More U.S. teenagers are getting weight-loss surgery, despite the discovery of new drugs like Ozempic/Wegovy that help people drop pounds surgery-free, a new study says. Weight loss surgeries for teens increased 15% between 2021 and 2023, researchers reported earlier this month in The Journal of Pediatrics. Further, much of the increase in weight-loss surgery is… read on > read on >
Migraines don’t just cause headaches. These attacks often are accompanied by symptoms like light and sound sensitivity, nausea, neck pain and dizziness. What’s more, those non-headache symptoms tend to crop up before a full-fledged migraine headache takes root. But now, researchers say they’ve discovered an already approved migraine drug that can stop these other symptoms… read on > read on >
Significant weight gain paired with delayed or foregone motherhood nearly triples a young woman’s risk of later breast cancer, a new study says. Women were 2.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer if they: Had a more than 30% increase in weight after age 20. Either delayed their first child until after age 30… read on > read on >
Power outages greatly increase a young child’s chances of carbon monoxide poisoning due to improper use of gasoline-powered generators, a new study says. Children younger than 5 had a more than 50% increased risk of carbon monoxide poisoning during small-scale power outages affecting at least 1% of a community, researchers reported today in the journal… read on > read on >
OpenAI has unveiled a large dataset to help test how well artificial intelligence (AI) models answer health care questions. Experts call it a major step forward, but they also say more work is needed to ensure safety. The dataset — called HealthBench — is OpenAI’s first major independent health care project. It includes 5,000 “realistic… read on > read on >
U.S. health officials are telling travelers aged 60 and older to avoid a chikungunya vaccine while they investigate possible side effects. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the warning late last week. The concern focuses on the Valneva vaccine, known as Ixchiq, the Associated… read on > read on >
Cutting-edge weight-loss drugs like Ozempic/Wegovy can cut alcohol intake dramatically in a short amount of time, a new study says. People taking semaglutide or liraglutide reduced their alcohol consumption by two-thirds within four months, according to results recently published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. These glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone,… read on > read on >
ADHD stimulant meds don’t increase children’s risk of psychosis, a new study says. Analysis of stimulant prescriptions among nearly 8,400 kids with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder found no evidence that the drugs caused psychosis, researchers reported May 12 in the journal Pediatrics. “Previous observational research has suggested that stimulants may play a causal role in the… read on > read on >
Drugs that battle HIV and hepatitis B might be able to help people avoid Alzheimer’s disease, a new study says. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are used to prevent HIV and hepatitis B from replicating and spreading inside a person’s body. Now, a new analysis shows that people taking NRTI pills have as much as… read on > read on >
A first-of-its-kind surgery has gone through a young woman’s eye socket to remove a cancerous tumor wrapped around her spine. Surgeons threaded a thin lighted tube called an endoscope down through the 19-year-old woman’s eye socket to remove a rare, slow-growing bone tumor known as a chordoma, doctors said after the successful procedure. “The tumor… read on > read on >
