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… Antibiotics and certain painkillers are among the more common ones. The antibiotic penicillin is the drug most often reported to cause allergic reactions. About 10% of people in the U.S. have a penicillin allergy listed in their medical records. But probably less than 1% of people are truly allergic to penicillin, says Dr. David Khan, an NIH-funded allergist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The most typical …

… made you feel better? Sometimes, when you expect a treatment to work, it will. This phenomenon is called the placebo effect. Scientists are looking for ways to harness this effect for medical … action that resembles a drug or medical treatment. But it isn’t meant to actually fix anything in your body. A pill that doesn’t contain any medicine is one example. Historically, placebos … It can’t, for instance, make tumors go away, lower your cholesterol, or get rid of infections. NIH-funded researchers are trying to understand the brain pathways underlying the placebo effect. …

… If you start to see changes in the way a loved one under 60 acts, speaks, or moves, you may not think of dementia as a cause. Dementia is a loss of thinking, memory, and reasoning that seriously affects your daily activities. It’s … safe, manage the loved one’s behavior, and prevent caregiver burnout. Boeve’s team and other NIH-funded researchers are working to develop better tests and treatments for FTD. Recently, a …

… under brand names such as Botox, Xeomin, Dysport, Myobloc, and Jeuveau. While wrinkle removal is the most common use, it’s not the only one. The first use for botulinum toxin injections came … substance that’s made by certain bacteria. It’s actually one of the most potent toxins found in nature. It causes botulism, a rare but potentially lethal form of food poisoning. It may sound … the Wise Choices box for more about the conditions that botulinum toxin is used to treat. Two NIH researchers, Dr. Pamela Stratton and Dr. Barbara Karp, have been studying botulinum toxin for …

… it takes for your stomach to empty depends on many factors. Meals that are big, fatty, or high in calories will empty more slowly, but it also depends on your health. Some people have a … to those of people with gastroparesis. The only way to know if a person has gastroparesis is to measure how fast the stomach empties. “Patients don’t come in telling you they have a … the gut and how they function and sense things.” To better understand and treat gastroparesis, NIH created the Gastroparesis Clinical Research Consortium (GpCRC). For the last 17 years, the …

… a hiking trail, you’ll want to protect yourself and your loved ones from ticks that often lurk in tall grass, thick brush, and wooded areas. Many ticks carry disease, so do what you can to … fever, for instance, occurs mainly in the mid-Atlantic and southern states. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness. It’s found mainly in the Northeast and upper Midwest. Each … get Lyme disease don’t recall a tick bite,” says Dr. Adriana Marques, a Lyme disease expert at NIH. But if you have symptoms of the disease, she says, “the earlier you get treated, the …

… apnea don’t realize it. That’s because this disorder only occurs during sleep. Sleep apnea is when you have pauses in breathing while you’re asleep. These pauses can last from seconds to minutes. You may have … ethnicities, and in people of all sizes and shapes,” says Dr. Michael Twery, a sleep expert at NIH. The most common type of sleep apnea is called obstructive sleep apnea. Any air that squeezes …

… A hot cup of coffee or tea is a highlight of the morning for some people. It can make you feel awake and alert. Caffeine is … sensations. But does caffeine have other effects on the brain? Caffeine is found naturally in tea and coffee. But it is added to energy drinks and many types of soda. It’s even put in some … feel at the end of the day—that’s adenosine,” explains Dr. Sergi Ferre, a brain scientist at NIH. Its buildup tells your brain when it’s time to rest. Caffeine blocks adenosine from working …

… yourself and your family warm and safe during this chilly season. A normal body temperature is 98.6 °F. Just a few degrees lower—below 95°—can be dangerous, especially for the very young … tuned to operate within a narrow temperature range inside the body, despite large differences in temperature outside the body. We have all sorts of mechanisms—like adjusting the size of our small blood vessels and shivering—to help us maintain a healthy body temperature,” says NIH’s Dr. Basil Eldadah, who oversees research on the medical care of older adults.  “But older …

… 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 … 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 thrown into landfills, where … small size has made nanoplastics especially hard to detect and study. Earlier this year, an NIH-supported research team developed a powerful new imaging method that could detect both micro- …