Medical News

RSS

New portable blood testing device allows remote health monitoring

A new portable blood testing device could allow patient health to be monitored at home through an app.

5 Aug 2026

Cancer cells exploit liver fat to evade immune system destruction

Liver metastases are among the most common and deadly forms of cancer spread. Now, researchers at VIB and KU Leuven, with international collaborators, have discovered how cancer cells exploit a fatty acid abundant in the liver to evade destruction by the immune system.

5 Aug 2026

Physical activity linked to lower stroke and death risk in adults with atrial fibrillation

Being physically active was linked to a lower risk of stroke and death for adults with atrial fibrillation, or AFib, according to new, independent research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

5 Aug 2026

Novel drug puts cancer cells under extreme metabolic stress

Cancer cells have a voracious appetite for sugar-using it to fuel their rapid growth. This is why many scientists have tried to develop drugs that block cancer cells' metabolism by cutting off their sugar supply.

5 Aug 2026

Newly discovered immune pathway prevents fatal fungal infections in mice

An immune pathway has been discovered which prevents a normally harmless fungus developing into a fatal infection.

5 Aug 2026

Medical cannabis compound alleviates nightmares associated with PTSD

Nightmares are among the most agonizing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – a condition that can develop after exposure to severe traumatic experiences, such as disasters, serious accidents, acts of violence, or wartime experiences. Individuals affected relive the events intensely at night, as if they were real, time and time again.

5 Aug 2026

Proper wastewater treatment can reduce the impact of hospitals on surrounding waters

Antibiotic resistance genes are now widely found in rivers, lakes, soils, animals, and people. Hospitals are often considered important sources because their wastewater can contain antibiotics, drug-resistant bacteria, and resistance genes.

5 Aug 2026

Air pollution may worsen rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and flare risk

A novel study shows that exposure to air pollution, especially fine particulate matter like dust, soot, and smoke (PM2.5), is associated with increased disease activity and flare risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

5 Aug 2026

Type 2 diabetes linked to more severe menopause symptoms

The type of menopause symptoms, as well as their severity, can differ greatly among women. A number of earlier studies have suggested various reasons for those differences.

5 Aug 2026

For students, an early social media account may come with a lasting classroom cost

Researchers linked retrospective digital-habit surveys from 5,227 northern Italian students with standardized test records spanning grades 2–10, including 4,545 students in the principal longitudinal analysis. Students who opened social media accounts in grades 6 or 7 had lower later Italian and mathematics scores than matched students who waited until grade 9 or later, although residual confounding cannot be excluded.

5 Aug 2026

The healthiest super-agers may have one thing in common: stable cognition

A 10-year study of 1,003 older adults linked cognitive super-aging to fewer emergency visits, unplanned hospital admissions, delirium episodes, dementia diagnoses, and residential aged care placements. Maintaining cognitive performance over time showed the strongest overall association with favorable health outcomes and was linked to a 46% lower mortality risk.

5 Aug 2026

Mouse study shows how liraglutide briefly rewires gut bacterial communities

Researchers treated male high-fat-fed mice with liraglutide for 14 days, then tracked fecal bacterial communities after a 7-day washout using 16S rRNA sequencing. Liraglutide shifted the microbiome toward Lactobacillus- and Leptogranulimonas-related taxa while reducing several fermentative taxa, but most changes moved back toward baseline after treatment stopped.

4 Aug 2026

Occupational pesticide exposure may significantly increase ALS risk

Workplace exposure to pesticides (herbicides and insecticides) is linked to a 60-70% heightened risk of the most common form of motor neuron disease-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS for short, finds a synthesis of the available evidence, published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

4 Aug 2026

Study finds no link between newborn circumcision and autism risk

In a cohort of nearly 3,000 boys followed from birth into childhood, young boys who were circumcised just after birth did not have a higher risk of autism, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

4 Aug 2026

UNC initiative boosts campus suicide prevention and mental health awareness

A North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) contract will help the UNC School of Social Work expand access to suicide prevention training to colleges and universities across the state.

4 Aug 2026

Scientists uncover cellular mechanism behind congenital heart defects

Congenital heart disease affects approximately two in every 100 newborns globally. But why do they occur?

4 Aug 2026

Study maps how birth order tracks disease risk across 10 million siblings

Researchers analyzing claims from more than 10 million siblings linked first-born status to higher odds of several neurodevelopmental and allergic diagnoses, while second-born status tracked with substance abuse and gastrointestinal conditions. The observational study identified 150 significant birth-order associations across the phenome, but claims data and residual confounding prevent causal conclusions.

4 Aug 2026

NIH funds smartphone platform to improve driving safety for teens

Dr. Jeffrey Keller, Hibernia National Bank/Edward G. Schleider Endowed Chair at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Sara Seifert, president of Minnesota HealthSolutions, have received a new National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award to develop an innovative digital health platform that will help parents support teenagers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as they learn to drive.

4 Aug 2026

Complex ophthalmology letters may hinder patient understanding, study suggests

Letters to patients from ophthalmology services--the highest volume outpatient specialty in UK healthcare-include too much complex language and medical terminology which patients are likely to find hard to understand, reveals an analysis of more than 4 million letters from one large hospital trust, published in the open access journal BMJ Health & Care Informatics.

4 Aug 2026

Study links better sleep with higher academic achievement

A study published in the Journal of Political Economy, one of the world's top economics journals, provides the first causal evidence that improving sleep can directly enhance academic performance.

4 Aug 2026