It’s been a hard summer for many. With lives and homes lost in raging bushfires, people affected by blankets of thick smoke and many mourning the loss of wildlife, it hasn’t felt like a holiday season. But for those who have had a break, or managed to savour the joys…
Marburg virus found in Sierra Leone bats
Scientists have detected Marburg virus in fruit bats in Sierra Leone, marking the first time the deadly virus has been found in West Africa. Eleven Egyptian rousette fruit bats tested positive for active Marburg virus infection. Research teams caught the bats separately in three health districts. The presence of Marburg…
Billie Eilish Has Some Pretty Profound Advice For Anyone Struggling With Their Mental Health
Just days after taking out Song of The Year at the Grammys, the 18-year-old opened up to Vogue about how developing at an early age affected her mental health. “I just hated my body. I would have done anything to be in a different one,” she said. “I really wanted…
What Happens to Your Body Each Day of Your Menstrual Cycle
We should be experts on our periods by now. I mean, the red tide visits us 12 times a year for an average of 38 years. That’s 456 periods (which may seem super depressing, TBH). Point is, most of us just go with the flow and wake up to the…
How training investments can boost EHR satisfaction
As part of the merger of five independent orthopedic practices to form Virginia’s largest provider of orthopedic and therapy care, OrthoVirginia, a large investment was made implementing a new electronic health record system. A survey gauging physician satisfaction with the system, however, showed an overall poor experience, which led the…
Unintended pregnancy rates higher among women with disabilities, study says
Pregnancies among women with disabilities are 42% more likely to be unintended than pregnancies among women without disabilities, says a new report published in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University found that…
Mapping bacterial neighborhoods in the gut
The microscopic populations of bacteria in our intestines are, in some ways, just like us: They live in communities, eat, work, reproduce, and eventually die. Many of these bacterial species live in harmony with our bodies, providing benefits to us in exchange for nutrients and shelter. When the right kinds…
Gasdermin E: A new approach to cancer immunotherapy that could have broad reach
Tumors have figured out various ways to prevent the immune system from attacking them. Medicine, for its part, has fought back with cancer immunotherapies. The major approach uses checkpoint inhibitors, drugs that help the immune system recognize cancer cells as foreign. Another method, CAR T-cell therapy, directly engineers peoples’ T…
Scented house-cleaning products may raise the risk of asthma in toddlers
A new study suggests that high exposure to everyday cleaning products is connected to an increased risk of asthma, particularly scented products. Children who had been exposed to the most cleaning products between ages zero to three were 37% more likely to have asthma. Chemicals in household products tend to…
About 8 percent of West Virginia babies are exposed to alcohol shortly before birth
About 8 percent of West Virginia newborns are exposed to alcohol two to four weeks before birth, according to a new study. “Alcohol exposure during the last trimester is associated with a range of developmental problems that may not be overtly expressed as cranio-facial deformities, but when these children go…