Wildfires raging in several states and Canada are triggering air quality alerts and evacuation orders across the western parts of the United States. Smoke and haze have filled the skies in California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and several other western states: As of Wednesday, there were 79 large, active wildfires that have burned over 1.4 million acres…  read on >  read on >

Finding yourself packing on the pounds around your waist and arms? If so, you might be at heightened risk for neurological illnesses like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, new research suggests. There was one other physical characteristic that lowered the odds, however: muscle strength. Stronger folk appeared to have a lower odds for neurological illnesses compared to…  read on >  read on >

Millions of Americans deal with the sleep deficits brought on by sleep apnea, and many turn to one of the few treatments out there, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines. But what if new neurochemical targets in the brain could lead to new, less cumbersome therapies for sleep apnea? That’s what a team at the…  read on >  read on >

Synthetic antibiotics that attack bacteria in two directions at once could be the solution for combatting antimicrobial-resistant bugs, a new study claims. These dual-action antibiotics, called macrolones, disrupt bacterial cell function in two different ways. It’s nearly impossible for bacteria to resist macrolones, because the germ would need to defend against both attacks at once,…  read on >  read on >

Misuse of illicit prescription drugs is falling dramatically among U.S. high school students, a new study says. The percentage of seniors who say they’ve misused prescription drugs in the past year has dropped to 2% in 2022, down from 11% back in 2009, researchers reported July 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.…  read on >  read on >

As marijuana loses much of its stigma and laws around its use relax, Americans are increasingly consuming it medically and recreationally. Americans with diabetes are no exception, a new study finds. The number of adults with diabetes who said that they’d used cannabis at least once over the past month jumped by a third between…  read on >  read on >