Kate* always had long and painful periods, some of which made her think “I can’t live like this” — but, like many women, she never really questioned whether the severity of that menstrual pain was normal. “I don’t think that, when you’re young, you really ask other girls how bad it all is,” she told … Read more
Yonker and her colleagues will administer larazotide to 32 patients between the ages of 7 and 21, who will take the drug for eight weeks; a further 16 patients will receive a placebo. To qualify for the trial, patients must have a detectable presence of the Covid-19 spike protein in their blood. The intention is … Read more
After 25 years as a pediatric infectious diseases specialist, Asunción Mejías is too familiar with the deadly unpredictability of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), an infection that hospitalizes up to 80,000 children under the age of 5 every year in the US. “It’s a disease which can change very quickly,” says Mejías, who works at St. … Read more
There were many challenges in the process of confirming the role of the MAL gene, including a study by rival researchers that suggested a completely different gene could be responsible. “We suddenly thought, ‘Oh no, maybe all this work we’ve been doing has been wasted,’” recalls Tilley. “That was a real low point.” Thornton chimes … Read more
Cases of children eating up to 120 multivitamin gummies in a single day are among a “significant” increase in parent calls to the Queensland Poison Information Centre concerning overuse of the gummies. QPIC received 180 calls relating to toddlers eating multivitamins with iron — which can be toxic for children if overused — in 2023. … Read more
But psychedelic compounds are tricky to test in this way because their psychedelic effects are so recognizable to those who take them. In the Lykos trials, around 90 percent of the participants were able to correctly guess whether they received MDMA or a placebo, effectively “unblinding” the study. If participants knew they received MDMA, they … Read more
Roeland Decorte grew up in a nursing home in Belgium, where he learned to spot the subtle early signs of mental decline in small changes to how residents walked or talked. When Decorte was 11, his father, who owned and managed the care home, started waking up in the middle of the night with chest … Read more
When Jane Fletcher went into hospital for routine surgery, she never expected to come out with a superbug and a front-row seat to the “silent pandemic”. The health psychologist was struck down with antibiotic-resistant golden staph and joined the tens of thousands of Australians estimated to be infected with bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that … Read more
In a new study, a global team of researchers hijacked the system Toxoplasma uses to secrete proteins into its host cell. The team genetically engineered Toxoplasma to make a hybrid protein, fusing one of its secreted proteins to a protein called MECP2, which regulates gene activity in the brain—in effect, giving the MECP2 a piggyback … Read more
Semaglutide and tirzepatide work by mimicking the action of GLP-1, a hormone found naturally in the body. These drugs act on GLP-1 receptors in the pancreas to trigger the release of insulin after eating, which helps control blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. They also bind to GLP-1 receptors in the brain to make … Read more
