Could the color of your hair as you age be determined by the color of your skin? Yes, according to new research that suggests race plays a role in when and how your hair goes gray. The scientists conducted a search of 69 publications to review what’s known about changes in hair as people age,…  read on >  read on >

Talk therapy for new mothers with postpartum depression may also benefit their babies’ brains, Canadian researchers say. “We found that after their moms were treated that their infant’s brain activity normalized to the levels seen in our healthy infants,” said study co-author Ryan Van Lieshout, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at McMaster…  read on >  read on >

Giving melanoma patients a “personalized” vaccine can prompt an anti-tumor immune response that lasts for years, an early study finds. The study involved just eight patients with advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. But it builds on earlier work showing it is possible to spur the immune system to respond to an individual’s…  read on >  read on >

Full doses of blood thinners can benefit patients hospitalized with COVID-19, but the severity of their illness matters, researchers say. The new global analysis found that hospitalized patients with moderate COVID-19 may benefit from the drugs’ clot-preventing powers, but patients with illness so severe it requires admission to an intensive care unit may not. “SARS-CoV-2…  read on >  read on >

Electronic ‘early warning systems’ for kidney damage in hospital patients don’t improve outcomes, researchers say. These systems are meant to alert for acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI, a sudden decrease in the kidney’s filtration function, occurs in 15% of hospital patients and increases the risk of death 10-fold. The systems give an automated alert in…  read on >  read on >

Going into cardiac arrest at night can be particularly deadly, and now new research suggests that it might strike women more than men. Sudden cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to stop beating. The survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is only 10%, the researchers said. “Dying suddenly during nighttime hours…  read on >  read on >

Here’s one reason why past or current smoking may handicap you if you are battling breast cancer: New research suggests that nicotine promotes the spread of the disease to your lungs. Smoking is known to increase the risk that breast cancer will spread, which lowers the survival rate by one-third at diagnosis. But the role…  read on >  read on >