Search

Kids have a lot to learn in their first five years of life. They learn to walk, talk, and eventually to start reading. But while kids can pick up walking and talking naturally, they must be taught how to read. Children who struggle with the building blocks of reading may be at risk for developing dyslexia. Dyslexia is a reading disorder in which people find it hard to link speech sounds to…

An eating plan called the DASH diet can lead to heart-healthy changes, like lower blood pressure. The diet encourages eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and avoiding saturated fats. But despite its known benefits, many people have trouble sticking to this eating plan. A new study tested whether mindfulness training might help people follow the DASH diet. Mindfulness is a focus on the…

Alcohol-related blackouts are gaps in memory, when you can’t recall what happened while you were intoxicated. Blackouts can happen to anyone who drinks alcohol, regardless of their age or experience with drinking. Blackouts happen when you drink so much alcohol that your brain isn’t able to store memories long-term. There are two types of blackouts. The most common is a fragmentary blackout,…

As the days grow longer and warmer, summer fun beckons. Swimming, sports, and picnics go hand in hand with warmer weather. But so do bug bites. Mosquitoes in particular can ruin a day outside. And their bites aren’t just itchy and irritating. They can also spread disease. The list of illnesses carried by mosquitoes keeps growing. Some, like malaria, are rarely seen in the United States. Others,…, Blocking Disease, For decades, researchers have been trying to develop vaccines to protect people against mosquito-borne diseases. But most haven’t been as effective as hoped, explains Dr. Matthew Memoli, an infectious diseases researcher at NIH. “And there’s a lot of mosquito-borne diseases,” he says. “If you make a vaccine for every single one, that’s a lot of vaccines to have to develop.” But what if you could…, Deterring Mosquitoes, One of the best ways to avoid mosquito-borne diseases is to prevent bites in the first place. People can take certain steps to protect themselves. “We have personal repellents, like DEET, which you can put on,” says Dr. Carolyn McBride, who studies mosquito biology at Princeton University. Tools like mosquito nets can also prevent bites. But to keep diseases from spreading, they need to be used…, Aedes aegypti, mosquito detects to let it home in on people. These chemicals include certain fats and other substances in and on human skin. They found that a specific mixture of these substances could attract mosquitoes from several feet away. They hope this knowledge can be used to design new ways to repel or trap mosquitoes, over large areas. “This would allow us to push mosquitoes away from all the houses…, Reducing the Spread, If there were fewer biting mosquitoes around, there would be less disease. “But trying to keep mosquitoes down to a low level is really hard,” says Dr. Zach Adelman, a mosquito geneticist at Texas A&M University. “They’re really resilient. Spraying insecticides can get them temporarily. But they always come back.” To disrupt this cycle, researchers have been working on an idea called reduce…, Wolbachia, . This doesn’t kill the mosquitoes. But mosquitoes that carry it have a harder time passing viruses on to people. Adelman’s lab is looking at ways to modify the [qtip:genes|Stretches of DNA that define characteristics like size and disease resistance.] mosquitoes carry to make them less able to spread disease. For example, mosquitoes aren’t normally affected when they pick up the virus that…

Since their invention over a century ago, plastics have become part of our daily lives. Our food and drinks are often packaged in plastics. Plastics are also found in fabrics, toys, tools, and more. Plastic packaging can help keep medical tools and equipment germ-free. But we make and use so much plastic that plastic pollution is now a big concern. Some plastics can be recycled. But most are…

People with obesity are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes and other health problems. Certain drugs that help keep diabetes symptoms in check also promote weight loss. These are called GLP-1RAs. Examples include Ozempic, Trulicity, Wegovy, and Zepbound. People with obesity are also at higher risk for colorectal cancer. Scientists wondered whether people who take GLP-1RAs for diabetes also have…

Osteoporosis is a condition that weakens bones. It’s often thought of as a disease that affects women since it’s more common in women than men. But men can also develop osteoporosis, especially when they reach age 65 and older. Osteoporosis is a “silent” disease. It often has no symptoms until it is so severe that you break a bone. It is one of the major causes of bone fractures in older men.…

Your senses let you experience the world. Sight, hearing, taste, or even smell may be the first sense to spring to mind*. But don’t forget touch. Your sense of touch helps keep you safe from physical threats and can strengthen social bonds. It can also be altered by many health conditions. “Your skin is your largest sensory organ by far,” says Dr. Alexander Chesler, a touch researcher at NIH. “It…, From Pleasure to Pain, Nerve cells in your skin are the first to sense when you touch something. They send electrical impulses to your spinal cord, which then passes the signal on to your brain. Each nerve cell can respond with a different level of sensitivity to different types of sensations. Some nerve cells in the skin sense things that hurt, like a pinch or a sharp object. Others pick up sensations like hot, cold,…, From Skin to the Brain, Once sensations from touch leave the nerve cells in the skin, they can be altered in different ways before they reach the brain. Understanding how this happens is just as important as understanding what happens in the skin, Chesler explains. “If we can understand these basic principles about how touch and pain work, we can find new ways to intervene to stop pain,” he says. “We also want to know:…, Solving Touch Problems, Certain physical and mental health conditions can affect a person’s sense of touch. “A lot of neurologic disorders, like stroke or autism, can affect the way we process sensory information,” Chen explains. After a stroke, some people may become less able to process touch. A person with autism, on the other hand, may feel overwhelmed by touch. “If we can pinpoint certain nodes in the touch network…, *Editor's note: This statement contained an error and was updated following publication.

The appendix is a finger-like pouch that branches off from your large intestine. No one is sure what it does or why it evolved. But when something goes wrong, it can be dangerous. “We do know that it causes problems,” says Dr. Nicole Wilson, a pediatric surgeon at the University of Rochester. “And we do know that people do just fine without it.” Some studies suggest that your appendix may help…, [qtip:inflammation|Heat, swelling, and redness caused by the body’s protective response to injury or infection.], of the appendix. This can happen for different reasons. Sometimes the tiny opening that leads from the appendix to the large intestine gets blocked by stool. Other times an infection can be the cause. Swelling from inflammation can lead to pain in your abdomen, the cavity that holds your organs. “The classic symptoms of appendicitis are pain that starts around the belly button and kind of…

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for men in the United States. Luckily, most men with prostate cancer will still be alive 15 years after diagnosis. Men with prostate cancer that hasn’t spread outside the gland have several treatment choices. These include surgery, radiation therapy, and active surveillance, where treatment is delayed until a cancer starts to grow. Men live a similar…