Health & Medicine

The 10 top tips a psychotherapist offers her patients with anxiety include "you will not die from anxiety" and "anxiety is just trying to protect you."

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, correcting for a misleading focus on cysts in the ovaries that delayed diagnoses and hampered care.

Diabetes is a chronic disease caused by either a lack of the hormone insulin or problems processing it, which leads to persistently high blood sugar.

The world's fastest-spreading tropical disease is the mosquito-borne illness known as dengue, which causes between 100 and 400 million infections annually.

A Stanford physician diagnosed with lung cancer pioneered a course on being a cancer patient, exploring how to respect a patient's physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.

About a third of US adults say they lie to their doctors to get antibiotics, a behavior that may promote the growth of antibiotic resistance.

Earwax's unusual physical properties help it repel insects in the lab, raising questions about whether it may have evolved to serve that kind of role in animals.

When scientists had volunteers live in a Stone Age-like settlement for 2.5 months, the people slept about 90 minutes extra, supporting the idea that modern lifestyles have fueled circadian shifts.

Cells throughout the body may have a type of exercise memory that supercharges their response to future workouts—at least in rodent studies.

Nearly 75% of former NFL players who died between 2008 and 2023 likely had CTE, the neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated concussions and head blows.

An estimated 60% of cancer caregivers don't live in the same house as the patient, according to the first formal guide on cancer caregiving.

A 2026 report states there are an estimated 9.7 million antibiotic-resistant infections annually and more than 50,000 superbug-related deaths in the US.

Jehovah's Witnesses historically prohibited blood transfusions, but issued a new policy in September 2026 stating members can receive blood components—like red blood cells or plasma—just not whole blood.

Intense meditation can worsen sleep because heightened concentration can act like a stimulant.

Brain-wave-reading earbuds with implanted electrodes have been used by some companies, primarily in China, to study workplace performance.

Chinese scientists have created a $1000 AI-enabled mosquito zapper that burns mosquito wings off with lasers.

An estimated 10% of SAD cases occur in the summertime, with symptoms for the seasonal disorder including insomnia, poor appetite, weight loss, and increased irritability.

Wearing noise-canceling headphones during surgery lowers the risk of nausea and vomiting afterward by 32%.

Penicillin is prescribed at the highest rate of any antibiotic due to its effectiveness against numerous common pathogens, low price, and long track record.

Chin hairs may sprout for women during hormonal shifts, particularly when estrogen levels drop during perimenopause and menopause.

People could pay to see preemies in incubators at Coney Island for roughly 40 years.

A 1943 mustard gas disaster in Italy helped scientists learn that certain sulfur compounds can destroy white blood cells, an advance that led to modern chemotherapy.

Only 22% of people with opioid use disorder access methadone, a medicine that combats withdrawal and overdoses—it's only available at government-approved clinics that typically require patients to show up daily.

The US is one of the only countries in the world that doesn't offer new parents guaranteed paid parental leave.

Dogs' disease-sniffing skills were first identified in 1989 when a dog reportedly detected cancer in a human handler.

On average, more than five players per NFL team had a diagnosed concussion in the 2025 regular season.

Russia tried permanent daylight saving time for three years, but people in northern Russia disliked mid-morning darkness, and in 2014 the country switched to year-round standard time.

Watch an experiment that demonstrates the evolutionary problem of how bacteria can develop resistance under drug pressure.

The most deadly cancer in people under 50 has become colorectal cancer, even as the incidence and death rates from this cancer are dropping among older adults.

Nordic countries rank high on happiness lists—despite lower seasonal sunlight—largely due to broad social safety nets.

Music that builds to a crescendo and then resolves relieves stress more than listening to nature sounds, according to brain MRIs.

Heatstroke can reprogram your DNA, putting survivors at risk of developing future health problems in the years that follow.

Brain-reading devices that use electrode arrays to decode neural signals are helping paralyzed people control prosthetics that restore a sense of touch.

More than 90,000 people need a kidney transplant, and kidneys can be donated by living donors since we only need one to live a normal, healthy life.

Measles infection was nearly universal before vaccines in the 1960s, and Persian physician Rhazes in the 10th century described the illness as 'more to be dreaded than smallpox.'

The International Olympic Committee banned the psychoactive substance ibogaine decades ago since it can act as a stimulant.

See this timeline of how Vaseline became a household staple eventually dubbed 'The Wonder Jelly.'

Research published in 2021 found that 65% of antivaccine posts on Facebook and X originated from just 12 individuals.

Stroke risk roughly doubles each decade between the ages of 55 and 85, but strokes among younger people are rising, perhaps due to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Barcelona is combating diseases like dengue and chikungunya by releasing thousands of male parasite-infected mosquitoes—the bugs are rendered sterile, which helps reduce overall mosquito populations.

Soccer fans in Singapore and Taiwan are staying up too late to watch major European soccer games, with the popular middle-of-the-night games linked to more car crashes the next day.

Foodborne illnesses cost the US an estimated $74.7B in 2023, with most of that cost attributable to serious illness.

An international treaty requires its nearly 200 signatories—including the US and Russia—to notify the WHO within 24 hours of determining that a significant public health threat could cross borders.

Cremations are America's top choice for postmortem body treatment, but a growing number of Americans are becoming interested in 'green' burial options.

An engineer with bipolar disorder tracked his moods for more than a decade and noted connections to seasonal patterns, which helped researchers identify SAD.

Circadian rhythm disruption can influence various mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.

Scientists have traced how mice connect the dots between foods that sicken them and knowing to avoid the substance—even when the dodgy food wasn't the most recent meal they ate.

Cornea transplants are rarely rejected by a recipient's body because the cornea has no blood supply.

Nearly 1 in 5 patients with a multiple sclerosis diagnosis has been misdiagnosed—the condition can look like other autoimmune diseases with similar brain lesions on MRIs.

Apophenia, the cognitive bias that leads people to find meaning in randomness, helps explain why humans look for meaning in their dreams and even in their tea leaves.