Noshing on veggies, grains, beans and other high-fiber foods can help your heart as well as your gut health, a new study says. People with low-fiber diets are more likely to have narrowed arteries caused by the buildup of plaque, researchers reported recently in the journal Cardiovascular Research. CT scans also revealed that people’s diets…  read on >  read on >

Illinois has confirmed its first human case of West Nile virus this year, health officials say. The person, who lives in southern Illinois, was hospitalized with complications from the mosquito-borne virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is the earliest West Nile virus case reported in Illinois since 2016.…  read on >  read on >

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped canceling biomedical research grants after a federal judge said hundreds of those cuts were illegal. This decision comes just days after U.S. District Judge William Young ordered the NIH to restore more than 900 canceled grants. The ruling stemmed from a Boston case, in which researchers and…  read on >  read on >

Alternatives to weekly injections of weight-loss drugs may on the way. A monthly dose of a new drug called MariTide helped participants in a phase 2 clinical trial shed about 20% of their body weight over a year, researchers reported Monday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Made by Amgen, MariTide was among several…  read on >  read on >

People living with an autoimmune disease are nearly twice as likely to suffer from mood problems like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder, a new large-scale study says. The risk of mood disorders is 87% to 97% higher in people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and Graves’ syndrome, researchers reported…  read on >  read on >

If spending time around dogs or cats makes your eyes water, your nose run, your skin itch or your breathing difficult, you’re not alone. Pet allergies — allergic reactions to proteins found in an animal’s skin cells, saliva or urine — affect 10% to 20% of people worldwide, and exposure isn’t limited to pet owners.…  read on >  read on >