. Meeting more healthy lifestyle recommendations was consistently associated with stronger performance across first, second, and third languages.

29 Jul 2026