In a new paper in Nature Medicine, an international team of neurologists makes the compelling case that people with two copies of a gene called APOE4 aren’t just at risk of Alzheimer’s — they have a distinct form of the disease and are almost certain to develop its telltale brain plaques by age 65.

The finding comes with caveats, but ...Read more

When dermatologist Adewole “Ade” Adamson sees people spritzing sunscreen as if it’s cologne at the pool where he lives in Austin, Texas, he wants to intervene. “My wife says I shouldn’t,” he said, “even though most people rarely use enough sunscreen.”

At issue is not just whether people are using enough sunscreen, but what ...Read more

President Joe Biden counts among his accomplishments the record-high number of people, more than 21 million, who enrolled in Obamacare plans this year. Behind the scenes, however, federal regulators are contending with a problem that affects people’s coverage: rogue brokers who have signed people up for Affordable Care Act plans, or switched ...Read more

Patients could wean themselves off blockbuster obesity drugs such as Ozempic or Wegovy without piling the pounds back on, according to a scientific study.

Data presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Venice, Italy on Sunday provides some of the first evidence that it could be possible to stop taking Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic or Wegovy ...Read more

CHICAGO — Julie Harris had never been tested for lung cancer. A low-dose CT scan, the only recommended screening for adults at risk of developing lung cancer, was not something she’d ever found time to do.

But when her primary care doctor recently suggested a new blood test to help look for signs of the disease, Harris was intrigued. She ...Read more

Hennessy Sepulveda thought she was going to die.

“I began dissociating as I was driving. I was 10 minutes away from my house. My vision started warping and the lights were hitting me really bright,” she said. “I felt my chest pounding, I felt a wave of panic hit me — I knew something was wrong.”

Sepulveda, a Florida International ...Read more

Low in nutrition and high in calories, ultraprocessed foods account for 57% of adult diets in the United States. A study published in the BMJ on Wednesday associated these snacks, drinks and ready meals with an increased risk of death by any cause.

“Higher ultra-processed food intake was associated with slightly increased all cause mortality,...Read more

This article was originally published on Dec. 21, 2023 Californians – including minors – are still able to buy flavored electronic cigarettes online, even after the state’s much-publicized ban went into effect. That’s the key finding of my team’s 2023 study, published in JAMA Network Open.

On Dec. 21, 2022, California ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — At least 200 Northern California residents may have been exposed to measles after a child with the airborne disease came to the UC Davis Medical Center’s emergency department twice during the past week, Sacramento County health officials said Thursday.

A child came to the Oak Park facility on Monday between 10 p.m. to 3...Read more

Two new COVID-19 subvariants, collectively nicknamed FLiRT, are increasingly edging out the winter's dominant strain ahead of a possible summer uptick in coronavirus infections.

The new FLiRT subvariants, officially known as KP.2 and KP.1.1, are believed to be roughly 20% more transmissible than their parent, JN.1, the winter's dominant ...Read more

You feel a cold coming on, or maybe it's already upon you: the telltale cough, sore throat and stuffy head. You swing by the drugstore, where a shelf full of over-the-counter products containing the mineral zinc claim to be able to shorten the duration of your symptoms.

The promise of relief is tempting. But is it one these products can make ...Read more

Cass Smith-Collins jumped through hoops to get the surgery that would match his chest to his gender.

Living in Las Vegas and then 50, he finally felt safe enough to come out as a transgender man. He had his wife’s support and a doctor’s letter showing he had a long history of gender dysphoria, the psychological distress felt when one’s ...Read more

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency announced in late April 2024 that it plans to ease federal restrictions on cannabis, reclassifying it from a Schedule I drug to the less restricted Schedule III, which includes drugs such as Tylenol with codeine, testosterone and other anabolic steroids. This historic shift signals an acknowledgment of the ...Read more

Cass Smith-Collins jumped through hoops to get the surgery that would match his chest to his gender.

Living in Las Vegas and then 50, he finally felt safe enough to come out as a transgender man. He had his wife’s support and a doctor’s letter showing he had a long history of gender dysphoria, the psychological distress felt when one’s ...Read more

Miguel Divo, a lung specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, sits in an exam room across from Joel Rubinstein, who has asthma. Rubinstein, a retired psychiatrist, is about to get a checkup and hear a surprising pitch — for the planet, as well as his health.

Divo explains that boot-shaped inhalers, which represent nearly 90% of ...Read more

As a new virus takes center stage at the heart of a global outbreak, it’s easy to get flashbacks of March 2020.

Now more than four years after the world was rocked by a pandemic, H5N1, or avian or bird flu, has exploded in bird and livestock populations, and at least one human case has been confirmed by health officials.

This isn’t the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — University of Pennsylvania researchers undertook the most comprehensive review yet on the algorithms that doctors and health systems use to help make decisions on patient care and whether they contribute to long-standing racial biases in health care.

Their wide-ranging review of more than five dozen studies on algorithms and ...Read more

CHICAGO — A new family of COVID variants nicknamed “FLiRT” is spreading across the country, as vaccination rates in Chicago — as well as nationwide — remain concerningly low for some public health experts.

While symptoms and severity seem to be about the same as previous COVID strains, the new FLiRT variants appear to be more ...Read more

When doctors began using the drug sotorasib in 2021 with high expectations for its innovative approach to attacking lung cancer, retired medical technician Don Crosslin was an early beneficiary. Crosslin started the drug that July. His tumors shrank, then stabilized.

But while the drug has helped keep him alive, its side effects have gradually ...Read more