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Type 2 diabetes occurs when your body has trouble controlling blood glucose, also called blood sugar. High blood glucose levels can cause problems throughout the body. It can lead to nerve damage, heart disease, and other concerns. Health care professionals often recommend a healthy diet, exercise, and a drug called metformin as an early approach to treating type 2 diabetes. A second drug is…

Breathe in and out. We all know how important it is to keep our lungs healthy and our breathing smooth. The health of our lungs depends in large part on our surroundings. Researchers are studying how we can protect lung health by improving our environment and lifestyle choices. NIH funds research to understand how genes and the environment affect lung disease. The studies are looking for new ways…

This new video shows why many people find it hard to stop using drugs. Substance use disorders are complex medical conditions that involve changes to the brain. Learn how researchers are developing better ways to prevent, manage, and treat substance use disorders.

Every day while you eat, sleep, work, and play, battles are being fought throughout your body. You rarely feel it. But bacteria, viruses, and other microbes are constantly invading from the outside world. Your body has a defense system for such invaders. It’s called the immune system. Your immune system is made up of trillions of cells and proteins. These are found in your blood and every organ…, Building Your Defenses, You’re not born with a fully equipped immune system. Fetuses can produce some immune protection. But before birth, “the vast majority of protection against infection comes from the mother,” explains Dr. Whitney Harrington, who studies immune system development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Germ-fighting molecules made by the immune system, called antibodies, are transferred to the…, Protection as You Age, By the time you’ve reached young adulthood, you’ve been exposed to many germs. So your immune system is likely to have a strong response to many infections you encounter. Vaccines further strengthen your defenses. Vaccines expose your immune system to dead or weakened germs, or just pieces of them. That helps your immune cells learn how to fight these threats and remember them without you getting…, Making Better Defenses, Researchers are still learning how to improve immune responses and vaccines. Some microbes are very good at hiding from the immune system. Many avoid detection by mutating, or changing, so that previously exposed immune cells can no longer recognize them. Dr. Shane Crotty at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology and his team are trying to take advantage of the body’s way of keeping up with these…

If you’re feeling unwell, you may turn to medicine to find relief. But how do you know it was the drug that 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 treatments. A placebo is an inactive substance or action that resembles a drug or medical treatment…

Researchers are testing a new way to treat people with allergies. The method uses regular allergy shots plus a lab-made molecule. The molecule blocks substances involved in allergic reactions in the body. For people with cat allergies, the combination therapy gave more effective relief than allergy shots alone. When you breathe in high amounts of a substance you’re allergic to—such as pollen,…

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been around for decades. In the past 20 years or so, it’s become a growing part of our lives. Researchers are now drawing on the power of AI to improve medicine and health care in innovative and far-reaching ways. NIH is on the cutting edge supporting these efforts. At first, computers could simply do calculations based on human input. In AI, they learn to…

Want to start the new year on a healthy note? Find a wealth of information to help you pay attention to what you’re eating and make healthier food choices. Get links to nutrition-related resources, weight loss info, online tools for healthy living, and more.

Children often get bumps, bruises, sneezes, and sniffles. It doesn’t seem like they could get something as scary as cancer. But they can. Every year, more than 10,000 kids in the U.S. will get a diagnosis of cancer. Some cases are caused by changes in certain [qtip:genes|Stretches of DNA you inherit from your parents that define features, like your risk for certain diseases.] that are passed from…, Treating Childhood Cancer, Cancer isn’t just one disease. There are many different kinds. But all cancers start when some of the body’s cells begin to grow uncontrollably. Sometimes, these cells spread to other parts of the body. “Leukemias are the most common types of cancer that we see in children,” says Dr. Nita Seibel, a childhood cancer specialist at NIH. These are cancers that start in certain types of blood cells.…, Personalizing Treatment, CAR T cells are the newest, most personalized cancer treatment. To make CAR T cells, [qtip:immune system|A collection of specialized cells and organs that protect your body against invading germs and other microscopic threats.] cells called T cells are collected from the blood of a person with cancer. The T cells are then modified in the lab so they can find and kill cancer cells. Millions of…, When Less is More, Personalizing treatment can also mean adjusting the amount of therapy a child gets. That often means a lower risk of side effects. For some cancer types, researchers can predict which tumors have a low risk of coming back. Kids at low risk of relapse may now be able to get lower doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy. They may even be able to skip some toxic treatments entirely. Reducing the…

Oral health is important at every age. A healthy mouth helps you eat and speak, and healthy teeth can give you a winning smile. If you’re caring for young children, you can help them get an early start at protecting their teeth, gums, and mouth. Newborn babies have a cute toothless smile. Even though you can’t see the baby’s teeth, they’re hiding just beneath the gums. “You can start cleaning…