Obese kids are more likely to develop immune-based skin problems like eczema or psoriasis, a new study says. Analysis of more than 2.1 million Korean children between 2009 and 2020 revealed that children who became overweight had a higher risk of developing eczema. At the same time, overweight kids who shed pounds and reached a…  read on >  read on >

Multiple sclerosis makes people vulnerable to more severe cases of COVID-19, but a new study finds that getting the COVID vaccine won’t trigger a relapse of MS symptoms. “People with MS have an increased risk of severe COVID infection due to their level of motor disability or exposure to treatments that suppress their immune systems,”…  read on >  read on >

A meditation technique called mindful breathing can help cancer patients manage their pain and anxiety, a new study finds. Cancer patients who engaged in 20 minutes of mindful breathing experienced a greater reduction in pain than those who weren’t taught the technique. “Twenty-minute mindful breathing effectively and rapidly reduces pain intensity, pain unpleasantness and anxiety…  read on >  read on >

Some seniors with end-stage kidney failure who are too sick for a transplant should probably skip dialysis because the health trade-offs aren’t worth it, a new study says. Seniors who started dialysis immediately after diagnosis with kidney failure only lived an average of nine days longer than those who either waited at least a month…  read on >  read on >

AI can help predict which young kids are more likely to develop autism, a new study says. The AI looks for patterns in medical data that can be easily obtained from children 2 or younger without extensive assessments or clinical tests, researchers said. The “AutMedAI” program was able to identify about 80% of children with…  read on >  read on >

The crowded microbial space of the human gut is revealing potential routes to new antibiotics, scientists report. Molecules isolated from studying the gut’s microbiome have yielded unexpected results that could lead to new types of the drugs, said study first author Marcelo Torres, a research associate in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. “Interestingly, these molecules…  read on >  read on >