Beyond a myriad of other consequences, childhood trauma appears to raise the specter of chronic pain in adulthood, new research shows. Researchers pored over 75 years’ worth of data involving more than 826,000 people. That included information on levels of neglect or physical, emotional or sexual abuse, plus other serious trauma of childhood. Their review…  read on >  read on >

Long left to the fringes of the recreational drug culture, psilocybin — the hallucinatory ingredient in “magic mushrooms” — has recently been making inroads as a legitimate (and fast-acting) antidepressant. Research published Dec. 18 in Cancer shows its benefits may extend to people battling cancer, who often experience the added burden of depression. “As an…  read on >  read on >

If you’re one of the 50 million Americans with asthma or allergies, 2024 is another year to redouble efforts to manage them. But how? “It’s not always easy to get allergies and asthma under control,” allergist Dr. Gailen Marshall, president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), said in a tip sheet…  read on >  read on >

Dandruff becomes more common in the cold winter months, when the chilly air and dry heat causes a person’s scalp to flake and itch. But while it might be an annoying and unattractive condition, dandruff doesn’t mean you are an unclean person, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) says. “It is a common misconception that…  read on >  read on >

A technology from the 19th century meets one from the 21st to better help doctors predict who’ll survive a heart surgery. Cardiologists from three major U.S. hospitals gathered data from the electrocardiograms (ECGs, invented in 1895) of almost 46,000 patients. They then fed that data into a cutting-edge AI algorithm. AI was 83% correct in…  read on >  read on >

SATURDAY, Dec. 16It’s that time of year when your kids come home with sniffles and sore throats, but when should you worry if they have a fever? To a certain extent, fevers are the body’s natural way of fighting infection, one expert says. “Fever helps the immune system,” explained Dr. Christopher Tolcher, a pediatrician with…  read on >  read on >