The use of nicotine pouches nearly doubled among U.S. high school students between 2023 and 2024, a new study says. These pouches, inserted between the gum and lip, provide teenagers an opportunity to use nicotine in a discreet, easily concealed way, researchers said. About 5.4% of teens said they used nicotine pouches in 2024, compared…  read on >  read on >

Conversion therapy might harm a young person’s long-term heart health, a new study says. Young adults assigned male at birth were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure if they’d been exposed to conversion therapy, a discredited practice that attempts to alter a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, researchers…  read on >  read on >

The shingles vaccine has benefits that stretch beyond protecting older adults from the painful skin condition, a new study says. Folks who get the shingles jab have a 23% lower risk of health problems like stroke, heart failure and heart disease, researchers reported May 6 in the European Heart Journal. This protective effect lasts for…  read on >  read on >

Newborns can be effectively protected against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection through the use of nirsevimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment, researchers report. Babies treated with nirsevimab had an 83% reduced risk of hospitalization due to RSV infection, researchers reported May 1 in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. The antibody treatment also reduced the risk…  read on >  read on >

Next time you see your family physician or a hospital doctor, be extra kind and patient — they could be on the verge of burning out, a new study warns. About 10% of internal medicine doctors in the U.S. report a high level of burnout, researchers reported May 5 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.…  read on >  read on >

  More U.S. children have died from the flu this season than in any year since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, according to a new federal report. So far, 216 pediatric deaths have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s already more than the 207 reported last year, and…  read on >  read on >

An experimental drug might help people with uncontrolled high blood pressure, according to early clinical trial results. People taking lorundrostat experienced twice the decline in their systolic blood pressure than people taking a placebo, researchers reported recently in the New England Journal of Medicine. Systolic, the top number of a blood pressure reading, refers to…  read on >  read on >