New study confirms relationship between toxic pollution, climate risks to human health
For more than 30 years, scientists on the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have focused on human-induced climate change. Their fifth assessment report led to the Paris Agreement in 2015 and, shortly after, a special report on the danger of global warming exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The Nobel Prize-winning team stressed […]
More than 1.5 million children lost a primary or secondary caregiver due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Addressing the impact of caregiver deaths critical for pediatric mental health, authors note
More than 1.5 million children around the world are estimated to have lost at least one parent, custodial grandparent, or grandparent who lived with them due to death related to COVID-19 during the first 14 months of the pandemic, according to a study published today in The Lancet. The study highlights orphanhood as an urgent […]
Obamacare Marketplace Sign-ups Pass 2 Million, Likely Pushing Down Uninsured Rate
More than 2 million people have signed up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces since Feb. 15, taking advantage of the Biden administration’s extended period for open enrollment that began on that day, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Wednesday. That figure means total marketplace enrollment is probably at an […]
Raise a Glass? Study Tallies Cancer Cases From Booze
More than 700,000 new cases of cancer worldwide in 2020 were attributable to alcohol consumption, according to a population-based modeling study. Men accounted for about three-quarters of these cancer cases, which most commonly affected the esophagus and liver, reported Harriet Rumgay, BSc, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Cancer Surveillance Branch in Lyon, […]
For pediatric patients with Crohn’s disease, factors associated with statural growth differ by sex
Growth impairment, a common complication of Crohn’s disease in children, occurs more often in males than females, but the reasons are unclear. Now, a physician-scientist from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian and colleagues at eight other centers have found that factors associated with statural growth differ by sex. Their recent publication, identified as the “Editor’s […]
Human-driven habitat change leads to physical, behavioral change in mosquitofish
Bahamian mosquitofish in habitats fragmented by human activity are more willing to explore their environment, more stressed by change and have smaller brain regions associated with fear response than mosquitofish from unaffected habitats. The new study from North Carolina State University shows that these fish have adapted quickly in specific ways to human-driven change, and […]
Biden Lays Out New Vaccination Path
President Biden announced plans for a more targeted vaccination strategy, including door-to-door outreach. While about 183 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Biden urged unvaccinated Americans to get their shot, particularly with the growing threat of the Delta variant. The latter is more contagious and possibly more deadly than […]
Brain circuit for spirituality?
More than 80 percent of people around the world consider themselves to be religious or spiritual. But research on the neuroscience of spirituality and religiosity has been sparse. Previous studies have used functional neuroimaging, in which an individual undergoes a brain scan while performing a task to see what areas of the brain light up. […]
Molecular Changes Could Guide Metastatic Breast Cancer Therapy
Certain molecular changes in breast cancer genes occurred more often in metastatic disease, possibly suggesting new strategies for difficult-to-treat disease, according to initial data from an ongoing study. Matched tissue specimens from primary tumors and metastases showed higher rates of mutations in driver genes and variations in gene copy number in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). […]
Hospitalization Rates for New-Onset Type 2 Diabetes in Kids Took Off During Pandemic
Young people were more likely to be initially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D) during the pandemic, while there was a significant increase in the number of new-onset pediatric T2D cases during the first 9 months of the COVID-19 crisis, researchers reported. Most of these cases involved non-Hispanic Black children and males, according to presentations […]