The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is cracking down on air pollution. Specifically, the agency introduced a tougher air quality standard that takes aim at fine particulate matter — the tiny bits of pollution that can penetrate the lungs — by lowering the allowable annual concentration of the deadly pollutant that each…  read on >  read on >

Is ‘practice makes perfect’ true for the male erection, too? That’s the suggestion from a Swedish study involving amorous male mice. It found that getting erections regularly was important to the rodents’ overall erectile function. The key seemed to lie in connective tissue cells called fibroblasts. These cells have long been known to populate penile…  read on >  read on >

American teenagers cite stress as the leading reason they might get drunk or high, a new report reveals. That only underscores the need for better adolescent mental health care, according to the research team behind the study. Better “access to treatment and support for mental health concerns and stress could reduce some of the reported…  read on >  read on >

Filling the day with simple activities could be the key to improving mood and well-being after a person has suffered the loss of a loved one, a new study finds. These “uplifts” — activities that can improve a person’s mood — helped ease grief on a day-to-day basis, researchers reported recently in the journal Applied…  read on >  read on >

Preliminary data from the largest survey examining the quality of life for transgender and nonbinary Americans show they suffer high levels of unemployment and harassment. In the early findings, released Wednesday, the National Center for Transgender Equality gathered responses on 600 questions from more than 92,000 transgender and nonbinary Americans, age 16 and up, from…  read on >  read on >

Could drugs that give a boost to men’s sexual performance help them stave off Alzheimer’s disease? That’s the main finding from a study suggesting that erectile dysfunction meds like Cialis, Levitra and Viagra might lower the odds for the memory-robbing illness. The study wasn’t designed to prove cause-and-effect, cautioned British researchers at University College London.…  read on >  read on >

A doctor or nurse might be the only person capable of convincing a vaccine-hesitant person to get the COVID jab, a new study shows. Those who trust the medical profession are most likely to get vaccinated against COVID, despite their initial hesitancy or resistance, according to a study published recently in the journal Preventive Medicine…  read on >  read on >

Music may be good medicine for older adults, boosting both their mental and physical health, a new survey finds. Virtually all people between the ages of 50 and 80 (98%) say they benefit in at least one health-related way from engaging with music, according to results from the latest University of Michigan National Poll on…  read on >  read on >