There was a sharp drop in mammography breast cancer screening during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the decline was especially severe among American women of color and those living in rural areas, new research shows. Those trends could cost lives in years to come, because “detecting breast cancer at an early stage dramatically increases the chances… read on > read on >
Leslie Maier lost her son, Chris, to meningococcal meningitis more than 15 years ago, but by telling his story she hopes to educate other parents about this rare but potentially deadly illness that a vaccine can prevent. Soon after Chris passed away in 2005, Maier joined the board of the National Meningitis Foundation. Now she… read on > read on >
New insight into why you don’t remember your earliest years of life is provided in a new study. “A fundamental mystery about human nature is that we remember almost nothing from birth through early childhood, yet we learn so much critical information during that time — our first language, how to walk, objects and foods,… read on > read on >
Exposure to a certain type of air pollution while pregnant may up the odds that your child will develop asthma, a new study says. Children born to mothers exposed to high levels of ultra-fine particle air pollution during pregnancy have a significantly increased risk of asthma, researchers found. Ultra-fine particle pollution is smaller than the… read on > read on >
A new coronavirus that appears to have jumped from a dog to a child has been discovered from a case three years ago, but it’s unclear what threat it may pose. This new canine-like coronavirus was found in a child in Malaysia in 2018. If it is confirmed as a human pathogen, it could be… read on > read on >
Virginia Terrell knew she wouldn’t be allowed visitors after she checked into the hospital with COVID-19 late last month, but being braced for that reality didn’t make her week-and-a-half stay any easier. “You get pretty lonely,” said Terrell, 59, who was treated at WakeMed and Duke Health hospitals in Raleigh, N.C. “It’s helpful knowing that… read on > read on >
Family history, race and sex are among the factors that increase a child’s risk of asthma, a new study shows. “These findings help us to better understand what groups of children are most susceptible to asthma early in life,” said study co-author Christine Cole Johnson, chair of public health sciences at Henry Ford Health System… read on > read on >
Two-thirds of spinal fractures suffered by American children and teens occur in car crashes when they aren’t wearing seat belts, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data on more than 34,500 U.S. patients younger than 18 who suffered spinal fractures between 2009 and 2014. Teens aged 15 to 17 accounted for about 63% of the… read on > read on >
A help in ‘ruff’ times: When it comes to coping with the stress of college life, new research shows that vulnerable students are far better served by therapy dogs than stress management courses. In the study, more than 300 students at Washington State University were randomly assigned to participate in one of three different types… read on > read on >
Infants exposed to secondhand smoke in the womb and early childhood are likely to have weaker lungs, a new study suggests. The finding is based on levels of blood cotinine during pregnancy and childhood; blood cotinine is the result of the body processing nicotine. Harvard Medical School researchers tied increased levels of the byproduct with… read on > read on >
