Premature births dropped during lockdowns in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. A groundbreaking study, which included a group of mostly high-income countries — including the United States, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark and Switzerland — found there were about 4% fewer preterm births than would have been expected in spring 2020. That’s nearly 50,000…  read on >  read on >

Men suffering from an enlarged prostate can receive long-term relief from a minimally invasive procedure that partially blocks blood flow to the gland, new research reports. The procedure, called prostate artery embolization (PAE), dramatically improved urinary symptoms in patients without having any effect on erectile function, said senior researcher Dr. Shivank Bhatia, chair of interventional…  read on >  read on >

People who have long COVID — lingering symptoms after a COVID-19 infection — may also have lower brain oxygen levels, cognitive problems and psychiatric troubles, such as anxiety and depression. Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada and Drexel University in Philadelphia combined two parallel studies to better understand what is happening in long…  read on >  read on >