Following the historic destruction of Hurricane Helene, many Americans must now return to their mangled homes and begin the heartbreaking task of clean-up. After making landfall in Florida near Tallahassee as a ferocious Cat 4 storm on Thursday, Helene caused record-breaking storm surges in Tampa, flash flooding in Atlanta and power outages, massive flooding and…  read on >  read on >

Besides being useless in altering a person’s sexuality or gender identity, so-called “conversion therapy” or “conversion practice” can greatly raise the odds that an LGBT person experiences mental health issues, new research finds. Questionnaires completed by over 4,400 LGBTQ+ Americans found that having undergone these bogus interventions was linked to higher rates of depression, post-traumatic…  read on >  read on >

Clinical trials sponsored by Big Pharma enrolled eight times as many patients as U.S.-government trials did between 2018 and 2022, new research shows. The study — conducted by researchers at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle — underscores the lack of investment in federally funded studies and a growing reliance on industry research. The magnitude…  read on >  read on >

More than 14 million seniors a year take a tumble, and those falls can be life-changing.  “The relationship between falls and dementia appears to be a two-way street,” said Molly Jarman, senior author of a new study showing that cognitive decline may increase an older person’s risk for a fall and the trauma that follows…  read on >  read on >

There’s a strong link between self-esteem and good times between the sheets, a new study suggests. Folks ranking high in self-esteem also tended to rate their sex lives as satisfying, reported a team from the Universities of Zurich and Utrecht, in Switzerland and The Netherlands. The effect could work in both directions, researchers believe. “People…  read on >  read on >

A synthetic form of the active ingredient in cannabis helps reduce agitation in people with Alzheimer’s, new research shows. Synthetic THC (dronabinol) also gave patients’ caregivers a boost, according to findings presented Thursday at a meeting of the International Psychogeriatrics Association in Buenos Aires. The findings may provide encouragement for the families of the 7…  read on >  read on >