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Maternal mortality in the U.S. significantly increased in 2021 compared with the previous year, the CDC reported Thursday. A total of 1,205 women died of maternal causes in 2021, compared with 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019, according to the report from Donna Hoyert, PhD, of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The

Atopic dermatitis (AD) monotherapy with the lebrikizumab, an interleukin-13 inhibitor, was shown to be both effective and safe in the induction periods of the phase 3 ADvocate1 and ADvocate2 trials, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The identically designed, 52-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials enrolled 851 adolescents and adults with moderate to severe AD and included

Weight gain became inevitable for Meredith Schorr during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a nurse in the intensive care unit at Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, her constant exposure to stress, intake of PTSD meds and poor diet led her to gain 50 pounds within a year and a half.  So

GENEVA (Reuters) – Poorer countries are increasingly losing healthcare workers to wealthier ones as the latter seek to shore up their own staff losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes through active recruitment, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. The trend for nurses and other staff to leave parts of Africa or Southeast Asia for

A new study conducted by Columbia University researchers has found that cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins can possibly reduce the chances of severe heart diseases in people with sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a common condition found in older adults. At its wake, people face difficulties in falling asleep which in turn leads to high blood

As a medical student, I never saw myself as a future CEO or anything close. I was often the only Black person in the room in classes and rotations. After I became an attending, I spent a great deal of time and mental energy fitting in. Speaking up and having opinions were luxuries I couldn’t

Higher blood caffeine levels appear to reduce the risks for both adiposity and type 2 diabetes, the results of a new study suggest. Explaining that caffeine has thermogenic effects, the researchers note that previous short-term studies have linked caffeine intake with reductions in weight and fat mass. And observational data have shown associations between coffee

Scientists have identified rare damaging gene variants associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia.  The multi-center study led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found the schizophrenia risk from these rare damaging variants is conserved across ethnicities, NeuroScienceNews reported.  The study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, may open up new treatment strategies.

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), also known as 3D mammography, yields better breast cancer screening outcomes compared to standard digital (2D) mammography alone, concludes a huge retrospective study of more than a million women in the United States. The cancer detection rate for DBT screening was 5.3 per 1000 patients screened, vs 4.5 per 1000 screened

An Indiana family’s ordeal is helping raise awareness after their 4-year-son developed a rare infection, initially thought to be flu. The bacterial infection had spread to various parts of his body, eventually leading to the amputation of his right leg. Parents, Megan and Ben Crenshaw, thought their youngest son Bryson had caught the flu when

Black patients with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) consistently experienced poor outcomes associated with their disease at earlier ages than other groups, including hospitalization and death, according to U.S. registry data spanning nearly two decades. In an analysis from the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Registry (PFFR) from 2003 to 2021, a PF diagnosis in Black individuals occurred about

Despite their convenience and low cost, handheld point-of-care (POC) devices lack precision for measuring neonatal bilirubin and need refinement in order to tailor jaundice management in newborns, a systematic review and meta-analysis reports in JAMA Pediatrics. Lauren E.H. Westenberg, MD, of the division of neonatology at Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues

A new study has suggested that the presence of certain types of genetic variants can greatly impact a child’s mathematical skills. In the study, published in the journal Genes Brain & Behaviour, doctors have pinpointed the gene variants that are the driving force behind a child’s stronghold in a particular mathematical genre. The genome-wide association study

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning about the potential for patients to experience anaphylactic reactions after a negative skin test with any allergenic extract used to diagnose food allergies. The FDA is requiring that an anaphylaxis warning after false negative food allergen skin test results be added to the labels

A trailblazing new study has helped develop a blood test to find a person’s risk of developing anxiety, as well as its current severity. The test can also predict if a person is likely to get more anxious in the future and how other factors, such as changes in hormones, might influence anxiety. After being

“You don’t see the sun. You don’t smell the flowers.” — Oleksandr Rikhter, MD, a top trauma physician from Ukraine, on the day-to-day lives of healthcare workers after the country was invaded by Russia. “Even asking one question routinely — how do you manage your stress? — can be very helpful for patients to open

Former National Football League players who had symptoms of concussion during their careers showed poorer performance on cognitive testing, compared with nonplayers, new research shows. “Our results suggest that cognitive impacts of football-related concussion can be really long-lasting and these impacts may be coming from both concussive and subconcussive injury — that is, even head

You may prefer olive oil as the best option when it comes to healthy cooking. It sure is a nutritional powerhouse but do you know that its waste product also has a chock-full of health benefits? In a recent study, researchers have found that olive fruit water, a natural byproduct created from the extracts of olives

Of all the consequences of climate change, here’s one nobody counted on. A team of European researchers digging into Siberian permafrost discovered and revived 13 types of prehistoric viruses. As the ancient frozen ground slowly loses its “perma” label due to rising temperatures, more and more microbes that have never encountered modern humans are resurfacing. The

For the first time in the U.S., a medical case of tickborne illness caused by an unexpected species of bacteria has been reported, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The bacteria called Borrelia lonestari is a distant relative of the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease. The pathogen was found responsible for triggering tickborne

For prostate cancers detected by screening, cancer-specific mortality was low at 15-year follow-up regardless of whether patients underwent active monitoring, prostatectomy, or radiotherapy, results from the phase III randomized ProtecT study showed. Among over 1,600 men from the U.K. with prostate cancers detected by a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, death from their malignancy occurred in

A year before the COVID-19 pandemic began, a team of clinical statisticians at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center sat together in small office for a year, painstakingly hand coding data from the US clinical trials database, www.clinicaltrials.gov. They were trying to answer a simple question: Why are cancer-drug trials enrolling too few

Another expert has spoken out amid the weight-loss trend involving Ozempic and similar drugs fueled by reports about Hollywood celebrities crediting them for their body transformation.  Dr. Thomas Su, a plastic surgeon, exclusively spoke with Us Weekly to address the worrying trend that caused shortages amid the strong demand for Ozempic, Wegovy and similar drugs. 

It’s Oscars weekend, so for our 2nd annual Meddy Awards — our very self-congratulatory and very tongue-in-cheek version of the Oscars — we celebrate outstanding medical performances and events in motion pictures throughout history. Without further ado (or comedy skits or musical numbers or extended tributes or commercials), the Meddys go to… Best Depiction of

Americans will soon have to pay for COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, according to a report.  The Indiana Public Media said Thursday that public health experts are encouraging everyone to get the booster doses while they are still eligible to get them for free.  According to the news outlet, the White House emergency declaration on the pandemic

The founder and former CEO of Stimwave was arrested and charged with creating and selling nerve stimulation devices with a non-functioning component that was implanted into chronic pain patients for profit, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced. Laura Perryman’s alleged scheme, the DOJ said, resulted in the loss of millions of dollars for federal healthcare

Josh struggled for more than a decade with what his doctors had told him was irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). But curiously, the 39-year-old’s flare-ups were caused by some foods that aren’t typical IBS triggers. Peanuts and shellfish caused “stabbing” abdominal pains, and he would feel lightheaded after simply inhaling the scent of them. He also

A new study has unveiled previously unknown aspects of depression and its effect on increased stroke risk as well as worse recovery following stroke. The study, published in the journal Neurology, found people with symptoms of depression were more likely to experience stroke and have worse recovery after having one. “Depression affects people around the