Pregnancy Changes the Brain, Study Finds

With implications for research around postpartum depression and other health issues, scientists have tracked the changes pregnancy brings to the female brain.

These changes weren't subtle: Big shifts in what's known as the brain's "white matter" versus "gray matter" were observed, according to a team from the University of California, Sant...

Breathing Could Bring Microplastics Into the Human Brain, Study Shows

For the first time, scientists have detected microscopic microplastics lodged in the human brain.

Researchers in Germany and Brazil say that 8 out of 15 autopsied adults had microplastics detected within their brain's smell centers, the olfactory bulb.

The particles were likely breathed in over a lifetime, since tiny floating microp...

Ozempic Could Curb Progression of Diabetes-Linked Liver Disease

Fatty liver disease linked to diabetes and obesity can easily progress to liver cirrhosis, but new research suggests that GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic can help stop that.

In a new decades-long study, veterans with diabetes and what's known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) were 14% less likely to progress ...

Genetics Suggest Link Between ALS, Parkinson's Disease

People with rare genetic variants linked to degenerative brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease are at increased risk of developing ALS, a new study finds.

Further, having these genetic variants increases the risk of a person having faster-progressing ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and dying earlier, researchers found.

T...

Missouri Bird Flu Case Raises Possibility of Human Transmission

MONDAY, Sept. 16, 2024 (Healthday News) -- In a disclosure that can't eliminate the possibility that bird flu may have spread from one human to another for the first time, U.S. health officials have reported that a person who lived with a Missouri resident infected with H5N1 became sick the same day.

That close contact "was also ill at the...

Vaping Is Harming College Students' Brains, Study Shows

Vaping may look cool when you're young, but it appears to be dulling the brains of college students, a new study warns.

College students who vape have lower cognitive function scores than those who don't, researchers reported Sunday at the American Neurological Association’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

And the more students...