Chronic Pain Detected in the Brain for the First Time
Chronic pain was detected in the human brain for the first time, researchers reported. Data were collected over months from four participants with refractory neuropathic pain who had intracranial electrodes implanted, according to Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco, and co-authors. Over 3 to 6 months, participants reported their pain […]
Discordant Biomarkers Foretell Prognosis in Oropharyngeal Cancer
Mismatch between the p16 protein and human papillomavirus (HPV) biomarkers can help determine prognosis in patients with oropharyngeal cancer, European researchers reported. Specifically, oropharyngeal cancer patients with discordance between the p16 (p16INK4a ) and HPV biomarker had significantly worse disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) than double-positive patients, though significantly better survival than double-negative […]
Can a Fungus Cause a COVID-Style Pandemic?
The television series “The Last of Us” describes a human pandemic with a mind controlling cordyceps fungus. When asked whether a COVID-19 pandemic with a pathogenic fungus is possible, my answer has generally been some variation of “yes, but it’s unlikely.” Cordyceps fungi turn ants into zombies, establishing the precedent that this group of organisms […]
4 Signs You’re Experiencing Secondhand Stress (And What To Do About It)
Hispanolistic via Getty Images It’s a human response to absorb other people’s emotions during tough situations, but that can lead to issues like secondhand stress. It can be easy to get swept up in other people’s problems or in situations that are largely out of your control. “At a fundamental level, we are social creatures. […]
Could Earlier Initiation of HPV Vaccine Boost Immunization in Adolescents?
Teenagers had better vaccine coverage against human papillomavirus (HPV) if they were vaccinated at earlier ages as older children instead of early adolescents, a retrospective study showed. Early initiators vaccinated at age 9 or 10 were, compared with those who initiated at ages 11 to 12, more likely to complete the HPV vaccine series by […]
Fructose could drive Alzheimer’s disease: An evolutionary foraging instinct that relied on the sugar fructose, may now be fueling the formation of Alzheimer’s disease
An ancient human foraging instinct, fueled by fructose production in the brain, may hold clues to the development and possible treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The study, published recently in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, offers a new way of looking at a […]
Opinion | ‘I Really Feel We Need the Human Data’: What We Heard This Week
“I really feel we need the human data.” — Pablo Sanchez, MD, of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, who cast the only vote against recommending the new bivalent boosters due to the lack of clinical trial data. “It could cause a lot of anxiety in people.” — Sean McGann, MD, an emergency physician […]
CDC: Handful of Swine Flu Cases Detected in Humans in Multiple States
Five cases of human infection with flu variants normally spread only in pigs were reported to CDC in August, the agency announced in a Health Alert Network advisory on Tuesday. Cases were detected in West Virginia, Oregon, and Ohio, and all of the individuals have since recovered. According to the CDC, four of the infections […]
New Study Reveals Why Infectious Diseases Are Spreading More Rapidly
More than half of all human infectious diseases in recorded history — Lyme, West Nile, hantavirus, typhoid, HIV and influenza, to name a few — have been exacerbated by the mounting impacts of greenhouse gas-driven climate change. That is the sobering conclusion of a new, first-of-its-kind paper that combed through more than 70,000 scientific studies […]
HPV Vaccination Close to Surgery May Reduce Recurrent Cervical Lesions
Vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV) near the time of surgery for precancerous cervical lesions significantly reduced the rate of lesion recurrence, a meta-analysis showed. Overall, vaccination reduced the risk of recurrent cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2+ (CIN2+) by 57% as compared with surgery alone. An even larger risk reduction (74%) occurred when the analysis was […]