About 2.8 million people worldwide live with multiple sclerosis (MS) — a chronic neurological disease affecting the body’s central nervous system. There are four types of MS, including secondary progressive MS. This is a later stage of MS where a person’s symptoms steadily worsen over time, potentially causing disability. Past research finds about two-thirds of people with relapsing-remitting MS transition […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) can continue to deliver prescription abortion medication despite a June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a landmark abortion rights decision, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The department’s Office of Legal Counsel said in an opinion sought by USPS that the mailing of mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly used to terminate pregnancies, […]

A three-dose regimen of a whole-parasite vaccine against malaria—called Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite (PfSPZ) vaccine—demonstrated safety and efficacy when tested in adults living in Burkina Faso, West Africa, which has endemic malaria. That is the finding of a new study published on Dec. 7, 2022, in Science Translational Medicine. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine […]

Pediatric emergency departments and clinics have been overcrowded with the dramatic increase in child respiratory viruses, leaving many families anxious about caring for sick kids. Making decisions about what to do—or not do—can be exhausting, especially coming out of nearly three years of pandemic fears, social isolation and burnout. Parents need practical strategies to balance the health risks and stressors […]

Although superstition holds that black cats are bad luck, most Americans feel crossing paths with them can bring them good fortune, according to a poll conducted by the One Poll organization and ACANA Pet Food. What to know: Two fifths of American cat owners go against stereotypes and believe that crossing paths with black cats will bring them good luck, […]

As the world enters year four of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have amassed a great deal of knowledge about the biology and behavior of SARS-CoV-2 and about the clinical features of the disease that it causes. They have also developed an impressive arsenal of treatments. Yet, as the shapeshifting pathogen churns out one new variant after another, COVID remains an […]

Findings of a recent study published in Nutrients found that coffee is the main source of caffeine in pregnant women. Milk-chocolate consumption also increases during pregnancy––which heightens the risk of compromising weight control and lipid profile. Further, higher caffeine intake during pregnancy correlated with deleterious habit continuation – like smoking, an unregulated diet, and minimal physical activity. Study: Caffeine Intake throughout Pregnancy, […]

A woman who spent years terrified she was possessed by ghosts after suffering from memory loss and finding messages around her home discovered that they were her twenty other ‘personalities’. Emma Lavar, 32, first began suffering from blackouts, dissociative episodes, and hearing terrifying voices in her head when she was just nine-years-old. When she turned 11, she began waking up […]

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona court has ruled that abortion doctors cannot be prosecuted under a pre-statehood law that criminalizes nearly all abortions yet was barred from being enforced for decades. But the Arizona Court of Appeals on Friday declined to repeal the 1864 law, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for anyone who assists […]

As Congress raced against the clock last week to pass the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, all eyes were on the bigger issues: things like avoiding a government shutdown, funding for Ukraine, and spending increases for clean energy and the environment. But tucked quietly into the bill were two items that will prove to be a VERY big deal for […]